Character licensing has moved from merchandise aisles into the core marketing of mainstream consumer categories. This report highlights Olive Young's platform-led Sanrio campaign and the spread of character goods into holiday gifting and convenience-store pre-orders to show how retailers now use IP to drive traffic rather than to decorate packaging.
One Character IP Across 81 Brands at Olive Young
CJ Olive Young now leads character-IP campaigns itself, bringing partner brands into a single platform-wide collaboration
Key Issues
Scale of the campaign: 'OLIVE YOUNG City Log', a Sanrio Characters campaign running from August 30 to September 30, covers 81 brands and 321 products across beauty, wellness and lifestyle. Last year's Sanrio tanning edition involved 32 brands, whose sales rose 60 percent year on year.
What the brands made: Amorepacific took part with LABO-H, Mise-en-scène and HANYUL in Hangyodon, Pochacco and Hello Kitty editions bundled with mirrors, keyrings and pouches. NODOR paired its two most popular solid mouthwash flavors with Hangyodon and My Melody in tin cases.
Why brands join: Olive Young covered the full IP licensing cost for its Pokémon and Sanrio campaigns so that smaller partners could put their budget into product development. The retailer’s reasoning is that a platform-led campaign draws more shoppers than each brand running its own IP tie-up.
Character Goods Expand Into Holiday Gifts and Pre-Orders
Character merchandise is moving into holiday gift ranges and convenience-store app pre-orders, expanding well beyond children's products
Key Issues
Holiday sets widen beyond food: For this year's Chuseok range, CU prepared 20 Pokémon items including a Pikachu apple set, a Snorlax tent package and Pikachu golf balls, and 7-Eleven released nine goods including a Hello Kitty keyring shaped like a beoseon, the traditional Korean sock.
A route into convenience stores: Nonghyup Moguchon launched three cheese sausages tied to SAMG Entertainment's 'Catch! Teenieping' exclusively at CU, with a Pocket CU stamp draw running to September 18. Moguchon is shifting distribution from hypermarkets toward convenience stores.
Scarce items drive pre-orders: Convenience-store app pre-orders now skew toward goods that are hard to find on shelves. CU’s pre-order sales rose 58.9 percent year on year from January to July, and CU has widened its app pop-up beyond albums and character goods to jewelry and appliances.
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