If you really love a TV show, why wouldn’t you want to deck yourself out in branded clothes, eat limited-edition snacks, and buy collectibles based on your favorite characters?
Take Prime Video’s smash-hit TV show Fallout, which debuted earlier this year. Beyond marketing the series to get audiences tuned in, Amazon offered merchandise based off of the show, including a backpack modeled off the character Lucy’s gear, as well as branded Arizona Iced Tea beverages, which company executives say has been one of its most ambitious and successful undertakings yet.
“It’s definitely been our No. 1 best-performing product line,” Jamie Kampel, head of consumer products licensing at Amazon MGM Studios, said.
It’s not just Amazon. Other streamers have pushed into the consumer product licensing business, a tried-and-true way to help amplify shows and movies in cultural conversations and generate additional revenue. It can be a big business: globally, the brand licensing market is expected to grow from an estimated $274.9 billion in 2022 to $385.4 billion by 2027, according to the firm Global Markets Estimate.
At Amazon, it’s one of many ways the company’s Prime Video arm is looking to further monetize its programming, which has also included rolling out shoppable ads and other new ad formats as well as new live sports offerings.
Laying the groundwork
For some merchandise roll-outs, a stage is a great way to build hype. Amazon’s SXSW activation earlier this year served as a “big marketing kickoff” for Fallout, Kampel said, as well as a place to introduce some merch to the masses a few weeks before the April 10 series debut. Kampel’s team debuted products like collectible figures and eyewear, which were manufactured by partners like McFarlane and with help from Amazon’s design team and input from Bethesda, the developer that created the video game franchise the show is based off of, and show producer Kilter Films, she said. To sell the products, a dedicated Fallout storefront on Amazon debuted at the same time as the SXSW activation.
While Amazon’s e-commerce site is positioned as the main destination for merch to “drive very seamless streaming to shopping,” Kampel told Marketing Brew, merch was also available at retailers including GameStop, Best Buy, and the Bethesda Gear Store. According to Kampel, the collectible figures sold out on Amazon “within hours of launch.”
One of a kind
Amazon’s consumer products division has existed for almost six years, developing merchandise for Prime Video originals including The Summer I Turned Pretty and Daisy Jones & The Six, she told us. There’s more to come around Amazon’s upcoming holiday film, Red One, she said.
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When determining the strategy for new original content, her team may look at comparison titles or content similar to the new title, Kampel said. Shows that already have established fan bases, like Fallout, make things a little easier.
“Established IP always gives you a little bit of a head start,” Kampel told us. “You’ve got a fan base that exists. One of the challenging things that we have to do on the consumer product side is really be able to anticipate, when it comes to brand-new IP…what’s the right timing to launch.”
That timing may also mean making decisions like choosing to only manufacture merch on demand early on, she said, or taking bigger swings on titles that have been around for longer.
“Something like toys requires a lot more lead time, and a lot more of an investment from a partner, and so something like toys…will end up being a season two or season three [item],” Kampel said.
Bird’s-eye view
While Amazon can profit off of merchandise sales, Prime Video can also benefit from the brand affinity merch generates. It’s a strategy that other streamers have also adopted: Netflix’s hit show Bridgerton, for example, inspired a major surge in Regency era attire, which the streamer capitalized on, especially around its live-event activation The Queen’s Ball, Netflix VP of Consumer Products Josh Simon said at Licensing Expo in Las Vegas in May.
“We saw people dressing up, showing up to The Queen’s Ball in Regency attire, and then it led to us launching a line of wedding dresses with Allure [Bridals],” Simon said.
While companies like Disney have been in the consumer products licensing game for years, streamers as a whole have gotten more into the merch game in the last few years, according to Rami Yanni, a lawyer with consumer products licensing expertise and a lecturer at the USC Gould School of Law.
While merch traditionally had been tied to children’s programming and produced products like toys and lunchboxes, streamers have widened their offerings to cater to older demographics, he said.
And if execs are to be believed, expect even more merch to come.
“There’s a long history, obviously, in both merchandise and live experiences that are focused on the kids and family space and animation,” Simon said at Licensing Expo. “For us, we’ve been able to build on the variety of stories that fans engage with.”