Characters and Licensing (41): Tips and Tricks
For this installment, as an extra, let's introduce some tips and tricks for obtaining licenses.
While I call them tips and tricks, they are actually quite obvious, but human relationships play a major role.
As I have written many times, the most important thing is the human relationship between you as the licensee and the licensor company that owns the rights, as well as the person in charge who acts as the point of contact (hereinafter referred to as the 'representative').
There are various ways to build that relationship, but you also need to think about how to approach the representative.
1. Overseas Rights (e.g., a film company) where the Japanese point of contact is a branch office (often a Japanese subsidiary), the representative will naturally be fluent in English. And when the discussion progresses, the contract is often in English as well.
In such cases, the licensee should also assign someone who can speak English to a certain extent as the representative.
Many such licensors have little overtime and have time in the evenings or on holidays, so by all means, get to know them personally.
Try to get into their good graces through hobbies like golf or camping, or by going out for drinks at night.
A licensee who can do this should have an advantage over other companies.
2. International Agents with Overseas Capital (often management companies) have a very high hurdle.
First, English is essential. This is the same as in point 1.
Also, assume that a personal approach is difficult because the representatives are proud and have strong personalities.
If you absolutely must approach them, assign someone to your team who is mentally tough, good at English, and can adapt well to others.
Negotiating prices and terms is generally difficult, so if the other party's conditions are acceptable, just proceed with the contract administratively.
3. In the case of Japanese agents, it is the easiest job because they are the easiest to get along with and will handle the negotiations for you.
What you must be careful about is that they sometimes compare conditions with multiple licensees in parallel, so you need to build a human relationship here as well.
For example, when a manufacturer called Company A is negotiating, they might take those details to Company B and say, 'We can sign a contract if you offer better terms than Company A.'
If you become friends with the representative, you can keep them in check.
4. In the case of a Japanese license character specialist licensor, in addition to the human relationship with the representative, you should gather information from other companies that have already contracted for the same character.
In other words, catching the representative of that other company and becoming friends with them will be a big advantage.
If you do it well, you can get introductions from that representative, or make presentations and offers based on the basic conditions, which will work to your advantage.
5. If a publishing company is the licensing point of contact, aren't many of the contents they seek based on manga?
Publishing company licensing has two main departments in charge.
The licensing department and the editorial department.
Editorial staff at publishing companies are extremely busy, and the timing of appointments often seems to be prioritized by them. Also, there might be many people with strong personalities? So, you are required to assign a representative who is flexible, and it is even better if they are knowledgeable about that content.
When the licensing department is the point of contact, I think building a close relationship with the representative is the most effective.
The publishing industry has many parties, so it would be ideal to be invited to those as well.
I also have the impression that many people there like food, drinks, and golf.
There are various other schemes and types of licensing businesses, but it all comes down to human relationships.
To build that, it is necessary for the company to be flexible in terms of authority given to the representative and how entertainment expenses are used.
And it will also be advantageous if the company-to-company relationship is close.
The above are necessary elements, not limited to licensing.
In other words, there are no real 'tips and tricks'...