The Might of Tinderbox

Tinderbox, Beanstalk’s digital media division, focuses on brand representation for video games, esports and pop culture. It manages some of the biggest gaming franchises in the world including Xbox, Call of Duty, Halo, Just Dance, Sea of Thieves, Far Cry, Crash Bandicoot, Banjo-Kazooie and ESL. We caught up with the team ahead of BLE 2021.

You work with some of the biggest gaming IP’s in the world. How have you evolved their brand programmes in 2021 and what plans do you have moving forward to keep them innovative?

Working with our clients is hugely exciting but it comes with a lot of responsibility. With established licensing and highly successful programmes, our objective is always to evolve the consumer products programme in alignment with the evolution of the brand. It is therefore important that we work with the brand-owners to agreed aims and objectives, following core marketing plans and consumer information, and action bespoke strategies for every IP we represent. Take Call of Duty for example. Our aim, in partnership with Activision, has been to expand the licensing programme in the same way the franchise has grown over recent years, reflecting how players experience the game. This has included establishing all year-round placement across European fashion retail celebrating Call of Duty Warzone, their free to play title which launched in March 2020 and quickly amassed 100m downloads, as well as establish Q4 activations to sync with the annual titles.

For Xbox, we worked with Microsoft to establish the brand within consumer products, launching the licensing programme from the very beginning. The strategy was to initially launch in speciality channels and then expand to mass retail across kids and adult categories. The consumer demographic for Xbox is very wide, and ultimately we are aware that we need to reach all of the consumers but we saw it as important to start with the core. The mass retail launch was to coincide with the Xbox Series X & S launch and harness the hype that had built around the launch of the new consoles. The plan was to initially focus on tight list of categories that we knew would instantly resonate with the Xbox consumer such as apparel, food, gifting and home. Our retail listings and sell through in 2020 were incredibly strong and we have been able to grow on this success with additional accounts and categories secured across Europe. As we move into 2022, we have taken learnings from the previous years and will use these to evolve the programme further.

What are the biggest trends in the video game industry, and what opportunities does this bring to consumer products and retail?

One of the major themes in the current next generation era of gaming is accessibility. Gamers are no longer expected to buy individual titles and play these titles confined to their living room with a box under the TV. Services like Xbox Game Pass allow for consumers to have instant access to 100+ titles for just £10.99 a month, which they can play on console and PC or stream to mobile, tablet and Smart TV. With this increased exposure and accessibility, consumers no longer have to spend £50 on one game, but can instead enjoy a much larger depth of titles. This in turn opens up more opportunities for multiple gaming brands to break into consumer products, either through traditional retail or ecommerce. The advancements of 5G technology also give you the ability to experience games in more places than ever. This could establish opportunities for retailers, giving them the ability to stage esport events in store without the expensive and space consuming set up, all that’s required is a mobile device and a 5G connection. Streaming services such as Twitch are now entirely mainstream – the prospect of watching gamers game is now firmly established and helping to push game IPs to ever-growing audiences.

Gamers are very passionate; how do you create product that celebrates their fandom whilst being current with the game release?

As with every form of entertainment, fans want products that celebrate their most current fandom. However, the challenge of gaming in the consumer products space comes from the live service nature of the titles, meaning content is updated on a frequent basis. So, to keep on top of this, we make sure we are aligned with the development schedule. In partnership with clients, we plan releases far in advance, ensuring that product releases sync with new marketing beats and updates within the game. Consumer products are very important to the studios we work with, so the development teams often factor licensing timelines into their schedule. With Covid19 accelerating the transition to ecommerce, we have invested a lot of our time on print and demand and direct to consumer partnerships. This route allows us to cut out the traditional retail sell in period and have product available much more quickly, as product is manufactured locally or on order. A great example of this is with the Xbox Game Studio, Rare, where their own ecommerce store is updated with new products and designs to align day to day with Sea of Thieves quarterly game updates and seasonal events. We have also leaned into the passionate community, inviting fans to create their own t-shirt designs which are then sold by Rare’s licensing partners.

What are some of the most exciting licensing partnerships you have worked on? And how have you created a point of difference for the community?

There are so many great licensing partnerships that we are part of, but some our favourites take the brands into whole new areas and aisles. The Xbox celebration cake is a perfect example of this. The cake was the first time the programme had extended into food. It allows kids (and big kids) the chance to take their gaming birthday parties to the next level and celebrate with the ultimate Xbox shaped controller cake! Keeping on the food theme, we also partnered with G Fuel to create a Crash Bandicoot Wumpa fruit inspired energy drink. We have always been about recreating these IP’s in real life but we had never before brought these gaming properties to your tastebuds. One of the other products we love is the Sea of Thieves X Monopoly Limited Edition board, which is available exclusively on the Rare ecommerce store. For a long time, fans had been asking Rare for this product on their social media channels, so to be able to bring this amazing product to the community was hugely exciting.

What will you be presenting at BLE this year?

We are in a very fortunate position, where our clients are always innovating and updating their gaming franchises, which opens up exciting product and retail opportunities. For our most recent partnership with Ubisoft, we have been hard at work establishing a strategy for their no.1 selling music game, Just Dance. This will be aimed at the Gen Z and Millennial community focusing on athleisure, selfcare, lifestyle and peripherals. This collaboration has allowed us to expand into a whole new market and we are excited to be presenting this to retailers and licensees at BLE. The much-anticipated Xbox franchise, Halo Infinite launches December 8th, and we will be updating partners about future plans for the game as well as the brand-new Halo TV season that’s coming to Paramount+/Sky. We have worked with Halo for many years, and the excitement from retail and licensees is bigger than ever. For Activision, as well as showcasing their all-year round retail franchise and retail plans Call of Duty, we will also be presenting opportunities to partners around the retro inspired range Activision Classics, which has seen success in fashion across Europe.

What will be Tinderbox's next steps in the sector? How will you continue to innovate and lead in your space?

Our long-term clients are hugely important to us, and we are excited to grow these partnerships, brokering new opportunities across expanded territories, categories, and experiences. The franchises are only growing, and we are excited to be joining them on their journey. One area of growth we see is experiential. After the lockdowns of recent years, consumers are keen to experience new forms of experiential entertainment. Theatre companies are already tapping into this pent up on demand utilising the abundance of commercial space now available in city centres. Many games have a far-reaching universe and narrative, so we very much see this as the natural next step.
Currently, our experience lies within the gaming industry and gaming communities. Now more than ever we are exploring the other types of brands and experiences that these consumers are into and are looking to expand our expertise across new forms of fandom.