TOTAL LICENSING
ups of bottles filled with
brightly coloured Dippity-
Do men’s hair gel bought
from a Huggy-Bear type chemist in
NY - just because I liked
the colours and thought it
Reflecting on 10 years of licensing
contributed to the funki-
ness of the brand! Those
Santoro, now in its 20th year, we did a couple of nightdresses for the
were also the days before
has gone from being a two- Tammy Girl chain in the UK, we began
we had professional car-
man company working out of to realise the scale of opportunities in
penters building and mak-
a one-room office, with a sole licensing”, says Meera Santoro. With
ing our stands, and before
range of 20 ‘so-naff-they-were- a spot of market research it was
the days of experiencing
cool’ postcards, to a leading, then, 10 years ago, that they set up a
the good old unions at
multi-million pound Interna- separate Licensing division of Santoro
Javits Centre who charge
tional publishing, gift and licens- that would concentrate solely on de-
more to transport your
ing Group supplying 58 countries veloping the brand aspect of the busi-
crates from the exhibition
world-wide. ness. (“We were going to call it SAN-
centre to your booth, than
LIC - but it sounded too much like a
it costs to build AND ship
Originally a card company, they start- toilet cleaning brand, so we went with
the entire crate-load to
ed to develop top drawer stationery the very original Santoro Licensing
the US from London!”
ranges, posters and gift wraps to com- instead!”)
Inevitably the first of many
Santoro’s Head Office in
plement their portfolio, never falling Bang on the Door was the first prop-
knock-offs in the market appeared
Wimbledon, London
short on the attention to detail, de- erty to be created and built into a
soon after, most unashamedly exhib-
sign and quality of product, packaging brand by Santoro. Up until that time
ited beside the Santoro stand at one
and presentation for which Santoro there was no track record of any-
of the shows! “The juvenile art-
are well renowned. “We were fre- one who’d produced, devel-
look of Bang on the Door
oped and marketed a brand
has given way to countless
from a range of cards for the
“funky this” and “groovy
tween age group. They wanted
that” brands all over the
to create a designer-type range of
place. (Funky Friends,
cards and stationery and were keen to
Funky Girlz, Groovy Girls,
achieve the colour, quality and effects
Brit Chicks, Fab Baby). I
only associated with coffee-table-type
know that they say imitation
glossy magazines.
is the best form of flat-
Meera has always hated to hear two
tery, but that wasn’t quite
things in particular - 1) ‘It can’t be done’
the word that sprung
and 2) ‘It’ll never sell at that price’
to mind at the time. I
– because, she says, “it can, it will and
think the market has
it does”. With Lucio Santoro’s techni-
been funked and grooved
cal expertise in printing, coupled with
to death.”
an innate desire to constantly break
One of the highlights in
the proverbial barriers, Santoro were
the early years for San-
quently able to achieve this. Injecting a whole
toro was winning Brand
approached by people in various new colour palette to the range gave
of the Year – “back in
guises asking us if they could use this it that eye-popping zing that made the
the days when it actually
image, or that image from our collec- brand so distinctive. The impact was
mattered, and when there
tions. Our foray into licensing began phenomenal. “Before we knew it we
were only 3 catego-
with little ‘starter products’. Note- were winging our way to New York
ries and a sound vot-
books here, posters there and when with a suitcase of products to exhibit
ing system - we were
at our first ever Licensing Show in
delighted’’. Santoro contin-
www.tutticuti.com -
1997. I recall some of our products
ued to develop, their team expand-
Santoro’s website now averaging
17 million hits a month!
at that show included hasty mock-
ed as did their ideas; they relocated to
113
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