We Watched ICLA’s First Podcast Episode, Here’s 8 Key Points
October 21, 2024
ICLA, also known as the International Collegiate Licensing Association, has launched a new podcast format for its audience. The podcast is named “Licensed to Lead, Business Behind the Brand.”
The episode, titled “A Conversation with the ICLA Synergy Award Winner - NC State,” was hosted by Jason Harbison and included Gregg Zarnstorff and Sonni Minton as guests. Gregg and Sonni lead the NC State Trademark Licensing program and were winners of the 2023 Synergy Award.
Here are 8 key points we took away from the podcast:
POINT # 1
NC State stated that their royalty revenue was up 30% from the previous year, and they noted that their peers were up about 18 or 19%.
When asked what attributted to the 30% growth, Gregg Zarnstorff replied that some of it was due to a natural increase from the Covid lows. Additionally, Zarnstorff noted that some of the growth was from NC State’s focus on growing internet sales channels, including Amazon. Further NC State focused on growing their Direct to Consumer business, also know as DTC, focusing on vendors such as Homefield and Breaking Tees. Lastly, Zarnstorff stated that NC State has also focused on working with vendors that traditionally sold into brick and mortar retail and transitioning them to sell in a Direct to Consumer format.
POINT # 2
Seperate from above, but still very much related to the 30% royalty revenue growth, Zarnstorff stated that this was the first year that they made NC State graduation apparel royalty bearing, in previous years, the graduation apparel was exempt from royalties being collected . Zarnstorff mentioned that this strategy was adopted from Texas A&M.
POINT # 3
NC State has an impressive portfolio of licensed consumable items. Items include ice cream, chips, coffee and wine.
The NC State licensed wine was discussed in detail during the podcast. NC State began their licensed wine project in 2021 when they launched the Hallowed Places Collection. During the podcast, Zarnstorff mentioned that the labels for the wine bottles were designed by the NC State College of Design. Zarnstorff stated that collaborating with the College of Design was a win win for all involved as the students will be able to use this work experience in their portfolios as they begin their professional careers.
POINT # 4
NC State licensed coffee was also discussed during the padcast. Zarnstorff stated that NC State collaborated with a coffee company that actually began ot NC State. The name of the coffee company is “321 Coffee” and the NC Sate licensed coffee packaging includes the wolf head logo and the 321 Coffee story on the back. It was mentioned that the Head Football Coach at NC State was involved in the launch presentation of the coffee and the Chancellor of the university has also had involvement.
POINT # 5
The NC State Trademark Licensing office operates 10 trainings per year. The NC Sate licensing team stated that they run these trainings in parntership with the university’s Communication and Marketing staff. Most of the training is to audiences that are internal to the university, with many of the attendees being new to the university. The trainings focus on best practices on how to use the NC State brand, for example, how to use the brand on promotional items, uniforms, tradeshow displays, etc.
POINT # 6
The NC State Trademark Licensing office attended “Packapalooza” one of the universit’y most attend events and conducted a survery with attendees about NC State vintage logos. The attendees that participated in the survery voted on the vintage logos they liked most. From listening to the podcast it sounded like all attendees of the event were encouraged to participate, and the Trademark Licensing Office motivated particpation in the survery with prize giveaways.
From the survery the Office identified a set of vintage logos named the “Sport Wolves” as the winner, so with that information the NC State trademark licensing team set out to reintroduce the logos to NC State. To do so, they worked with their collegiate licensing agency, CLC Licensing, to digitize the logos, once digitized they were added to the NC State Trademark Licensing Vault Art Sheet. From there they had product produced and placed at select retailers.
POINT # 7
The Trademark Licensing team at NC State launched “Miss Wolf” into the licensing program, placing Miss Wolf on retail items with an emphasis on apparel. Their motivation for doing so was from information the NC State Trademark Licensing team received from the survery conducted at Packapalooza. The survery said the fans wanted more Miss Wolf.
NC State partnered with a vendor named “Girl Tribe” to produce Miss Wolf retail items. NC State held the official launch of the new product at a Girl Tribe store with the Miss Wolf mascot making an appearance.
POINT # 8
The NC Sate Ice Hockey Club Team had the opportunity to play the day after the NHL played at the NC State Stadium. This event drew a huge crowd and gave the Hockey Club Team huge exposure. With the number of eyes now viewing the Hockey Club Team, NC State created a new logo policy for NC State Club Teams. The logo policy stated that Club Teams could now use the same logos as NC State’s NCAA teams, however the Club Team uniforms are also required to include a “Club Sport” logo.