If you’ve pondered the intersection of museums and retail, chances are it was concerning museum stores. Much of the retail-related revenue that museums earn, however, is on products that are not sold in their stores. Through licensing deals, museums sell brands the rights to use imagery from their collections, or the logos of the museums themselves, and the licensed products tend to be sold by those retailers.

One institution that’s stepped up licensing efforts in recent years is The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2022, for instance, Pacsun released its first collection under an ongoing licensing deal with the Met, with sweatshirts, T-shirts, and socks, featuring the work of artists including Van Gogh and Henri Fantin-Latour, as well as the Met’s logo.

Also in 2022, the Met completed a licensing deal—a “collab” in fashion-press parlance—with Dr. Martens, whose chunky-soled shoes and boots featured the work of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Products licensed by the Met run the gamut in terms of both price and target demographics, from a $10 pair of socks by Pacsun for that brand’s typically Gen Z consumer, to a $144,200 table by furniture maker Abner Henry for luxury consumers.

What prompted the Met to step on the gas when it comes to licensing?

Keep reading here.—AAN

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Online grocery sales in the US had a tough year in 2023, though pickup proved to be a bright spot, according to a report from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus.

E-commerce grocery brought in $95.8 million in sales, down 1.2% year over year, according to the report. The grocery segment’s performance in 2023 struggled as inflated food prices “chipped away at household purchasing power,” Brick Meets Click partner David Bishop said in a statement, echoing sentiments he shared with Retail Brew in August.

A 6% dip in monthly order frequency was the largest factor driving the sales decline. The 6% drop in 2023 followed a 4% decline in 2022. Monthly active users (MAUs) as a whole jumped 2%, though the number of MAUs who made just a single online grocery purchase per month rose to 34%.

Still, average order volumes saw a year-over-year boost across all three methods of grocery e-commerce—delivery (3%), pickup (2.6%), and ship-to-home (1.7%).

Keep reading here.—EC

On December 28, 2023, a sacrifice was performed on live TV.

The Strawberry Pop-Tarts mascot, who was introduced Eras Tour–style at the Pop-Tarts Bowl, worked the crowd (and the refs) before willfully giving up its life at the end of the game via giant-toaster submersion. The victors from Kansas State then feasted on its body and left it looking like Harvey Dent.

Even before the ritual sacrifice began, it was clear this was a marketing stunt gone right based purely on engagement and affinity. Feeds were full of religious references, marketing jokes, fan edits, and more. The stunt now has its own page on Know Your Meme.

“It was a really fun, adventurous, bold campaign,” Ryan McConnell, EVP at Kantar, told Marketing Brew. While at times the playfulness and risk-taking can get “squeezed out” in corporate sports sponsorships, he thinks Pop-Tarts could pave the way for that to change.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KH