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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Art Licensing Show.com® - One Year Old & Growing


It has been a year since Art Licensing Show.com® (ALSC) first launched their website. And, it is proving to be a popular and successful method for art directors to view images for licensing consideration and for artists to easily connect with art directors.

In case you do not know about ALSC, it is a online website that with one password art directors that license art (licensees) can view thousands of images created by hundreds of artists (licensors). Once the art director becomes a member (at no cost) she/he can see examples of artists’ work, choose potential artist work, and request permission to connect with the artist to view it, or specific themes, or all of their work.

At a reasonable price, the ALSC membership subscription plan allows artists and art licensing agents to upload art into their own secured portfolio on the ALSC website. Artists have complete control in allowing or not allowing licensee members to view some or the entire portfolio.

Note: Artists also has the option to become a member at no cost. They are able to connect with other members and have access to discussion groups and resource pages. But, their art will not be marketed by ALSC and they will not have a portfolio. Thus, they cannot show their work on the ALSC site to licensee members.

As an additional benefit, ALSC is a full-fledged social media site that is focused on art licensing and where members can ask questions and share information in a variety of discussion groups.

Read artist Cherish Flieder's article “Celebrating Art & Licensing” about how the Art Licensing Show began and how to become a member. Also, read “Art Licensing Show.com® - What is all the excitement about?"

1st Year Accomplishments
ALSC is not only successful in continual increasing membership but it has become a wonderful and flourishing community of members that share information and help others become successful in licensing their art. Members have stepped up and volunteered to moderate the different social media groups, give suggestions on improving ALSC, and brainstorming on marketing the ALSC site and ALSC portfolio licensors work.

• Growth
There are now 700 members consisting of licensees, artists, licensing agents, licensing coaches/consultants, and art licensing attorneys. Licensee members represent a huge variety of product industries such as fabric, decorative flags, greeting cards, gift bags, gift wraps, calendars, paper party ware, jigsaw puzzles, toys, wall décor, pillows, checks, coloring books, giftware, and much more. They sell their products to individual retailers, small and huge chain stores, e-stores, non-profit organizations, and as print-on-demand to consumers and retailers.

ALSC has 27 specialized groups that members can join to discuss and share just about anything related to licensing art. Some of the groups concentrate on product designs such as tabletop, greeting cards, home décor, gifts, and textiles. Other groups discuss trends, marketing, tips/techniques for creating art, and post the latest news in the art licensing industry. There is even an art submission group where licensees request art themes they want to license. And, there is a monthly art challenge group, a monthly text chat group, and much more.

• Marketing
ALSC constantly markets licensor profile member’s art on many social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, ALSC blog, and posts videos on YouTube. Last year, a group of ALSC members brainstormed on taking advantage of the popular adult coloring book craze to promote ALSC and portfolio licensor members art. They recommended that ALSC publish a coloring book as a free pdf file to be downloaded and printed by anyone. The images could then be shared by family and friends and given to persons in hospitals, shelters, care facilities, and schools to bring happiness and healing by the simple act of coloring beautiful images.

So last December, a 92 page coloring book “Enjoy the Simple things: A Holiday Coloring Book for kids 1 to 92” was released with art created by 70 ALSC artists. The book has been downloaded nearly seven thousand times and shared all over the world. A free pdf file can still be downloaded at
“92 Free Holiday Coloring Pages to Print & Share!” AND a printed bound book can be purchased on amazon.com.

Note: The coloring book project was very successful! So stay tuned for future ALSC promotional projects.

Member Opportunities and Experiences
• Reasons why licensees and licensors joined ALSC

Below are statements from a few members on why they joined ALSC.

1. Susan January, VP of the greeting card company Leanin’ Tree stated in “Presenting Artlicensingshow.Com – A 24/7 Virtual Art Licensing Show” that “I truly believe this site has great potential to help make my work more streamlined and efficient. Coming to one site, as opposed to a hundred different artists’ sites, is a fantastic benefit to me.”

2. Artist Annie Troe in her blog article “Why I am on Art Licensing Show .com!” wrote that
- It is the ONLY Art Licensing Show online.
- Be listed in the ultimate art licensing directory.
- No cost or low cost depending on if you are an Artist or Art Director/Manufacturer.
- Connect with industry leaders – It is a social network dedicated to Art Licensing.


3. Artist Karen Embry stated in her blog article, “Art Licensing Show Celebrates One Year Anniversary” that “With so many options/pricing plans for membership, there is something to fit in every artist’s budget. Art directors can join at no cost."

4. "I (Joan Beiriger) thoroughly agree with both Annie and Karen. An added bonus in being a member of ALSC is that I am able to connect directly with art directors and ask questions. I cannot do that with art directors that are not on the site unless I have already built a relationship with her/him. Also, because ALSC is constantly promoting licensor portfolio members work, my art is being marketed all over the internet at no additional price. You can't beat that!"

• ALSC Member’s Success
One of the most asked questions by artists who are considering joining ALSC, is if artists are getting licensing deals from licensors members and how many. The answer is YES artists are getting deals but there is no way to tell how many because ALSC is not an art licensing agency and artists are not required to report if they have signed a contract. Also most artists do not broadcast their success and those that do wait until the product is introduced into the market. That normally takes a year or more.  But, several ALSC artists have shared their success. Read what they have to say.

1. In artist Annie Troes blog article “Celebrating 1 year!” Annie states, “It has brought me opportunities/manufacturers I didn't know about and sped up my ability to connect with the wonderful art licensing community. Signed a contract to be announced and have another manufacturer shopping my art around to some big stores! This and more has happened for me because of ALSC.”

2. "I (Joan Beiriger) also had the same experience as Annie on ALSC although I have not yet signed a contract. Many art directors are interested in my art and three of them from different industries are shopping many images and collections to large chain stores. I never would have been able to contact these licensees or even realized that several of them license art if I was not an ALSC licensor portfolio member."

3. Illustrator Valerie Hart stated in the interview article, “Coffee & Conversations From Studio to Store” that “The most important way ALSC has impacted my art business is with licensing deals! I’ve signed two in the last six months and I’m currently at the contract negotiating stage with two more manufacturers.”

Hint: Artists who are the most successful in connecting and getting licensing contracts with manufacturers not on ALSC use the same techniques when approaching ALSC licensee members. They do their homework and make sure that their art style and themes fit the licensee product lines before approaching art directors. Thus, successful ALSC licensor members do their homework, are proactive in asking ALSC licensor members to connect with them, and follow-up with a short message describing why her/his art will sell their products. There are so many artists on ALSC that sitting back and waiting for an art director to contact you does NOT work.

To find out more about how to become a ALSC member click here.

If you are an ALSC member and would like to share why you became a member and/or have a ALSC success story that you are willing to share, please write about it in the comment section of this article. Everyone would love to read it!

Your comments are welcome. Click on the comments section (below) to write your comment. Note: Some people have a problem in leaving a comment. The most successful method is to comment as Name/URL (your name and website or blog with a "complete" URL address. For example: http://www.joanbeiriger.com/

10 comments:

  1. Wow! What an extensive and informative article.

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  2. Thank you, Joan, for another insightful article.

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  3. ALSC has really come so far in just one year! ALWAYS love your posts :-) Thank you for taking the time to gather and share all this information with us.

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  4. Thanks for sharing this fantastic tip, Joan...

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  5. Thanks for sharing. I've been considering joining for some time now so it's good to hear from other members.

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    1. Zara it's a great space to be in. Would love to have you join us.

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  6. Thank you for sharing this comprehensive review Joan. We have a fabulous community going over at ArtLicensingShow.com, it's exciting to hear so many good things coming out of these new ways of networking and showing art online.

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  7. "There are so many artists on ALSC that sitting back and waiting for an art director to contact you does NOT work."
    Well that is news to me. I paid a lot of money to join so that art directors could find me. Now I am reading that is not the case and I need to spend hours finding them, researching them, contacting them and ultimate getting rejected by them. Very misleading... If I had known that no one is going to find me on here, I would never have wasted the time and money.

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    1. Dear Anonymous,
      I'm sorry that you are disappointed in ALSC. Licensees do contact licensors on ALSC especially when they are searching for particular themes (search for key words that artists tag their images with). However, there are so many licensors on ALSC (twice the number that exhibits at SURTEX) it is difficult for art directors to view all the licensor profiles. That is the reason why licensors that approach licensees have a better chance in getting contracts then those that sit back and wait for a licensee to contact them.

      There is no easy way to be successful in licensing your work in the art licensing industry. It takes hard work in creating hundreds of licensable art and searching for manufacturers that would be interested in your art style and themes. It also means there will be rejections even if you feel your art is the perfect fit for the manufacturer product line(s). ALSC is no different in that aspect but what is different is that you are able to find manufacturers that license art and to directly approach art directors who are major decision makers in making deals. It is much more difficult if you don't belong to ALSC. Although artists cannot depend only on ALSC to find manufacturers because not every licensee have yet become a member.

      Note: Art directors on ALSC can be found by first selecting members at the top of ALSC page (after you log into the site), then select "member type", select "Licensee/Manufacturer" and click on "search". All licensee members are listed and by clicking on the name (art director, CEO, owner, etc.), their profile page opens where you can find information about the manufacturer and a link to their website to view their products.

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    2. Seriously love ALSC and all that it has to offer its members and art directors and agents. I've been in the "creative industry" for years and my transition into art licensing has been so awesome because of ALSC. Old and new friends and connections, a safe space for all of the artwork here and places to see, learn and participate in. Thanks Cherish. It's been wonderful as we've reached the first year anniversary of ALSC. WOWIE. Love it. Great investment for me and my business.

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