Brand Licensing Europe 2022 reports busiest days on record

Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) 2022 was a resounding success showing a high quality of visitors and strong conversations with more decision-makers and people with an in-depth understanding of the industry attending this year.

The event, which took place from September 20 to 22 in London, is dedicated to licensing, brand extension and partnerships and brought together thousands of leading manufacturers, retailers and marketers with the widest range of brands available for license in Europe for three days of deal-making, inspiration, networking and trend spotting.

Exhibitor and visitor numbers were back at 80% of pre-Covid levels with over 230 exhibitors attending, including more than 30 first time exhibitors. Retail visitor numbers (as a percentage of total attendance) rose by 4% compared with pre-Covid levels (2019). Retailers in attendance included Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Carrefour, Lidl, Morrisons, Asda, El Cortes Ingles, The Entertainer, Primark, Marks and Spencer, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, H&M, Celio, Habitat, Matalan, Waitrose, ASOS, HMV, Wayfair, Harrods, Amazon, River Island, New Look, Bershka, Sainsburys, Ocado Retail, John Lewis, Moonpig, Don’t Call Me Jennyfer, Liberty and more.

“Everyone I talked to commented on how busy the show felt, how the buzz was back to the BLE days of old and that makes me incredibly proud,” says Ella Haynes, BLE Event Director. 4,575 meetings were booked through the online platform seeing a 46% rise compared to 2019. Also, repeat attendance statistics were much higher, meaning that people were coming back in the hall again and again, spending more time in meetings and on the show floor.

Days 2 and 3 of this year’s event were the busiest on record since launching Brand Licensing Europe in 1998. “We dedicated day three of BLE 2022 to sustainability, diversity and purpose. We wanted to showcase diverse voices and talent and work alongside industry partners to drive positive change within brand licensing. And that’s exactly what we did – from the opening Peppa Pig case study with Hasbro, to the Culture & Unity catwalk in partnership with Black Lives Matter, which was just stunning and powerful from start to finish, to our Sustainability catwalk with those amazing Junk Kouture collections and the content from the UN’s Caroline Petit, and our keynote panel, which dissected How purpose can breed success,” says Anna Knight, SVP of Licensing, Global Licensing Group.

“Next up is Brand & Licensing Innovation Summit in New York in November, Licensing Expo in May and BLE returns to ExCeL London 4-6 October. We’re also sponsoring networking drinks at SiLC in London on 18th October, so we hope to see you all there, especially if we didn’t get a chance to say hello at BLE,” concludes Haynes.