Bright Licensing: Reflecting and Looking Ahead to 2026
last updated 20 January 2026
As we jump feet-first right into 2026, we caught up with Brand Partnerships Director Paul Black and Licensing Agent Laura Hemsley to reflect on Bright Licensing’s achievements in 2025 and what to look forward to from the Licensing industry in this new year.
2025 was a huge year for licensing in the wider market and at Bright in particular. We secured some amazing partnerships and deals with brands as diverse as Heinz, Cambridge Satchel Company and Tesco - we understand that licensing doesn’t only result in our artists’ work being seen in different, interesting spaces, it also provides a direct link to consumers and readers out in the wider world. Artists are becoming attractive to big companies in the food, beverage, fashion and lifestyle space.
Last year we had a number of media collaborations - our artist Jessica Smith collaborated with Heinz on Instagram. She did a selection of illustrations that were inspired for her trying the new ketchup flavours. This gave Heinz’s audience a new perspective of their brand and what they represent - i.e creativity, bold bright flavours and a less corporate unattainable image. We’ve seen this already in the start to the year with other brands such as Lacoste and Hermes collaborating with artists and animators on special social media posts - the knowledge that a piece of art is human-made and has the touch of a hand can draw a consumer in, which is something we predict will be a huge factor that carries on through 2026.
One thing we would recommend to artists is to look at building their social media presence - through regular posting, responding to group and online challenges and engaging with their audiences - the bigger and more engaged their audience the more likely a collaboration is with a brand.
We are seeing a rejection of AI and a return to art where you can feel the touch of a human hand. Whether that is naive, lightly sketched line, beautiful watercolour or home-made, art with a collage feel, it seems with the ascent of AI artists and clients are rejecting that in favour of traditional media.
This fits in directly to the UK National Year of Reading in 2026, where there is a great moment to place books and publishing at the heart of licensing, tapping in to the heart-felt, nostalgia you get with heritage brands that families place in their homes can work alongside the Go All In campaign and help consumers find their new favourite book via mindful, beautiful licensed product. We’re going to see lots relating to the Year of Reading, and the campaign to tackle the reading for pleasure crisis, and I feel licensing can play a part in the discoverability and longevity of a book in the hearts and minds of families.
The global toy market saw enormous growth of more than 14% thanks in part to the explosion of collectible toys and bag charms - the power of Pop Mart, Labubu and the joy of the blind box is transforming the toy landscape. With the emergence of new retailers and brands in the collectible space it feels like that won’t go anywhere in 2026. I saw this quote from Emily Liu, director at Miniso that really spoke to the appeal of the blind box “The blind box concept works because people enjoy having secrets. They want to buy something to treat themselves and they want to collect more and more items. The blind box creates surprise for the consumer. They like the design and consumers have room to imagine what’s inside the box. This makes them willing to purchase something interesting – something that will give them a surprise.”
This relates directly to the feeling of joy and thrill that can be found in nostalgia, it takes consumers back to the days of collectible cards and stickers, and builds communities for children sharing their unboxing videos and forming communities around swapping and collecting. This turn to nostalgia and joy in licensing isn’t going anywhere.
We have also seen it in the recent artwork created by Robin Shaw for Tesco’s ’That’s What Makes it Christmas’ campaign, turning the idillic Christmas scenes usually shown in festive campaigns on its head to show the real-life meltdowns, disasters and slip-ups every family experiences at this time of year. We leveraged Robin’s history with the classic Snowman brand to add an extra meta layer to the range of cards he designed for the supermarket retailer.
Christmas is of course a major point of the licensing and retail calendar, and whilst we may have just put the decorations away we’re already looking to Christmas 2026 and thinking of what might be popular. This relates back to the rejection of AI and a return to tradition; The traditional santa is really going to make a comeback - illustrative, wholesome - not at all digital. People are drawn to the home-core, hand made which brings a true feeling of nostalgia.
This transcends into the everyday artwork with puzzle clients leaning towards more wholesome landscapes - countryside, sea side, sweet towns and cities like Brighton, Peak District and Lake district.
As ever there will be surprises, twists and turns throughout the year in licensing. No-one knew what a behemoth K-Pop Demon Hunters could have been this time last year, so much so that the licensning provision was incredibly late with product only starting to hit the shelves towards the end of 2025 following the phenomenon’s launch in the summer. What the industry has proved in it’s ability to pivot quickly and be adaptable to changes, so much so that whatever we predict now none of us will know what the retail market will look like by the end of 2026.
This article originally appeared in Licensing Source.
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