Stand Out from the Crowd
Jason Mayes, senior director, marketing and intellectual property, Bioworld Merchandising, talks to License Global about the company's milestone, new acquisitions and much more.
Bioworld's reach is truly global. The Texas-based brand growth platform assists its world-class partners, from household names to next-big-things in pop culture, connect with consumers in every channel. An international pioneer of lifestyle pop-culture apparel and accessories for 25 years, Bioworld has partnered with creators and brands to bring pop culture to all. With over 30 categories, 50,000 SKUs and retail distribution in all tiers, including Amazon and direct-to-consumer, Bioworld's distribution is flexible to jump on emerging trends and streamline its omnichannel reach to fans worldwide.
License Global spoke to Jason Mayes, senior director, marketing and intellectual property, Bioworld Merchandising, about how the company's licensing, is not just a product but a form of expression.
License Global: Bioworld has hit a major milestone. How will Bioworld mark its 25th anniversary?
Jason Mayes: Bioworld was started to fill a void in the market for licensed music accessories. It all began with two music hats. It's funny to think back on it now. Over the years we've grown into a global brand growth platform. Helping partners of all sizes reach consumers in every channel. We're using this milestone anniversary to reflect on the journey. Celebrate with long-term partners and strive to continue to push the industry forward into new and exciting audiences.
Related:Bioworld Acquires Character World Brands
We are excited to continue this year of BW25 with a collab press event and party with our great long-time partners Viz Media. The event will take place on the opening night of the Anime Expo. Be sure to stay tuned to our social channels to learn more about that event and the other cool celebrations for BW25 throughout the year.
What does the team at Bioworld look for in a partner? Is there a general strategy or is it specific to each property?
For 25 years, Bioworld has empowered our partners to forge stronger connections with their global audiences through elevated product design, merchandising, & distribution. Every brand is unique. We help our partners define and execute customized product strategies that scale at retail and beyond. Every brand in the Bioworld ecosystem benefits from custom strategies at every level of the go-to-market process.
For example, in 2024, we partnered with The Boys, YouTube content creators. They have 5.85M subscribers who are fiercely loyal and engaged worldwide. Bioworld brought an agency services model to The Boys to drive brand acceleration and consumer engagement. We helped revitalize their ecommerce experience. This included strategic drops of curated collections full of innovative products, order processing, inventory management and fulfillment.
The Boys apparel, Bioworld
In March, Bioworld announced its acquisition of Character World Brands. What was it about the company that attracted Bioworld to procure the company, and what are your plans to develop licensed products with them?
The partnership represented a mutually beneficial opportunity for both companies. We can create significant growth opportunities by leveraging our global reach and product expertise. The new venture aligns closely with our business and delivers exceptional value for our shared customers while increasing our footprint in the EU. The collaboration will catalyze brand and category expansion across all retail channels, capitalizing on Character World Brands' established market presence and track record of success.
Hello Kitty luggage, Sanrio, Bioworld
Bioworld has worked on licensing rollouts for big films, more recently "A Minecraft Movie" and "Wicked." How do you ensure your brand stands out among robust consumer product collections?
We're very proud of our expertise in brand translation. We are known in the industry for continuing the brand story onto products that engage fans. Our strategy for "Minecraft" has always centered around elevated and multi-gendered designs. When people think of a property where the primary target is a youth consumer, they typically think of basic apparel and accessories. We have elevated the fashion angle and the lifestyle approach to make it an aspirational brand for all ages. That is the right direction to take an evergreen brand. Aesthetically very bespoke.
Even though the primary gaming target may be a younger consumer, the original player is now a young adult. There's a real opportunity to design a product specifically targeted to that person who grew up playing "Minecraft" and is now a young adult.
Further rounding out the gender balance in the youth market is a big opportunity. It's currently very heavily boys. We know there's a girl's consumer. Ensuring we have the right product and distribution for that girl's consumer is key.
Europe is also a real growth opportunity. We have focused on the U.K. and EU markets for many years. We have established retail relationships poised to grow exponentially because we have consistently delivered elevated products targeted at European consumers.
What are the most popular categories, according to Bioworld’s count? Are there any categories that perform well but may surprise people?
We have unlimited categories at this point through innovative product development and acquisitions. Our backpack and bags category is a highlight. We have been pushing the boundaries of elevated novelty bags for years. We have teams of designers for every product category, so the expertise runs deep. We also have our successful proprietary DTC brand Heroes & Villains. This is fertile ground for dropping new product innovation across categories.
The home and luggage categories are real growth opportunities for us –textiles in the EU also (with the acquisition of Character World Brands). Our complete cross-category assortments are deeper than those of anyone in the industry, which is a win for our brand partners and consumers.
Marvel Deadpool collection, Heroes & Villains
Heroes & Villains, one of Bioworld's pop culture lifestyle bands, has worked with many big brands. How does this label differ from Bioworld? Are there more collaborations coming out from Heroes & Villians?
Heroes & Villains is a proprietary DTC brand we've had for years. It was first launched as a part of our DTC business unit to create a comprehensive consumer engagement model. We coined the strategy from 1,000,000 to 1. Being able to engage and get feedback from the consumer at a one-on-one level was very valuable as we built more aspirational collections across all our brand partners for all tiers of retail.
Heroes & Villains exists for the collector; our loyalty lies with the story. The brand represents a timeless and authentic approach to wearable lifestyle gear for those who expect more from the story.
The brand has been honored to work with some of the most celebrated storytellers in modern history. The primary IP associated with the brand is Star Wars (Lucas Arts). Disney and Lucas have been excellent partners from day one. They understand the brand's mission and have supported it with licensed content for over eight years. We have been fortunate to work with many other marquee brand partners like Marvel and DC Comics.