How A Focus on Food Made Broad Street One of the Top Brand Licensing Agencies
By Gary Symons of The Licensing Letter
Anyone in the world of food licensing should know Broad Street Licensing Group. They are, after all, one of the top brand licensing agencies in the world, and the top two in the area of food and beverage licensing.
Last year, for example, Broad Street put together licensing deals that generated well over a billion dollars in retail revenue worldwide for the likes of Subway, Tony Roma’s, SeaPak Seafoods, Farm Rich Foods and Hard Rock Cafe, just to name a few.
The agency is celebrating its 27th anniversary this year and we wanted to know how Broad Street got its start, and how it became one of the leading agencies in the food and beverage licensing space.
Apparently, it all started with a Creamsicle.
“I remember our first big deal very distinctly,” said co-founder and CEO Carole Francesca. “We represented the Popsicle and Good Humor brands, one of our first clients. We licensed their Creamsicle brand into the candy category, it was a perfect fit for this iconic orange and vanilla ice cream.
Broad Street’s idea to create a Creamsicle candy line for Unilever led to the agency’s first major, and enduring, success.
“The line was called ‘Creamsicle Twists’, and it became a huge hit at retail,” she added. “Nearly every retailer across the county sold the candies from Kmart (back when Kmart was one of the leading retailers), to club stores, convenient and specialty stores, as well as in movie concession stands. I’ll never forget it because it was our first major deal in the food category.”
Peter Cross, Director of Licensing at Broad Street, got up out of his chair at that point, and briefly interrupted our interview to grab a colorful box that turned out to be a large Creamsicle Twist package.
“You know how businesses will sometimes save their first dollar bill?,” he asks. “Well, this is our first dollar bill; we’ve held onto it ever since.”
[Continue reading at The Licensing Letter]
