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LIMA’s Licensing Excellence Award winners have a few things in common.

Peruse the list of companies that earned Licensing Excellence Awards from the Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association (LIMA) earlier this summer (August PROMO), and you’ll notice a few common denominators: Fun properties with kid-tested, mom-approved appeal. Solid marketing plans with long-term goals in mind. And, of course, good timing.

These are not complicated components by any measure. But as any brand marketer knows, even the most promising licensing program can falter if any of those characteristics are missing. But these award winners had them all in spades.

The choice for LIMA’s License of the Year was an obvious one: Nintendo and Leisure Concepts earned the prestigious award for making Pokemon a ubiquitous presence in everything from videogames and toys to TV and movies – and doing it in a way that, despite the presence of hundreds of licensees, didn’t have half the product heading straight for the discount bin. And they withstood some fairly heavy adult backlash (after schools banned the Pokemon cards as distractions and a few kids menaced classmates for their stash) to keep the overall buzz positive.

The most-licensed property in history had already been a huge hit in Japan, but “anyone who says they weren’t surprised by the way it took off around the world would be lying,” says Al Kahn, ceo of official licensor Leisure Concepts, New York City. “You never know what will translate well from one place to another.”

In addition to the bounty of licensed merchandise, the property has been successful in numerous promotion efforts. Burger King has tied into two movies and a video release in the past nine months. Kellogg Co. had a hefty campaign going in grocery aisles this summer.

And there is much more on the horizon. The property has additional TV shows and feature films coming in 2001, and begins a 40-city traveling Broadway-style tour at Radio City Music Hall in New York City this month.

“Remember, we’ve only released two `countries’ from the Pokemon world,” says Kahn. “We’ll slowly expose that entire world.”

Word of caution: Each country has about 150 inhabitants. That’s a lot of pocket monsters.

Domino Effect Pokemon’s reign carried over into other award categories as well. Wizards of the Coast, Seattle, was tapped as Entertainment/Character Licensee of the Year for its hard-goods card sets and related merchandise. And Hoffman Estates, IL-based Sears, Roebuck and Co. was named Entertainment Retailer of the Year for two in-store efforts, one of which was tied to the property.

The department store chain set up PokeMart boutiques last fall featuring apparel and other items and sold $50 million in product during the first month alone. A boutique of merchandise from Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues also received praise from LIMA.

The programs express “the success our marketing department and merchants have working together,” says John Lebbad, Sears’s director-event marketing and sales promotion. “We get a lot more out of marketing efforts when there is a link to product in stores.” The company will run a similar effort next month with a tie-in to the video release of Nelvana’s Franklin and the Green Knight (see story, pg. 108).

Say Hello Among other LIMA winners, Miami-based Burger King and New York City-based itsy bitsy Entertainment earned Promotion of the Year honors for a May ’99 kids meal program “that happened at the perfect time,” says Burger King vp-U.S. marketing Richard Taylor. “We immersed ourselves in Teletubbies.”

The campaign infused BK restaurants with six beanbag clip-on premiums and tons of P-O-P. The menu was spiced with “Tubby Custard” (pudding via Kraft’s Jell-O brand), Tubby-shaped Chicken Tenders, and a 99-cent chicken sandwich offer. BK deliberately sought a property with very young audience for that period to counteract the Star Wars frenzy that was sweeping the nation. The planned six-week flight ran through its supply of 50 million premiums in just three weeks. (Competitive note: This year, itsy bitsy struck its QSR deal with McDonald’s.)

Elsewhere, Hackettstown, NJ-based M&M/ Mars was named Best Brand/Corporate License of the Year for a program that boasts more than 30 licensees with 500-plus products. Merchandise sales rose 25 percent last year, proof that the company’s strategic decision in 1995 to increase its licensed presence was worth it. Top-selling categories include toys, games, electronics, and housewares. “The M&M’s brand is a true American icon” that crosses into both brand and entertainment arenas, says M&M/Mars vp-licensing Sharon McCampbell.

And in America, icons sell.