Carole Postal's Look BackCarole Postal's Look Back

Ten years ago, Jim Benton and CopCorp Licensing started working together on several properties—none of which had any platforming with media or publishing. Most were fun characters that had text associated with them. Carole Postal, president of CopCorp Licensing, showed them to several manufacturers and all had said, "You can't sell a character that says things without media behind it" and they all turned her down.

At 2000's Licensing Show, Carole thought that Hot Topic might be interested in working with Jim as they were a small boutique chain at the time whose focus was on goth and extreme. Cindy Levitt, then senior vice president and general merchandise manager at Hot Topic, visited with Carole and Jim at his booth and it was "instantaneous combustion!" Cindy bought everything, including a "cute little bunny that said naughty things." The product hit the store shelves that BTS season and blew up.

When nearly everyone in the industry had turned them down, it took a boutique retailer, a boutique licensing agency, and a boutique property creator to come together at the Licensing Show to initiate a new creative way of thinking about licensing... non-media, characters with text and attitude. And thus was born what has respectfully been referred to as trend licensing. By the end of this year, the property will have earned nearly $1 billion in retail sales and secured licensing programs in nearly every country in the world.

As Jim would say, "Everybody is the same all over the world... they all want to laugh."

"Thank you, Licensing Show, for bringing great partners together and helping to make the world laugh a whole lot more... courtesy of It's Happy Bunny!," says Carole.