Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Licensing Expo 2015: Follow-up

Daryl’s work really stood out at Licensing Expo 2015. We re-acquainted with contacts from previous shows and made lots of new friends, too. Though the summer is generally slow with the prerequisite recovery time from the trade shows, Tails of Whimsy is already getting calls about potential licensing deals. This was our third year showing in Las Vegas and here is what we have learned:

Mackie McKeens appeared to be the top favorite
at Licensing Expo 2015
  • If you want to make your intellectual property a commercial success, you have to learn the licensing trade (and lingo) inside and out and talk to lots of industry professionals.
  • Go to Licensing Expo in Vegas or KidScreen in Miami.
  • Industry trade shows are where you make contacts.
  • Exhibit more than one property or character. Build them each into a story.
  • Keep at it and learn that “no” now might really mean “maybe yes” at a later date! Be patient. Slow and steady wins the race.
This year, The Mighty Machines of Mackie McKeens (or M4) received the most interest. And lots of folks loved Daryl's new characters in The Book Mytes. This came from publishers and marketing agents looking for stories with edutainment value. These books and characters are age-appropriate for learning.

Mackie and his sister Mika create astonishing machines of a Seuss-ian nature that help cities solve problems. Educators call this STEM: a concentration on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. M4 does it all but in a throughly fun and whimsical way. Think Richard Scarry with robots!
Two page spread from
The Mighty Machines of Mackie McKeens

The Book Mytes are a magical troupe of six characters in animal "jammies". The story unfolds in a bookstore at night where any story can be mixed up and made up with a few choice selections of words. These new words come from familiar books we all know and love, thus adding to the thrill of discovery. The power of words is the message in this book, and licensees took notice.
Meet some of the Book Mytes looking for words 
Stay tuned as our progress unfolds. Now, for some much needed vacation time!

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