As the market for licenses becomes increasingly competitive, it is essential that industry players can access information that measures trend performance and provides an insight into the potential success of a new license in the market. NPD Eurotoys has been measuring licensing trends in the toy industry across Europe for the past decade.

NPD data show that it is often the classic licenses that are the biggest cash generators. These are the properties that make solid and steady progress, such as Thomas and Friends and Winnie the Pooh. These licenses are not subject to enormous peaks in trends. They sell consistently well and are resilient to the threat of new license launches, so they avoid suffering the troughs that inevitably occur with "hot" licenses. This is important for market players, as the success of classic licenses such as Thomas and Winnie is much easier to predict in terms of sales expectations, which in an uncertain market makes life easier for both licensees and licensors.

One should not assume that we are dealing with "one Europe" when it comes to licensed properties in the toy business. For instance, in the U.K., sales patterns are somewhat aligned to U.S. consumer behaviour, but it cannot be expected that a license launched in Germany or France will generate the same amount of revenue. In general, the sales achieved in European countries apart from the U.K. are lower in comparison. This was the case for Star Wars licensed products in France and Germany, where they generated approximately one-quarter of the sales achieved over the same period in the U.K. market.

NPD's Eurotoys service soon will expand its measurement of licenses with a new License Tracker service. License Tracker will measure license trends across a diverse range of industries, including clothing, footwear, health and beauty, publishing and school equipment. The results will be published quarterly and will reveal retail shares, consumer profiles and license penetration across these categories, providing essential information for anyone considering a license deal.

For further information about Eurotoys or the new License Tracker product from NPD, please contact Anna Scott at anna_scott@npd.com.