senckađ
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
5 minutes with... in association withAdobe Firefly
Group745

5 Minutes with… David Born

31/03/2023
Consultants
London, UK
145
Share
LBB's Casey Martin talked to Born Licensing CEO, David Born about the long term effects beloved characters have on us



Nothing appeals to the mind more than the familiar. Everyone remembers their favourite characters from their childhood, and the feeling of waking up early to catch the latest episode before school. Or rushing home in the afternoon to beat your older siblings to the remote, in fear that they might otherwise change the channel in the middle of a pinnacle moment.

Years later, those characters we loved as children get pushed to the back of our minds while the rest of life’s more important details take over (taxes and whatnot). Then all of a sudden, during a rare moment of downtime when the TV is on… an excitable, ever-so-familiar, laugh of a yellow sponge is heard and hearts begin to sing with the joy of a Sunday morning cartoon sesh. 

David Born, the CEO of Born Licensing who specialises in using beloved characters in campaigns, talked to LBB about all things fictional and how having world favourite characters can boost a spot’s performance. His journey from Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network is fascinating…


LBB> Can you share more about your personal background and what you are passionate about?

David> I have loved characters since I was a child. Whether it was cartoon characters like the Care Bears or He-Man and Skeletor or live-action like Fran Fine from the Nanny and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Now in my mid-thirties, I’m very lucky to be able to live and breathe characters daily. I’m passionate about how powerful characters can be, whether in content, on consumer products or in advertising. Characters tug at heartstrings, they bring back positive childhood memories, and they immediately capture attention. The influence characters can have is completely underestimated.

LBB> How did you realise you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

David> I think I’ve always had it in me. In my teenage years, I experienced a lot of different workplace environments such as working at a library, a fish and chip shop, a pizza delivery driver, and a pick-and-pack warehouse. I was never great at taking instructions from other people and always felt like there was a better way to do things. I would get frustrated by not being able to make big changes, or not being allowed to try new things. Now that I’ve been working for myself for coming up to nine years - and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to working for anyone else. 

LBB> As a global citizen, where has that philosophy taken you and how has it added value to your life experiences?

David> I’m lucky to have spent the first 26 years of my life living in Australia. I backpacked across Europe for a while after that, broadening my understanding of culture, food and people. I landed in London and worked for 12 months at Cartoon Network. I moved back to Australia to start Born Licensing, but my now husband tempted me back to living in the UK. I was a Londoner for a further 6 years after that, and that’s where the company really boomed. In late 2022 I moved to Brazil. My husband is Brazilian and he felt that it was time to go home. Living in different areas of the world is such an incredible way to broaden your understanding of life. Although there are complexities such as working through residency, finding new friends and tax implications, the good absolutely outweighs the bad. Anyone who has ever been to a churrascaria in Brazil will understand. 

LBB> What’s your mantra and philosophy in life?

David> Most of the time luck is created. I do believe that I’m a lucky person, but I also believe that luck is where hard work and opportunity meet. A lot of the time, people manufacture luck by doing the work to put themselves in the position that when the opportunity comes along they can snatch it without hesitation.
 
I’m also a big believer in self-care. The most valuable part of Born Licensing is the people, and as the leader, I need to ensure I’m happy, healthy and in the right mind frame to do what is needed. My morning routines are particularly important to ensuring I am performing at my best. If anyone should be interested, people can read my morning routine here. 

LBB> What’s on your dream list of achievements?

David> One day I plan on publishing my own fictional series. I’m already halfway through the first novel, but I haven’t touched it for a few years now. The characters and story are on my mind regularly, but I just don’t have the bandwidth to build further. When writing I need to be in the right frame of mind, and running Born Licensing keeps me in a mindset that is good for a business owner but bad for a writer. Perhaps when I’m in my forties I can focus more on the story that I’m still really keen to tell. 
 
LBB> What’s your own favourite character? Why?

David> Without even having to think – it’s Swiftheart Rabbit from Care Bears. When I was a baby my Grandma gave me a plush Swiftheart and it was my favourite toy as a child. I still have it today, but it is missing most of its fluffy layer. But I think that’s always a good sign of a toy being loved.

I was lucky enough to have worked on a campaign for Google which licensed a clip of the classic Care Bears animation with Swiftheart running really fast. It was pretty cool to be able to work with a clip of Swiftheart and I know my younger self would have loved that!



LBB> What does Born Licensing Australia specialize in, and what sets you apart from other licensing agencies?

David> Born Licensing is a licensing agent focused on managing the process of licensing characters and IP for advertising campaigns. For example, a bank might want to include a character like SpongeBob SquarePants in their advertising, or an insurance firm might want to recreate iconic moments from Thelma and Louise in their campaign. We’re the only licensing agent in the world who is focused on this niche, and for that reason, we’re confident that we’re the best at what we do. 
 
LBB> How do you determine which brands or properties are a good fit for licensing, and what factors do you consider when making these decisions?

David> Firstly I should say that I believe that every character has their place in advertising – it just depends on the creative! We’ve worked on such a broad range of creative with characters such as RoboCop, Miss Piggy, Buddy the Elf, Donatello the Ninja Turtle, Optimus Prime, Chubbs Peterson from Happy Gilmore and He-Man. 

I’m of the view that there is no brand in the world that wouldn’t benefit from licensing. Some sectors certainly lean on licensing characters and IP more than others, such as banking and insurance companies. Typically, these areas are a bit dull and very competitive. So those are the types of advertisers that are more likely to want to do something fun and different with their work. A great example is Direct Line, an insurance company based in the UK. They’ve licensed Bumblebee and Optimus Prime from Transformers, RoboCop, Donatello the Ninja Turtle and Marvel’s King Valkyrie. They’ve experienced huge success, and these campaigns made them the #1 advertiser in the insurance category according to System1.

LBB> How has the licensing industry evolved over the years, and what trends do you see emerging in the near future?

David> Licensing in general is an industry that is always evolving. With new technology and new consumer behaviour, there is always a new way to licence IP. There was recently a huge boom in digital licensing with NFTs. A lot of the major Rights Holders aligned with partners in the digital space to create a new revenue stream for their businesses. 

There has been a lot of Rights Holder consolidation over the last decade, with plenty of mergers and acquisitions. Unfortunately, that means that a lot of really fantastic IP is being put on the bench while others are prioritised. We like to think that we’re allowing forgotten characters and IP to make a comeback, like He-Man and Skeletor who we worked with in a hugely successful campaign for UK comparison website Moneysupermarket in 2017. Now there is a film coming out in 2024. Could the success of the campaign we worked on set wheels in motion for the film? Possibly! 


LBB> How do you measure the success of a licensing programme, and what metrics do you typically track?

David> Sometimes it is a bit tricky to find out how successful a campaign has been, as advertisers are not always comfortable sharing sensitive data relating to results. Often if a campaign performs well we’ll certainly hear about it! For example, our most recent major campaign with UK retailer ASDA which starred Buddy the Elf was named the nations #1 favourite ad of 2022 by System1 and ITV. They awarded it the winner after testing almost 25,000 on their Test Your Ad platform which measures viewers second-by-second emotional responses.
 
Luckily, the advertising and marketing industry also has plenty of award shows which help determine how a campaign has performed. The Direct Line campaign with Donatello, RoboCop and Bumblebee was awarded the highly coveted Winner of Grand Prix Award at Marketing Week Masters.

Other measures can simply be an increase in social activity. Moneysupermarket’s campaign with Skeletor and He-Man recreating the dance from Dirty Dancing increased the advertisers mentions on Twitter from 100 per day to 35,000 an hour. Really quite incredible when you think about it!

 
LBB> What advice do you have for marketers looking to cut through the clutter with fictional characters? What are your observations about the APAC market?

David> Let me be direct in answering this question. APAC advertisers, particularly those in Australia, lean too much on sports stars. There has been very little use of characters and IP, despite the demand being there. We recently commissioned an IPSOS Mori study which told us that 38% of Australians ‘most like’ to see characters in advertising compared to celebrities (22%), sports stars (18%) and musicians (22%). Yet we estimate that characters appear in much less than 1% of Australian advertising, and less than celebrities, sports stars and musicians. 

Advertisers across APAC should be looking at major advertising events like America’s Superbowl and Christmas in the UK, where characters and IP frequently appear in successful campaigns. Of course, budgets for those campaigns are much bigger which needs to be considered. However, we’ve licensed characters and IP for campaigns with smaller budgets than one might expect. We would encourage advertisers and their agencies to strongly consider how they can harness the power of characters and IP to help them achieve their goals. 

LBB> Finally, what are some of the most exciting initiatives or partnerships that Born Licensing Australia is currently working on?

David> We are always working on a number of different projects with agencies from all over the world. Sometimes they don’t materialise, but we treat every single one as if it will happen. I’m really excited about one we’re working on in New Zealand at the moment. It’s a brilliant concept and the perfect partnership. I can’t say much more than that, but keep an eye out for something pretty incredible coming this year! 


Credits
Work from Born Licensing
Bundling Made Easy
GEICO
20/02/2024
9
0
10
0
ALL THEIR WORK