Objective:
To re-establish and nourish the Liberace brand with the entertainer’s existing fan base and to extend the brand to younger generations.
Liberace is remembered for his glorious excess, that is: a huge ring on every finger, floor-length Mink fur cape, bejeweled Rolls Royce and keyboard skills to match. Fame Farm alleged that the future of the brand rested with the program’s ability to generate awareness amongst an audience much younger than the current Liberace fan base of Boomers.
Fundamentally, the strategy included the design, both visually and conceptually, of updated taglines and imagery for the Liberace brand. Without an advertising budget, maintaining Liberace brand awareness would require editorial press. Hence, Fame Farm would develop the perfect storm of product, imagery, spin and story that is ideal fodder for obtaining editorial press.
Obstacles:
1. The Liberace Foundation had never developed nor supported a licensing program for Liberace.
2. To date, the Liberace Foundation had not been willing to commit speculative dollars or human resources on a new licensing effort.
3. The Liberace Foundation did not have in-house archival image managers.
4. The Liberace Foundation did not have an in-house graphic arts department.
5. The Liberace Foundation and Museum had participated in minimal brand advertising since the entertainer’s death nearly 20 years earlier. Their marketing and advertising campaigns ran only in the local Las Vegas community.
6. The Liberace Foundation had not trademarked key taglines associated with the entertainer.
7. The Liberace Foundation had not controlled nor policed the use of the brand in the commercial marketplace.
Goals for the project:
In addition to acting as the Liberace Foundation’s exclusive licensing agent, Fame Farm would act, externally, as the Liberace Foundation’s comprehensive licensing department.
As both the Liberace Foundation’s licensing agent and the Foundation’s licensing department, Fame Farm would accept responsibility for the following:
1. Brand license identification, development and acquisition
2. Identification, development and acquisition of strategic brand partnerships
3. Identification, development of strategic brand marketing plans
4. Management of the licensee product development and approval process
5. Supervision of the administration of licensee contract negotiations
6. Supervision of licensee product quality control
7. Supervision of licensee contract compliance
8. Management of creative consultations with licensees
9. Administration of graphic design assets
10. Administration of archival graphic design assets
11. Development and distribution of all art assets required by licensees
12. Creation execution and administration of press opportunities
13. Creation execution and administration of promotional opportunities
14. Administration of licensee revenue collection
Fame Farm’s accomplishments for the Liberace brand:
Within 2 years, Fame Farm refurbished the Liberace brand creating relevance to newfound targeted demographic markets and developed renewed interest in the brand with the Boomer generation. Fame Farm secured over one dozen significant global licenses and generated approximately 3 million dollars worth of editorial press for the brand.
1. Fame Farm’s licensing program generated editorial press for the Liberace Foundation valued at over 3 million dollars: The New York Times, The New York Daily News and The Las Vegas Review Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Seattle Times, Arizona Daily Star, Bay Area Reporter, Women’s Wear Daily, The Hollywood Reporter, The Telegraph, Out, Q Television, Jay Leno Show and more.
2. Fame Farm secured over one dozen blue-chip (national/international) licensees for the Liberace brand in the first 24 months of the licensing campaign.
3. Fame Farm designed, built and maintained the first Liberace ecommerce retail and wholesale web site (www.ILoveLiberace.com). ILoveLiberace.com was subsequently purchased by the Liberace Foundation and merged with Liberace.org.
4. Fame Farm designed and developed all Liberace licensed products.
5. Fame Farm policed and stopped numerous examples of unlawful Liberace image and name usage.
6. Fame Farm developed and trademarked the terms King of Bling®, Queen of Bling® and Got Bling?® for the Liberace Foundation to use in licensing and marketing campaigns.
7. Fame Farm established a successful licensed product boutique within the Liberace Museum gift shop.
8. Fame Farm was awarded numerous design awards for their Liberace trade show presentations.
9. Fame Farm developed, produced and administered the Where In The World Is Liberace? photo contest. This campaign was designed to promote the new licensed Liberace products from Advanced Graphics.
10. Fame Farm restored, processed, colorized, documented and cataloged a vast quantity of the archival images in the Liberace Foundation’s image library.