A busy Licensing Expo 2025, held in Las Vegas last week, featured 12,000 attendees and 381 exhibiting companies, the latter up 16% from last year, according to show organizer Informa Markets Global Licensing Group and sponsor Licensing International. The intellectual properties on exhibit included a healthy contingent of publishing-related brands from the likes of Penguin Random House, Highlights, the Lumistella Company (Elf on the Shelf), Encyclopaedia Britannica/Merriam Webster, the Hidden Pigeon Company, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, and more.
Almost every exhibitor PW spoke with said this year’s Expo was one of the best in recent memory, both for scheduled meetings and for the number and quality of walk-up visitors. “It’s been remarkable for drop-in traffic,” said Patty Sullivan, who heads licensing and retail for Highlights. “New categories that I had only dreamt about are possibilities.” In addition to licensing relationships, Highlights’ new head of strategic partnerships Lauren Lake was at the show looking for promotional and content partnership opportunities. A recent example: a custom magazine on internet safety, Be Internet Awesome, the company recently produced with Google. It was distributed to Highlights magazine’s one million subscribers and further amplified through an event-in-a-box program with Boys and Girls Clubs.
Tariff Talk
Several licensor-exhibitors said they were relieved that new deals were being discussed at the show, given the top-of-mind topic of the Trump administration’s tariffs, especially those tied to China, where 90% of toys and big portions of apparel, backpacks, electronics, and other consumer products are made. Since the first tariffs were announced on “Liberation Day” (April 2), the ever-changing landscape has led to orders being canceled; shipments held; existing contracts with licensors, suppliers, and retailers renegotiated and renegotiated again; profits squeezed; and uncertainty all around.
Most books are exempt from the new tariffs, but there are some impacts on the industry, especially for those publishing licensed titles. Some publishers are rethinking the inclusion of value-added items (such as crayons affixed to a coloring book), which are subject to tariffs, for now. Some have experienced shipping delays due to general-supply chain issues caused by the tariffs. Scheduling and forecasting are also challenging; licensed products based on a particular film or TV show are often introduced simultaneously across key categories to make a big splash at retail. If products in another category are stuck abroad while the tariff situation shakes out, the whole program could be delayed, including book releases, even at the last minute.
On the positive side, several exhibitors mentioned that retailers will need something in the store, especially during the holiday season, and books could help fill the gaps if toys and other goods based on a property are not available in time. “Books can be ready to fill the space,” said Gabriela Arenas, senior VP, global licensing at Sesame Street licensor Sesame Workshop, who added about the tariffs, “It’s all a nightmare, brought to you by the letter T.”
Critical Category
Publishing executives from the major IP owners exhibiting at the Expo talked about how publishing is more important than ever to their licensing programs. While books tend to bring in less revenue than toys or other product categories, they are essential to keep fans engaged through new storytelling that expands and deepens the universe around the property.
Hasbro brought publishing under its broader consumer products operation last year to maximize synergies between the two businesses. Hasbro was touting the birth of Peppa Pig’s new sister, Evie, as one of its key initiatives at the show. Marianne James, senior VP of global licensing, said publishing would be integral to every aspect of that program, from exploring new publishing formats to integrating books into location-based experiential entertainment initiatives. Peppa’s U.S. publishers, including Scholastic and PI Kids, are releasing new titles featuring Evie this summer.
The Miraculous Company was founded in May 2024 by animation studio Zag and independent production company Mediawan to oversee commercial activities for the Miraculous animation franchise. Like Hasbro, it recently brought publishing under the purview of its consumer products business. Lisa Foster, senior VP licensing, said the company was working to create synergies among publishing, licensed merchandise, and entertainment, as well as among local Miraculous publishers in each market around the world.
One publishing format that has been on the rise within licensing programs for the past several years and remains as hot as ever: licensed cookbooks. These are often “in-world” concepts that help take fans deeper into the property universe. For example, Insight Editions’ Miraculous cookbook has a dust jacket featuring the leading characters, Ladybug and Cat Noir, to appeal to a mass audience. But the cover underneath caters to the staunchest fans by revealing the cookbook as a replica of the one seen in the Parisian bakery-set show that includes recipes for treats the shop would sell.
Other properties at the show with recent and upcoming cookbook releases range from Sesame Street to Lauren Roberts’ romantasy franchise, Powerless. (On a side note, the romantasy genre started to rise up as a source of licensing activity at this year’s Expo.)
Another area of interest is publishing-adjacent audio and video storytelling, played on devices from companies including Tonies, Yoto, Storypod, and MGA Entertainment’s Little Tikes with its Story Dream Machine. Publisher Cottage Door Press’ Luna Storytime Projector is another example, offering stories for properties including Daniel Tiger and Mo Willems’ Unlimited Squirrels. “It’s diversification in narrative storytelling,” said Arenas of Sesame Workshop, which works with Little Tikes, Tonies, and Yoto, in addition to traditional publishers Penguin Random House, PI Kids, Sourcebooks, Kappa, DK, Bendon, and more. Many major licensors and publishers are signing deals with at least one of these device makers.
Fun and Games
A big trend in licensing has been the strength of tabletop gaming, especially role-playing games, as both a licensed category and a source of intellectual property to extend to other categories. Publishing plays a big role in this sector, as rulebooks, novels, character guides, and other formats extend the world and add new dimensions to game play. The category has become more mainstream over the past decade, and gaming companies have been working to broaden their audiences even more, for example by creating entry-level versions that families can play together.
Paizo markets two role-playing games, the fantasy-themed Pathfinder and the sci-fi-themed Starfinder. It was exhibiting at the show to seek opportunities for more consumer products licensees to add to its roster of 70 companies that are making everything from dice to video games to plush. “We have cute characters that work really well in plush,” said licensing manager Raychael Allor. “We’re trying to be more approachable as a brand as well.”
The company, like others in this space, is introducing Beginner Boxes to serve as entry points to both games. It also plans to launch its first licensed roleplaying game based on an as-yet-unannounced outside IP later this summer. “Let’s bring in people from other fandoms,” Allor said. On the publishing side, Paizo was showing its many Adventure Path books, which extend game play; novels, which the company is relaunching after a hiatus; and its licensed comics from Dynamite.
Other gaming properties exhibiting at the Expo included Asmodee’s Catan; Games Workshop’s Warhammer, which recently supplemented its vast publishing program with additional formats, including character guides, from licensee DK; and Hasbro’s Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, both overseen by its Wizards of the Coast division and both with extensive publishing programs. “Many of our conversations at the show are on those franchises,” said James, who noted that all of Hasbro’s board game brands, which include Monopoly, Risk, Chutes and Ladders, and Trivial Pursuit, are attracting notice from publishers. “There’s real excitement about the games and we’ve seen interest across all formats.”
Room for Indie Players
A number of independent authors were exploring opportunities for licensed consumer products and collaborations. Author Helen Wu of Yeehoo Press was showing her all-ages Capybara books, which celebrate joy and mindfulness and feature a variety of capybara and other animal characters. With a strong social media presence, the property was generating interest from attendees in the toy, apparel, home décor, jewelry, cosmetics, and food categories.
Teacher Adam Smith created First Fantasy Books to engage kids and promote academic, social-emotional, and physical literacy in the face of negative achievement trends in U.S. schools, especially in reading. His high-interest fantasy books, which all take place in the same universe, are available on Ingram Marketplace and the company’s website, as well as at comic cons. Smith was at the show hoping to make connections with companies in animation and games.
And husband-and-wife author and illustrator Susie and Greg Bramhall were showing Snowy the Mouse, their wholesome year-round brand supported by animation, books, puzzles, and plush, which became established after being featured in the industry publication The BIG Toy Book. They reported interest at the show from potential licensees across a variety of product categories, from food to apps.
