Having the latest research is an invaluable tool for all aspects of character licensing. E-Score Character helps you understand which characters best extend into different verticals and the consumer groups that have the strongest interest. With this powerful tool, we created custom scores to determine licensing potential in both media and merchandise.

Characters With Strong Media Licensing Potential

Characters today spread across a variety of media verticals such as television, movies, and video games. Using E-Score Character, we ranked the characters both kids and adults would like to see most by their Media Interest Average. With this powerful data we can determine key differences or similarities among age groups as well as pinpointing which specific media verticals have the best extendibility for specific characters and discover trends that go beyond what’s obvious. 

• It’s no question superheroes are most popular but not all are created equally. Kids prefer Marvel characters over DC compared to adults who like them equally. While some characters are shared among both age groups, when it comes to superheroes, the mix of rating-appropriate characters differs between adults (Wanda Maximoff, Wonder Woman) and kids (Falcon, Hawkeye, Aquaman, Batman, The Flash).
• Only Sonic the Hedgehog and Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher are top characters among both age groups that don’t belong to a Marvel or Star Wars franchise. Both characters have already been heavily featured in video games yet continue to be above the Media Interest Average. 
• Animated characters (animation, video game, CGI) drive media interest among kids with six of them on their top ten versus only one for adults. Streaming continues to show its reach as eight of the ten characters from both lists either come from or are featured in streaming shows and seven of those eight are on Disney +.

Characters with Strong Merchandise Licensing Potential

Despite big-box toy stores like Toys R Us becoming extinct, merchandise is alive and well with today’s hottest characters being sought after as toys, action figures, and featured on clothing. Using E-Score Character, we ranked the characters both kids and adults would like to see most by their Merchandise Interest Average. 

• When it comes to merchandise, adults are much more interested in animated characters compared to their media extendibility. Half of the characters in the adults Merchandise Interest Average  full list are animated and most of them (70%) on the kids list. 
• 30% of the kids top ten characters are from the Pokémon and Minecraft videogame universes, showing that there is certainly still high demand for non-superhero characters. 
• Grogu/The Child from The Mandalorian is the only character that appears in the top five Merchandise Interest Average for both kids and adults and holds the top spot among the older demographic.

When E-Score Character is used with the entire E-Score Suite, you tap an unmatched resource that advertisers, brands, and the creative community can use to guide their content and campaigns. To learn more about how to pair E-Score Character with our other products or for more information about using our data to create custom metrics like Media and Merchandise Interest Average, contact us today. 

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If you are not yet subscribed to our E-Score Platform suite or a specific E-Score product, we now offer Individual E-Scores for purchase. 

You will get a complete one-sheet report on a celebrity, character/brand mascot, brand, or musician/artist’s most current market research data featuring our critical metrics Awareness,Appeal, and Attributes across a variety of important consumer demographics. 

This is the quickest entry point to the data you need to make key decisions, all in an easily shareable format. To get started, visit our store and search for the data you’re looking for by clicking here.

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