The 'next big thing': License This! 2012 finalists announced!

LONDON, Sept. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Brand Licensing Europe 2012, the Advanstar-organised licensing exhibition, has today announced the four finalists of its License This! Challenge. Now in its third year, the challenge offers those with brand new creative concepts the opportunity to break into the global licensing industry and takes place at the show in front of an audience on Thursday, 18th October.

The finalists are:

• I am Merryl presented by Pink Key Consulting - a deliberately edgy new property drawn by Daily Mirror cartoonists Kerber and Black.
• Lillipippins presented by JELC – enchanting artwork featuring wild and woodland animals that inhabit an imaginative world of keepsakes.
• Modabots presented by Morse - a new design concept based on build-it-yourself Paper Robots.
• Pink Chillies presented by Suzanne Till - a brand born out of a love of elephants and features a collection of individual elephant characters and their friends.

Judging panel chair Richard Hollis, Licensing Sales Director Consumer Products at BBC Worldwide, said: "We are delighted to have found four strong, intriguing and contrasting brands for this year's shortlist. There were strong ideas from every category and we debated long and hard about the licensing potential of many good concepts. License This! is proving to be an excellent forum for new ideas and we look forward to the grand finale when the shortlisted brands will present to a live audience at BLE. I'd like to thank the panel for their hard work and to congratulate the final four. Please come and support them on the day – you never know, you might hear about the next big thing."

Richard Hollis will be joined on the panel by Helen Howells, Joint Managing Director, Hoho Entertainment; Jay Young, VP Creative EMEA, Warner Bros. Consumer Products EMEA; and Warren Traeger, Managing Director, Love Licensing Limited. The panel will ask questions and offer critique before choosing a winning property, based on its originality, commercial potential and suitability for licensing into other product categories.

Brand Licensing Europe 2012 takes place this month from 16 – 18 October at London's Olympia, registration is free at www.brandlicensing.eu.

Notes to editors:

About Brand Licensing Europe
Brand Licensing Europe 2012 (www.brandlicensing.eu) takes place from 16 – 18 October 2012 in the Grand Hall, Olympia London. It is the only pan-European event dedicated to licensing and brand extension. Now in its 14th successful year, Brand Licensing Europe 2011 hosted 252 exhibitors and 5610 visitors from 59 countries.

About Advanstar Licensing Group
Advanstar Communications Inc. (www.advanstar.com), producer of Licensing International Expo and Brand Licensing Europe, is a leading worldwide media company providing integrated marketing solutions for fashion, life sciences and power sports industries. Advanstar serves business professionals and consumers in these industries with its portfolio of 147 events, 68 publications and directories, 267 electronic products and web sites, as well as educational and direct marketing products and services. Market leading brands and a commitment to delivering innovation, quality products and services enable Advanstar to "connect our customers with theirs". Advanstar has approximately 1,000 employees and currently operates from multiple offices in North America and Europe.