Licensing trends: The brands of Kid Influencers

Kids Diana Show’s videos include toy unboxings, vlogging, educational content and pretend play. Her videos, broadcasted at the fith-largest Youtube channel worldwide according to subsribers (May 21, 2021), mostly rely on expressive faces and costumes to tell stories. Stone Newman, chief revenue officer, Pocket.watch says, “We want girls to be the princesses of their kingdoms with Diana as their royal friend. Never has there been a better time in history to celebrate kids’ imaginations as kids all over the world are forced to create their worlds of play at home, the Pocket.watch creators have been their playmates.” Love, Diana’s impact has already been proven in the licensing industry as the brand has more than 40 licensees.

“Vlad & Niki,” a YouTube series starring young brothers living in Dubai, has become a global preschool phenomenon and the highest-rated boys’ channel on YouTube. Sergey Vashketov, the father of the YouTube preschool superstars. “We want kids to feel that they are playing with Vlad and Niki in their own homes, going on adventures together, while tapping into their own role playing, creativity and imagination. Since launching the channel in 2018, “Vlad & Niki” have attracted more than 170 million subscribers worldwide. They have 68,7 million subscribers to their English channel and 50 billion views. On average there are five billion monthly views on 16 channels translated into 13 languages. 

TikTok duo WeWearCute, featuring sisters Ashley and Emma, have exploded in popularity, with more than two billion views in 2020 and over 11 million followers on the platform to date. In November 2019, The Joester Loria Group, a specialist for lifestyle products, announced its representation of the lifestyle and product influencers. Chief executive officer, The Joester Loria Group. “TikTok is a window into youth culture, and Emma and Ashley bring an innate ability to create engaging content that resonates with today’s youth. ”The WeWearCute girls haven’t stopped unleashing licensed products since.

Trinity and Beyond create entertaining and family-friendly content on Youtube. With their parents the sisters perform funny pranks and skits for kids and kids at heart. According to Lisa Berlin Wright, senior vice president, Semaphore Licensing, the key to its success comes from the infectious fun that Trinity and Madison have in each video: Their fans want to have play dates at their house. With the quarantine, each video is like a fun play date with your best friends. To date, the channel has 6.7 million YouTube subscribers and more than three billion lifetime views. This massive following has led to a slate of licensing deals.

With more than 200 million subscribers across 14 multi-channels Nastya Radzinskaya is one of the most prominent YouTube personalities in the world. Based in Florida, Radzinskaya was recently named to Forbes list of highest-paid YouTubers. To Gary Krakower, vice president, licensing, IMG, the agency in charge of licensing the Like Nastya brand, the reason for the YouTuber’s success comes from Radzinskaya’s personality and close bond with her father. IMG has leveraged the brand’s massive online success into international licensing deals across categories. 

Since its beginnings in 2017 Tiana Wilson’s channel has crossed more than 11 million followers on YouTube and more than 357,000 on Instagram. Her success has led to diverse licensing deals among which her Hearts by Tiana apparel and accessories line is available at more than 1,000 retailers across the U.K. The publishing partnership with Kennedy Publishing debuted an analogue 36-page print issue. Ian Shepherd, founder and chief executive officer, The Social Store – the licensing and consumer product agent for Wilson’s brand – believes the novel partnership with Kennedy Publishing points to the varied opportunities available for the Hearts by Tiana brand: “It will be a huge success for kids looking to learn more about Tiana.”