By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
As the editor of The Licensing Letter, you can imagine I get my share of spam.
But no one has ‘spammed’ me like Cynthia Modders, the owner, founder and self-described ‘Super Fly’ at Firefly Brand Management.
A few days after I mentioned in conversation that our family has a tradition of making weird recipes from Hormel’s canned Spam at our cabin every year, a package arrived at our door. It turned out to be a copy of The Ultimate Spam Cookbook!
It’s that kind of connection that has made Firefly a success in the hyper-competitive world of brand licensing and management.
Modders herself tells me that relationship building is the most important skill she values as the head honcho at Firefly.
“If I were to point to one thing that has made us successful, I’d hearken back to the importance of having good relationships,” Modders says. “People want to work with good people, and so having those relationships with people always comes back to you in a good way.
“We understand the value of the licensee and the manufacturer and what they bring to the table in terms of their distribution and the investment they’re putting forward, so we really try to work from a very collaborative place, and people like that,” she adds. “As well, no one wants to take a really huge risk with someone that doesn’t have their back; they want a partner who’s going to work right alongside them all the way, and I think that attitude is our biggest advantage.”
Firefly is also a company that really looks at the deal and decides if it is best for the property/brand, regardless of the revenue upfront. “We never want to do something that quickly ends the life of a brand,” Modders says.
She started the company after working at major licensors like the merchandise divisions at Mattel, NBCUniversal, Fox, SEGA, Viz Media and CapCom.
While the regular paychecks were great, Modders wanted more out of her work life, including some control over the long-term trajectory of her career.
“To be quite honest, you can get caught in that hamster wheel of having the nice fat pay check, but in those higher positions you usually have a two to three-year contract, so at the end of that time, maybe you’re going to be renewed or maybe you’re not,” she explains. “You’re always having to chase that, and I didn’t want to do that anymore.”
At Firefly, Modders can choose which brands she works with, and that’s often based again on the personal relationship and whether there’s an alignment of values and ideas.
Early on, Modders earned contracts with a number of strong brands, including the artist Paul Frank and Hormel, the maker of Spam and a wide range of other products. These two brands helped Firefly as a licensing agency get off the ground.
“I had the good fortune of meeting and pitching to Mossimo Giannulli—who was a part owner—and Paul Frank, and they were looking to develop the brand into licensing,” Modders recalls. “They had their own Paul Frank stores, but they wanted to get away from that model. Frankly, Mossimo took a chance on me, and he said, ‘Look, I have bigger agencies coming to the table’, but something connected with us, so he said, ‘I’m gonna give you a shot. And that really helped Firefly propel itself into being a successful agency.”
The same thing happened with Hormel, which is a massive brand in the food and beverage space, and could attract any licensing agency they wanted, but they chose Firefly along with our partner Games People Play.
The company’s management and Modders both have a sense of humor and whimsy, and together they focused on creating really innovative products and campaigns.
One was a campaign they launched with fellow Firefly client Sanuk, a surf footwear brand in Hawaii, which put out a slip-on loafer branded with the famous rectangular can, knowing Spam is hugely popular and part of the culture.
“You can’t go to Hawaii and not see Spam and all the Spam lovers,” Modders says. “We took a page from that book, and early on we went after some collaboration partners that resonated in the Hawaiian surf culture, we did some really fun things like that, and of course, your typical fan-base merchandise. Everybody wanted a Spam T-shirt and a hat.”
To this day, you can still find the video Quiksilver did with surfer Andy Nieblas, just called “Spam,” that highlights the ultra chill performance surfer’s relationship with the waves, and with a full Spam and eggs breakfast.
Another top collaboration for Hormel involved the eternally popular Hello Kitty franchise.
“We did this Hello Kitty collaboration, and oh wow, it really took off,” Modders recalls. “We put together these little musabi (sushi) kits, so you would get the kit and you could make a musabi that looks just like Hello Kitty, with the ears and the spam and the rice and seaweed wrapped around it, and it was so cute!”
Another long-time client with Firefly is Bob Ross, who has become one of the most successful pop culture brands in the world. Everybody loves Bob Ross!
“Possibly our biggest success has been with Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting show from his days on PBS,” Modders says. “We took Bob Ross as a brand and looked at all his attributes, and the one we kept coming back to was not just his art—it was his kindness as a human being. He’s got a very soft demeanor and he’s got a certain coolness just because of who he is as a person, he’s so authentic so we were able to light up more than a hundred licensees if you can believe that, with a lot of them really resonating in the pop culture space.”
Even today, many people underestimate the power of the Bob Ross licensing program, Modders says, and many are shocked to hear some of his paintings have been valued at in the millions.
“I’d say Bob is the best kept secret in the licensing business,” Modders laughs. “We started working on the Bob Ross account about six or seven years ago, and when we were pitching it, we had a lot of licensees saying, ‘who are you talking about?’
“And I’d say, you know, the guy with the afro, he paints happy little trees, mountains, just trust me, let’s work out a deal and you’ll see! He actually has a very wide demographic. So some did, and we started to see it snowball, and now people are saying, ‘Oh yeah, Bob Ross! I’m seeing Bob Ross stuff everywhere!”
Behind the success of Bob Ross is a lot of strategy and thought that went into creating collaborations that could constantly boost the brand, and that started by working with licensees in the collectibles space.
“We didn’t just go out willy nilly signing anyone we could,” Modders says. “We were strategic about it, and our thought was, if we can strike a chord with the key licensees in the collectibles space, and elevate the brand and bring on that coolness factor with companies like Funko Pops for example, then that would add value to the brand overall, and that’s exactly what happened.”
For example, Firefly negotiated a deal with the celebrated ski designer Jason Levinson for a numbered, limited edition series of 650 pairs of skis with Bob Ross paintings, all of which quickly sold out. More recently, Firefly negotiated a collaboration with Topps Trading Cards for a series called The Joy of Baseball, with Bob Ross images on the back featuring Major League Baseball players.
“We launched that in October last year, and it just blew the roof off,” Modders says. “It was amazing.”
It’s those seemingly oddball collaborations, in fact, that Modders says can set Firefly apart, because the agency’s team is constantly on the lookout for new people, companies and brands who have fresh ideas.
“My team and I live and breathe this business 24/7,” she says. “We’re at almost every trade show uncovering new people and new ideas, not just always going back to the same licensees and manufacturers, and as a result, we get some unexpected home runs.
“Another Bob Ross deal is a good example, where we went to a housewares show, met the people from a paint company, and signed a Bob Ross house paint deal,” Modders says. “We thought, let’s take Bob’s Titanium White that he uses to paint with his Crimson red, and transfer these into a themed paint collection.”
At the moment Firefly is bringing on three new properties that will be open to licensing in the coming weeks and months.
Another one is Rebecca Bonbon, a new design-led fashion brand by the creator of Hello Kitty! Like that venerable brand, Rebecca is another cute critter, a French bulldog and fashionista from Paris, who lives in a plush NYC apartment overlooking Central Park.
The second is bringing back the Bozo the Clown character, who was hugely popular in the 1960s, and whose IP has been purchased by the actor David Arquette. “He just loves the brand,” Modders says. “He wants to inspire silliness, kindness, your inner clown, and so we’re strategically brainstorming about different avenues and entertainment. You know, Bozo was one of those characters that can go the gamut with both kids and adults because so many people grew up with it. We love working on legacy brands!”
And finally, Firefly is working on a major new client that Modders won’t reveal until the team is ready for the big launch … which is an awfully cruel way to torture a reporter!
“It’s a really big company with a really well-known IP that is going to have a ton of support in a multi channel kind of way, which is video games, TV, movies, the whole thing,” Modders says. “It’s really cool, and hopefully we can announce it to you soon … but for right now, you’re just going to have to wait!”
In addition to working with large, well-known brands, Modders says part of Firefly’s DNA is taking a chance on brands who may not be well known now, but who have that spark of genius that can turn them into a well known brand.
A good example is the professional skateboarder and two-time X Games champ and Tampa Pro Am winner, Greg Lutzka, who has built up a massive following on social media.
“Not everyone knows Greg, but he is a huge star in the skater community, and he’s also a great guy with a big personality and a huge following,” Modders says. “So we just took on this partnership with Greg, who’s like the up and coming Tony Hawk, and now he’s got a skateboard collection at Walmart (plus Amazon, Target and Academy Sports), and we’re right now building out a collection of apparel and accessories that hopefully will also be placed throughout Walmart stores.
“The point here is, we think the best partnerships aren’t always with who’s the biggest right now; it’s about choosing the right people to partner with, and sometimes that means taking chances,” Modders adds. “It’s often those very deals that you’re the most proud of when you look back at them years later.” I also have a soft spot and love helping people who are struggling in this industry to get them on the right track.
Modders says many of the people she works with today came to Firefly from much larger agencies.
“I’ve gotten a few really great deals like that because they felt they got a bit lost in the shuffle, or there wasn’t that personal relationship,” she says. “People want to know that you really are their brand ambassador and that you are passionate about them and their brand.
“I mean, I’ve turned down many deals that I didn’t think were right for the brand, so we are completely driven by what’s good, what’s strategic, and what’s best for our client.
“I mean, if you ask me what are the three biggest secrets to what we do, I would say it’s ‘relationships, relationships, and relationships’. That’s really the business we’re in.”
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