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NEW YORK—The link between hot
record acts and the merchandising of
their popularity on a myriad of products
is stronger than ever.
A strong case in point are the Cowsills,
the hot MGM family that is about
to explode in the merchandising field.
According to Ed Justin, vp and merchandising
director of ILAMl, the
merchandising wing of Screen Gems-
Columbia, moppets and teeners up to
the age of 15 will be lured by the following
products with Cowsills tie-ins:
comics, posters, puzzles, toy musical
instruments and a guitar retailing at
$50. The $50 item is the peak of a
range of prices that start at $1. (Actually,
a Monkees guitar manufactured
by Sorkin is the highest priced tie-in,
retailing at $400).
In addition, ILAMl is licensing
monthly Cowsills columns in 16 Magazine
and Datebook.
Royalties & Flat Fees
The Cowsills will be paid a 5%
royalty based on the wholesale price
of the hard-goods sold, while a flat
monthly fee is being paid by the
magazines.
Because of the special nature of the
Cowsills act, including a mother and
both male and female off-spring,
Justin feels that the Cowsills could
last as long as 15 years on the merchandising
market. This is quite a big
margin over the normal run of disk
acts, about three years. In Justin’s
words the group has “total acceptability”
among parents in view of
their clean-cut, family-type appearance.
But, even acts with fantastic potential
on the merchandising scene can
lose out with improper procedures,
Justin points out. In his view, the
Beatles suffered from such a fate because
of eratic licensing agreements
that saw duplication of licensees that
led to “confusion and hard feelings.”
He holds that the sensations from
England could have been the all-time
leaders in the merchandising area, but
that the actual results fell far short
of that possibility.
Two-Way Street
Do product tie-ins help record
sales? Justin’s answer is that it’s a
two-way-street. Of course, it’s crucial
that an act continue to record successful
sides, Justin says, “but promotional
activity from the label’s end is
also essential.” ILAMl is vitally interested
in learning from labels both
the strongest and weakest areas of
disk act activity with regard to its
clients. Also, there is an increasing
use of “good” album artwork for
licensing to poster companies.
Int’l Scope
ILAMl maintains 19 offices on a
global basis. In the case of the Cowsills,
merchandising tie-ins figure most
heavily in England and Italy, where
they have achieved greatest penetration.
In Italy, there are plans to produce
Cowsills animations with their
records serving as soundtracks. These
would be sold to sponsors fro jingle purposes.
ILAMl, which is housed at Columbia
Pictures New York headquarters,
where its offices abound in displays of
thousands of merchandising tie-ins,
also represents the Turtles and the
Grassroots. Such Screen Gems-Columbia
TV favorites as the Flintstones
and Yogi Bear are also on the client
roster.
Among the companies producing
Cowsills’ tie-ins are Harvey Comics,
Grosset & Dunlop, publishers of a
Cowsills’ paperback. Personality Posters
& International Posters (posters
cannot be licensed on an exclusive
basis) and Chien, toy instrument
company.
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