The Point.1888 continues its strategic expansion this month, announcing the creating of a new business division called Spotlight.1888.
While The Point.1888 continues to focus on licensing, this new division is dedicated to helping brands and licensees with retail services, and retailers with their licensing strategies.
It is the second time this year the agency has announced the creation of an all-new operating division. In August this year, The Point.1888 announced the creation of its own marketing division, called Story.1888.
Story.1888 is run by marketing and advertising specialists as well as licensing and retail veterans to ensure that clients’ social, PR and marketing efforts benefit from The Point.1888’s creativity and extensive specialist knowledge, the company says. Its offering will include creative services such as product branding and style guides; product marketing; strategy; content creation and campaign management. Martin McLaughlin, who joined The Point.1888 in June 2019, has been tasked with leading the new agency.
The new Spotlight service is based on an extension of its The Point.1888’s ‘retail-first model’, whereby The Point.1888 creates new products for its brands based on the gaps it sees at retail as well as what it thinks the brand’s target demographic might like. As a separate service, Spotlight will work directly with retailers and brands to help them fill the gaps themselves using the retail team’s expertise.
The agency says the new business comprises a dedicated account team, with a mix of buyer experience across a number of retailers (Harrods, John Lewis, Sainsburys and Kingfisher to name a few), along with dedicated licensing retail professionals.
Heading up the new business arm will be The Point.1888’s Head of Retail, Hannah Stevens, who alongside leading retail expert and Managing Director Will Stewart, has been working on the idea of Spotlight.1888 for many years. Having invested heavily in bolstering the retail team over the last 12 months, including hiring an ex-buyer at John Lewis, Rosanna Cousins, Spotlight.1888 starts its new business venture with significant industry experience, contacts and knowledge.
“We are constantly discussing with retailers, licensees and brand owners the different ways to activate licensed brands at retail and are delighted to finally provide an official channel for this, in the form of Spotlight.1888,” said Stevens. “There couldn’t be a better time to launch, and the full team will be at BLE to discuss our approach with any prospective licensees, retailers or brands.”
Stevens says the new approach should bring a number of benefits to all parties involved in the licensing process. Retailers will gain insight into licensing selection strategy, easier access into the brand licensing industry, and recommendations on cross category brand licensed programs, as well as insight into key trading events.
For brands and manufacturers, she expects they will benefit from Spotlight’s ability to create full retail strategies for brands, a direct route to retail, better brand exposure at the retail level, and better support for activations.
In addition to this, Spotlight.1888 will act as brand licensing agent for the retailer, working closely to fully understand the gaps and opportunities, devising an extensive licensing strategy to deliver the program, and managing all relationships on their behalf. With 32 clients on its books across Entertainment, Publishing, Sports, Heritage, Children’s and Design, Stevens says The Point.1888 will be able to give retailers a broad range of high-profile brands to choose from.
Attendees at the Brand Licensing Expo in London this week can learn more about Spotlight.188 by visiting stand C183 at BLE, or contacting the new team at spotlight@thepoint1888.com.