How to license brand characters in advertising

David Born

Explores the use of characters in advertising campaigns, why they are effective, how consumers respond, how deals are generally structured, and the process involved.

Jump to:Definitions | Where to start | Essentials | Case studies | Checklist | Further reading |

He-Man and Skeletor, Yoda from Star Wars, The Simpsons and SpongeBob SquarePants. What do these famous characters have in common? They’ve all featured in advertisements for a variety of brands such as Vodafone, Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

The increase of catch up TV, ad free subscription services such as Netflix combined with the rise of ad blockers, means advertisers are under more pressure than ever before to release advertising that...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands