Tag Archives: Anthony Marks

Fanattik names Get-Well Gamers its charity partner for 2022

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The pop culture specialist, Fanattik, has named the gaming charity, Get-Well Gamers as its charity partner until the end of 2022. The partnership has been struck up as the firm’s means of ‘giving back to the community that has supported it since launch.’

Established in 2007, Fanattik has been developing film and gaming collectables for the geek culture market for the past 14 years. Its partnership with Get-Well Gamers not only reflects its appreciation for audience that has helped its success, but the role gaming plays with mental health improvement.

“Every member of staff at Fanattik HQ is a gamer, and we’re a multi-generational team, with some of us growing up with Atari’s and Amiga’s, and some growing up with PlayStations and Xboxes. We all recognise the importance of the problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, and mental health improvement that comes with gaming, so supporting a gaming charity like Get-Well Gamers, was a no-brainer,” said Fanttik’s MD, Anthony Marks.

Get-Well Gamers was founded in 2016 and provides recycled consoles and games to hospitals, hospices and other healthcare settings, where children may have long hospital stays, or are in circumstances in which recreational activities can be beneficial. They are currently linked up with almost 200 hospitals and organisations across the UK.

Fanattik is the licensee for many gaming franchises including Resident Evil, Sea of Thieves, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Banjo-Kazooie, Doom, Cuphead, and more. The team’s ranges of gaming gifts from 24k gold plated collectibles to limited edition pin badges can be found on sale at all levels of the European gift trade from HMV to Hamleys.

Fanattik is also an award-winning gift company, being crowned the North West Business of the Year awarded by the Federation of Small Business in 2020, their SpongeBob SquarePants bottle opener has been nominated for Gift Of the Year by the British Gift Association for 2021.

Get-Well Gamers were recently the subject of a BBC short film about the important work that they do, which you can watch here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p072wh7k.

Immersive play | Fanattik on why creativity is running wild in video game licensing

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It’s odd to think of the video game licensing sector as one that is still in its relative infancy. There’s a maturity to many of the partnerships that circle the market and its audiences that would suggest the experience and wisdom of one established decades ago, when Pong’s first pixels flickered to life and into the homes of 1970s America.

Perhaps it’s a manifestation of an industry’s self-assurance? The video games sector has the charisma of an entertainment sector that not only knows its worth, but enjoys the fact that you know it, too. And it’s one fuelled by a fandom so immersed in its narratives, that when it comes to licensing, the consumer products space is a playground in which it can have a lot of fun.

That’s precisely what Anthony Marks, managing director of the pop culture specialist, Fanattik is doing right now. Having a lot of fun. Because gone are the days when games publishers would lean into the ‘bare minimum assets and a logo’ kind licensing, and here to stay is an era in which licensing is being given the chance to explore a game’s terrain, reach into its DNA and pull from it elements that reverberate with fans around the world.

And if you’re not buying that, then there’s at least some cool collectables being made.

Here, Licensing.biz catches up with Fanattik’s Anthony Marks to talk about the health of the video game licensing sector, the creativity that surrounds it, and why he’ll be shipping the entire development team off to the states come next year…

Hello Anthony, and thanks for taking the time to talk video games with us this week. Fanattik’s video game IP portfolio is continuing to grow, with some exciting titles added recently in Sea of Thieves. What do you and the team make of the health of the video games licensing space today?

Video games are the healthiest part of the licensing world in my opinion. It’s no secret that when Covid hit, it super charged what was already a fast growing sector. This is a huge market which a lot of retailers haven’t picked up on yet and that is why there is still so much opportunity for growth in this sector.

How do you think video games licensing has changed in the last few years? What are consumers and fans demanding from the video games merchandise they buy today?

When we first started signing up video game properties, merchandise was the last thing on the brand owners’ mind and you were lucky to get just a handful of assets along with the logo. Now it’s a very different picture as it’s not just about generating income for the brands anymore. The merchandise is an extension of their marketing activities and a way to further increase brand loyalty.

What is it about the sector that excites Fanattik? What level of creativity with licensing does today’s fandom around video games lend you guys when it comes to developing concepts?

The possibilities feel endless with gaming, whether it’s an upcoming big budget game or an evergreen title, the developers create such an immense backstory to each title it really does give us the opportunity to dig deep and create some really interesting pieces.

The creators know every nook and cranny so we work hand in hand with the studios. Next year we are sending a team to the USA to sit with one studio and immerse themselves in just one particular title. Whilst it could have been done over video, I believe you need to commit 100 per cent to develop concepts the fandom will truly appreciate, so we need to be face to face with their creative team.

Looking at the Sea of Thieves collection – from Doubloons to limited edition art prints – it appears to draw directly from game play or intricate components from within the IP. Why does video game licensing lend itself better to this level of immersion than other entertainment medium?

Unlike a film, where a fan walks out of the cinema and a few days later possibly only remembers the ending or the big action scenes, with games the fan can be playing the same part of the game over and over again for days to get to that next stage. They have to pay attention to every aspect of each part of the game they are in to learn how to progress and that, for example, is why the in-game replica’s we create for video game properties are working so well for retailers.

What are Fanattik’s plans in the video game licensing space? How will you continue to innovate and push the boundaries when it comes to immersion and linking IP with the merchandising?

Now is a great time to ask that question, we are in the final stages of renewing and expanding our licenses with two of the world’s biggest video game studios. We will be further focusing on in-game replica’s, luckily where I am a fan of the retro titles we have a great team of designers who are all avid gamers and you need that when you are trying to create something special, video game fans will pick up straight away if you are trying to wing it.

What do you think the future holds for video game licensing? What is exciting you about the scene right now?

What has always excited us is that this is still a relatively young industry, one where the consumers are happy to pay for an item with a retailer and wait three to four months until they receive the product without batting an eyelid. It’s also an industry where the brand owners encourage you to be as quirky as possible and create products that will stand out which suits Fanattik.

What would you like to see the licensing industry do with video game IP? Where do you think video game licensing should be heading?

I think it’s already happening and that is the studios putting more resources into promoting their retro titles and not just the latest release.

So, what’s the next step for you guys? 

Export, export,and export. In all license negotiations now we are aiming for, if not a global license then, as much territory as possible. The team put so much effort into each and every product it makes sense to get that product to as wide a range of fans as possible. So in 2022 we will have a presence at Nuremberg Toy Fair, New York Toy Fair as well as the Las Vegas Licensing show.

Thank you Anthony. Before we let you go, is there anything you’d like to add?

Only that we know it can be tricky for gift retailers who are new to this sector. They have to work out which gaming property to support and don’t want to risk shelf space on the latest game release if it may not be as well received by the fans as they had hoped.

On the other hand I can imagine a buyer trying to explain to their senior team that they want to allocate shelf space to merchandise from a 20 year old game. We are on hand to sit with buyers, show them our case studies and help them select a range that is going to work for them, after all it’s in our interests for them to sell as many pieces as possible!

Finding Neverland | How adult fans are driving toy sales across the UK

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There’s no shame in admitting it, toys, games, gaming, and play doesn’t have to have an age limit; something that a growing portion of the UK population can attest to. Last year, the UK’s kidult market hit new heights, fuelled by a pandemic that left grown ups and kids at heart with a lot more time on their hands to revisit their old passions. Given the audience size, it’s a market that can’t be stopped

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A factoid that gets overheard often when you spend any length of time within a city setting, is that you’re at no point, more than seven feet away from a mouse. The same could probably be said for Funko Pop! figures.

In fact, the statistic is likely somewhat higher. Higher still if you swap out specifics for the term now used to categorise a demographic of people that appears to be expanding at an alarming rate. If the most recent NPD figures are anything to go by, the UK’s ‘kidult’ sector, that is the adult audience of toy fans, appears to be, well, breeding like mice.

Accounting for a staggering 27 per cent of the total toy sales here in the UK for the year end 2020, the kidult sector is one that can be, by any means, no longer ignored.

What started decades ago, with the advent of the pop culture consumer products scene has shifted from an underground following of ‘ultra-nerdom’ to a mainstream – if not staple – sector within the UK toy space. Time was, tell a room full of adults about your collection of Transformers toys or your Mage level in the latest tabletop campaign, you’d be faced with stifled chortles and a lifetime of social isolation. Today, those self-confessed nerds are our celebrities, our pop icons, and our sports stars. And that’s OK. These days, when it comes to the topic of adult collectors of toys games, there really is no kidding around.

Take the pop culture gift and consumer products specialist, Fanattik, for instance. In its last financial year report, the firm found itself up around 123 per cent. We’re all aware that 2020 will forever be classed as a ‘freak’ year for sales figures, with online shopping helping drive sales in sectors that wouldn’t necessarily be replicated on the high street, but how would you account for the 40 per cent growth, year on year, that Fanattik has enjoyed each year before Covid-19?

“Traditionally, we never supplied toy retail, our focus was always on the gift trade,” Fanattik’s managing director, Anthony Marks, tells ToyNews. “But enquiries from the toy sector dramatically increased last year, retailers were looking for something different to add to their online offering, and the ones that trialed our range never looked back.”

It’s become a common narrative across the toy industry that the kidult audience is being recognised and catered to at a growing pace by companies and retailers once more aligned with the traditional children’s audience. There’s a reason that the Toymaster catalogue has started including Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons, just as it has welcomed Games Workshop into the fold in recent years, and why Pokemon Trading Card Game sales are in the midst of a world-wide resurgence, and why the local toy shop is just a likely to stock miniatures painting kits as it is Jellycat plush toys for pre-schoolers.

The audience for toys today is multi-generational.

“The genie is out of the bottle,” exclaims Marks. “Just look at the success Playmobil has had with its Back to the Future range. The retailers we are speaking with throughout Europe say that they will always have shelf-space for the latest blockbuster, but the iconic film and gaming brands cannot be ignored anymore.”

Late last month, Fanattik released details of a major new partnership with Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast segment through which it will launch a range of licensed gifts and collectables based on its Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons gaming franchises. It’s a marker of success for the firm that has managed to carve a reputable name for itself in a market notoriously protective of its favoured IP. Marks has high hopes that the range will replicate the success retailers saw with Fanattik’s Yu-Gi-Oh! ranges when the collection launches in Q3 this year.

“We do not go for the latest film or game release, it has to be a brand with multi-generational appeal, an existing fanbase that
due to the market’s focus on the latest game or film release, finds itself being ignored,” says Marks.

“The Kidult sector has been growing year on year, and the pandemic gave it a major push forward. With no new film releases, for example, fans were going back and watching their old favourites and introducing those films to family members who missed it, or were too young to appreciate them the first time around.

“There are also millions of new gamers that have been created by having to spend more time at home, and that’s an audience that cannot be ignored either.”

This article – and a more in depth look at some of the firms taking on the ‘kidult’ sector – appears in the Spring/Summer issue of ToyNews.

Fanattik builds on eighth year of growth and ‘significant 2020’ with enviable new office

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The award-winning pop culture specialist, Fanattik is scaling things up somewhat.

Following what the company behind some of the most sought after collectables and gift lines on the pop culture scene has billed as a ‘year of rapid growth,’ Fanattik is positioning itself for further expansion across the sector, with the decision that it’s going to need a bigger boat office.

Thanks to a step change in demand for pop culture brands over the past year, Fanattik has taken on new premises with a headquarters move offering more warehouse space and room to welcome a growing team, as well as a social media studio and new showroom for buyers.

The move, says Fanattik’s managing director, Anthony Marks, is a much needed one, given that the business has now seen now fewer than eight consecutive years of growth.

“Despite an initial downturn as the world came to a halt in March 2020, the rise in online shopping and a thirst for nostalgia coupled with the launch of our new in-universe collectibles has resulted in significant year on year growth of over 200 per cent,” said Marks.

Anthony (left) and Louise Marks (below, right), the husband-and-wife duo behind the Cheshire-based business wanted the new space to encapsulate the Fanattik spirit that is now demonstrated with the inclusion of an arcade machine, signed movie posters, celebrity fans on the wall, and of course, a bar area – that the firm insists has been set up as a designated area for the rigorous testing of its licensed drinkware offering.

If that’s not enough to turn you green with envy, Marks has also hinted at plans for a gaming and movie screening zone.

But it’s not all play. Fanattik, already a licensee for many of the leading video game and film studios, will be detailing several new high-profile licensing deals in 2021 as well as a major expansion to its current Universal Studios license.

Fanattik creates gift, home décor, drink/barware and collectibles and is geared up to supply every level of the European gift trade. As well as retro titles with multi-generational appeal its portfolio also includes product from four upcoming Netflix series as well as what will be the biggest blockbuster of 2022, Jurassic World Dominion.

“With the cancellation or postponement of most of the trade shows we are inviting retail buyers who would have normally visited our stands to contact me to arrange video meetings. Not only do we have upcoming licensed ranges to discuss but our existing portfolio contains almost 100 iconic titles from the world of entertainment,” said Fanattik’s head of sales, Luiz Ferreira.

Fanattik lands Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gift license in pan-European deal

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The pop culture specialist, Fanattik, has signed a pan-European gift license with ViacomCBS Consumer Products to develop and launch a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-inspired collection.

The new range will span home decor, barware, gifts, and collectables, all of which will be available from June this year in shops across Europe.

Considered one of the most popular kids’ TV programmes of the 1980s, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was created in 1984 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird when it made its debut as a successful comic book series before becoming an animated TV series, a live-action TV series, and later spawning four blockbuster movie releases.

“From the comic books in the ’80s to the films of the ’90s and the more recent animated series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a brand with real heritage,” said Anthony Marks, MD, Fanattik.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been translated into a significant consumer products business with toys, apparel, home goods, video games, DVDs and more generating millions at retail.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a top selling action figure and the franchise is a previous recipient of the Toy Industry Association’s top honour for Property of the Year at the TOTY Awards.

“The whole creative team is so looking forward to working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. With over 90 per cent brand recognition with both male and females under the age of 55 and such a well engaged fan base, the Fanattik team understands that we need to create a range that will appeal fans both new and old,” said Melissa Tudor, head of product development at Fanattik.

“Before it was announced to the team that we had this license the MD bought a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade machine for the office, so we must get this right, otherwise he is going to take it away.”

Mark Kingston, senior vice president, international, ViacomCBS Consumer Products, added: “We’re excited to amplify the Turtles universe with a fully loaded gifting range from Fanattik; with products that will resonate with the broad spectrum of fans from this beloved IP.”

Head of sales, Luiz Ferreira, said: “Fanattik works with all levels of the European gift market so we are asking toy an gift retailers that are not already talking to us to contact myself to book a video appointment so they can learn more about this upcoming Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles range.”

Ferreira can be contacted via Luiz@fanattik.co.uk

Fanattik is a licensee for 20th Century Fox, Microsoft, Capcom, Universal Studios, Capcom, Bethesda, Studio Canal and more.

Fanattik has won numerous awards with the latest being the North West Business Of The Year organised by the Federation of Small Business just prior to Covid.

The Fanattik Jaws bottle opener and Friends premium limited edition pin badge were both nominated for Gift Of The Year 2021.

Fox, Universal, and Capcom licensee Fanattik picks up Small Business of the Year award

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The pop culture gift and collectables specialist, Fanattik is celebrating its major win last week when it picked up the award for Small Business of the Year presented by the Federation of Small Business.

The popular film and video game licensee currently boasts partnerships with some of the biggest studios on the scene, including the likes of 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Bethesda, Microsoft, and Capcom. Fanattik was handed the accolade at an event held on Friday, February 28th.

The award has added to what Fanattik MD, Anthony Marks has already earmarked as a major year for the fast-growing company who has made a big name for itself in the pop culture gifting space.

“2020 is going to be a huge year for us, the response from retailers who visited the Fanattik stand at Spring Fair was better than we could have hoped for and to now follow that up with this award is a great way for us to start the year,” said Marks.

Fanattik product has previously been nominated for Gift of the Year several times in the past.

“But this award is extra special as it honours the whole team from the warehouse to buying and shows that a small company producing high quality items can compete with the major players in the gift industry,” Marks added.

For further information on the Fanattik gift and collectible ranges contact hello@fanattik.co.uk