It's Good To Be King

Licensing has become more prevalent and accepted as a means for corporate brands to extend their brands into new categories. As these same companies continue to dish out marketing campaigns with figure heads and characters that become icons of their time, additional licensing opportunities become available. These opportunities help strengthen the marketing campaign and actual help recoup, at least some of, the cost of the marketing campaign.

Marketing campaigns have generated uniformly recognizable icons that consumers, brand champions and average consumers, recognize and relate to. These icons, such as the Burger King’s "King" character, have gone on to create licensing opportunities that drive products in front of consumers. Spawning everything from Halloween masks to boxers and underwear, the licensed products carrying the “King” character will garner consumer participation and interaction with the brand and the marketing efforts. (Making a splash recently, was Geico Insurance's Caveman campaign that has spawned a 30-minute TV pilot being produced and aired by ABC.) Additionally, the Burger King “King” character had its own MySpace page with over 100,000 “friends.” Not bad primary user interaction that strengthens consumer’s relationship with the brand and furthermore adds those primary “friends” as brand champions and advocates - a very desirable form of marketing.

Though not a method for creating a marketing campaign, both brand owners and advertising agencies should look for additional opportunities that consumers can interact with the brand and the marketing campaign.