BLE Creative Corner with… Brandgenuity’s Teri Niadna

Teri, thanks for making time. To kick us off, can you tell us about a recent launch you were involved in that you feel is an especially creative use of a brand?
In 2024, Brandgenuity brought together BMW M Motorsport and PUMA for another exclusive collection of lifestyle products, inspired by the design of a legendary BMW Art Car. The capsule collection celebrates the very first BMW Art Car in 1975, featuring the work of artist and sculptor Alexander Calder. Calder mimicked an approach he adopted with his sculptures and mobiles, using intense colours and gracefully sweeping surfaces – which were then translated into a crafted lifestyle collection made up of a shirt, shorts, t-shirts, a baseball cap and sneakers. As part of the Alexander Calder Art Car collection launch, PUMA hosted a special event at the Puma flagship store in New York, featuring a display of the original Art Car.

Looks fantastic. Congrats on that. What do you feel is the key to successful creative collaborations between licensors and licensees?
Licensors need to trust the licensee and allow the licensee to share their unique knowledge of the category and the consumer to the collaboration. The licensee – if it is a brand – will also bring its unique brand POV, design aesthetic and voice to the partnership. Also, we have found that when licensors are generous – with insight, resources and guidance – and show a willingness to activate as appropriate, great things can happen… The whole can be bigger than the sum of its parts.

Licensees need to take the time to understand the brand they are partnering with. What makes it special? What makes it sing? What will consumers expect of the brand from a design perspective? And what are the guardrails or boundaries that can never be crossed?

Great answer. Now, what fuels your creativity? What helps you have ideas?
First and foremost, it is about the people. We look for people who are passionate about ideas and who have lots of them. I find that you need 100 ideas to come up with a handful of great ones. Stimulus is also so important. We read a lot of trade and business publications. We speak to colleagues and visit retail regularly. We look at near in categories and go far afield to develop ideas.

“You need 100 ideas to come up with a handful of great ones.”

We also get ideas from our clients who are closest to the brand and from licensees who are close to the category, retail customers and the consumer. In short, ideas can come from anywhere and the trick is to get people engaged in thinking together. Linkedin is a treasure trove of information both from within licensing community and general business news. We are very up on launches and that gives us lots of ideas.

BLE is on the horizon. Do you find attending the show to be a good means of fuelling creativity and having ideas?
Of course! BLE gives us a chance to draft off the ideas and creativity of brands, licensees and retailers we meet with at our stand. It gives us the opportunity to connect with established and new colleagues from the industry and hear about what they are doing and to pick up on trends. It also gets us out of our “everyday work mindset”, which often opens neural pathways and generates new thinking.

Thanks again Teri. See you at BLE.