← The Digital Executive
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. Welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Do you work in emerging tech? Working on something innovative? Maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corazant.com brand welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Sam Bremner. Sam Bremner is the co founder and managing partner of iBest Consumer Partners, an operationally driven private equity firm managing nearly 5 million in assets across high potential consumer businesses. Before I best Sam's team led some of the world's top consumer brands and helped grow Warner Brothers into one of the world's second largest licensing business. Ives specializes exclusively in licensed consumer products and and is officially private equity partner of Licensing International. Their Portfolio drives over 1.5 billion in annual revenue sales across 50 countries with a heavy focus on character and entertainment licensing. What sets them apart is they are built by operators, not just investors. Ivest leverages deep Fortune 500 experience and global relationships with leading retailers, licensors, manufacturers and agents to scale businesses. Well, good afternoon Sam. Welcome to the show. Great.
- [01:24]
B
Thank you Brian.
- [01:25]
A
Absolutely my friend. I appreciate it making the time generally I know you're out of Miami but you're in Vancouver BC today and I'm in Kansas City. So I'm always traversing the globe but makes me excited to jump out of bed and see who I'm going to speak to today. So I appreciate that. Sam, let's jump into your questions here. I know you recently did a 10 part series with Licensing International on trade and that sort of thing and I'd like to kind of get your background of how that all began maybe and start with my first question here with Licensing International pegs global license merchandise plus services at 369 billion in just 2024 up 3.7 year over year. What are the two biggest forces driving that growth and why is licensing now a board level strategy lever?
- [02:10]
B
Well, you know there's two main drivers that stand out in Licensing International data. They just did a study 2025. First is licensing is capital light growth and boards, you know they're very focused on capex. Right. Brands scale globally without inventory and balance sheet risk which boards care about a lot. And royalties is a 95% gross margin business. So licensing is is capturing people's attention. Second, IP cuts through the fragmented distribution because strong brands lower customer acquisition costs across channels. That's why licensing has moved from marketing to a board level value and margin strategy which is exactly how we approach it at ivest.
- [02:54]
A
I really appreciate that and I know you just highlight a couple of things in this business, private equity. I know you're doing a great job, you doing this a long time but the boards do focus on some of those capex. But I didn't know this that royalties is where that margin is. I didn't know as high as 90. I think you said 95% but that's pretty cool and I appreciate you sharing that with our audience because we have a lot of founders that are in this business looking at private equity all the time. I switch gears Sam to your second question here. Entertainment characters alone is 150 billion, about 40% share I guess I would say inside that film and TV is about 43% while anime gaming social is about 33% of that makeup. Where do you see the next breakout value? Franchise IP or digital native ip?
- [03:40]
B
Yeah, I think franchise IP still leads on value creation. So nice thing International again the trade association for the industry that we're a big part of. That data shows that franchise franchises deliver global scale longevity and predictable royalty streams. You know digital native IP is powerful but higher risk. So the breakout winners will be digital brands that successfully convert engagement into physical consumer products, which is where operator experience really matters. Our team at IVEST are the group that really built out Warner Brothers consumer products and licensing globally. And that team built it up to a $7 billion business. So when you look at things like Batman, Harry Potter, things like that, those are great digital ip. But you can make a lot of money by selling product related to that IP because people have a value connection, an emotional connection. So Harry Potter still to this day is billions of dollars in licensed product. And that's the specialty about IVAs. We focus on how to take brands and how to take digital IP and turn it into a royalty stream. And that royalty stream for Warner Brothers has been massive.
- [04:52]
A
Thank you, I appreciate that. Really. Do you know the value creation you talked about that is the franchising leads the pack. It's scalable, it's a long term and it's predictable around those royalty streams. And I know that a lot of just an IP alone there's billions of dollars of relicensing and revenue from that. I appreciate you sharing the insights in this realm of the business. Sam, I'm going to switch gears to your other question here. Corporate brands are now 96 billion or 25.9% share. What's changed in the last few years that makes corporate brand licensing feel more institutional and investable?
- [05:30]
B
The corporate brands now manage licensing as a structured revenue platform, not just a side project. That shift is why institutional Capital is paying attention and why private equity sees it as underwritable today. You know, better governance, better data and clearer profit accountability. You know, there was a time where, you know, Starbucks for example, you know, they sell their product in their stores but now they're creating Starbucks branded product and selling it at Costco. And that's a great example of how you can extend into new categories and how, you know, corporate brands look at even Jeep, you know, you think about Jeep as cars but cheap has an incredibly successful apparel brand as well. So at ibest, what we try to do is help companies think about how to create new royalty streams not only with their existing ip, but how to leverage that IP to create like adjunct categories. I'm talking to a makeup company right now and that makeup company, I said look, why don't we get into adjacent categories by licensing the brand to people that make makeup brushes, makeup bags and other accessories. You don't have to manufacture them yourself. Find someone who's great at it. Go to Walmart and say, look, we're going to provide SKUs and makeup as we do and we're going to partner with these other manufacturers to add these other categories. So Walmart loves it, it's exclusive to them, it's unique. And those other categories, that's where the royalty streams are 80, 90% because you're just getting the royalties revenue from those adjunct categories. So corporate brand licensing is huge and Ives is a big part of that.
- [06:54]
A
Thank you. Appreciate that. Corporate brands obviously is become more investable over time and you shared a few examples and I think that's pretty cool. You talk about the Starbucks being sold in Costco as an example. You brought up Jeep and then Walmart. Of course this just expands those royalty streams for these brands and I think that's really important and there's a lot of stuff that I'm learning today from you. So I appreciate that. Sam, the last question of the day. We're seeing institutionalization of IP cash flows. Reuters notes 8 billion-plus in music backed securities issued since 2020. Do you expect brand or character licensing royalties to follow a similar financial asset pathway? And, and what governance and data standards would private equity require before underwriting it?
- [07:37]
B
Yes, selectively. I think licensing royalties already have the right profile, recurring, diversified and contract based. But institutional capital needs discipline. That means clean governance, transparent sell through data and diversified licensee exposure. The standards are exactly what we focus on at IBEST and what we unpack in the Licensing International private equity series that we created. If you're a Licensing International member You're going to see that series behind their paywall. They have a big conference coming up in Vegas which is going to be over 12,000 people. Thousands of licensed product manufacturers are going to be there. IP owners as well as other professionals around the licensing industry. I recommend looking it up. Licensing International, it's coming up soon and it'll be a great way for you to take your business to the next level by creating royalties revenues, which trades at a higher value multiple. So it's cash flow that has a high value for any business and then coming up with ideas on how to expand your existing business. And I'm an entrepreneur. I've started many companies. I mean we're, we're available if you want. Take a look at us at I best consumer. Sam Bremner BE I'd love to help help your business and we could talk strategy and how our capital could infuse your business and, and grow it faster.
- [08:52]
A
Thank you, Sam. I appreciate that. And you're absolutely right, this goes without saying. You know, we talked about having clean data governance, compliance, all that stuff which needs to be baked into every vertical that we work today in business. But I apprec. Highlighting that. But the Licensing International, that conference coming up, I know a lot of IP owners, brands need to be there and certainly check you out, hook up with you as far as that, because I know you're doing a lot of great things in private equity. Sam, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
- [09:23]
B
That's great. Thank you, Brian.
- [09:24]
A
Bye for now.