China Licensing Awards is co-organized by Licensing International and Licensing Expo Shanghai since 2017. The award aims at encouraging and recognizing the licensors, licensees, authorized agents and other enterprises and teams in China’s licensing industry who continue to innovate, develop, and forge ahead. The award judging panel is formed by relative industry experts around the world. The final results are generated by the combination of core jury scores and professional jury votes, and the selection process is standardized, just and fair, which has been widely noticed and highly recognized by the industry.

I. Awards Schedule

Submission: February 26th – March 29th, 2024
Review: April 1st – April 10th, 2024
Judge panel: Early May, 2024
Announce finalist: May 22nd, 2024 Online ballot: May 27th – June 7th, 2024
Awards issuing: China Licensing Awards Ceremony, July 17th, 2024

II. Awards Definitions

The Awards recognize licensing excellence for licensed property, licensor and licensee during the qualifying period (from March 1st, 2023 to February 29th, 2024). The property must have at least one active licensee, and have product that is or has been sold or given away at retail, or available through any other consumer distribution channel in China market during the qualifying period.

China Property of the Year

This award recognizes licensing excellence, creativity, and innovation for a licensed property developed by a China based company or individual with respect to the property’s primary origin, content, design and/or materials.

Corporate Brand/Fashion/Lifestyle Property of the Year

This award recognizes licensing excellence, creativity, and innovation for corporate brand, fashion or lifestyle properties.

Film/Television/Game/Media/NFT Property of the Year – Entertainment

This award recognizes licensing excellence, creativity, and innovation for entertainment properties supported by a feature film, television show, game, media, NFT, publishing.

Museum/Gallery/Art Property of the Year

This award recognizes licensing excellence, creativity, and innovation for museum/gallery/art property.

Young Property of the Year

This award recognizes licensing excellence, creativity, and innovation for a licensed property appeared in Global market in the last 3 years. There will be 3 winners of this award.

Brand Collaboration/Licensed Promotion of the Year

This award recognizes the most innovative, topical, and outstanding brand collaborations or licensed promotions. This does not refer to the promotion or launch of a licensed property or product by brand owner themselves. This includes but is not limited to ‘IP-to-IP’ and ‘licensor-to-licensee’ projects or products.

Location-Based or Experiential Initiative of the Year

This award recognizes the most outstanding use of a licensed property at a location or event, such as pop-up store, theme park and theme exhibition.

Innovative Licensing Project of the Year

This award recognizes the most creative, innovative, and exemplary licensing projects, services and products. Projects must demonstrate overall marketing creativity, brand reputation, user experience, commercial or social value, and technological leadership.

Licensing agency of the Year
This award recognises the skills, efforts and results based on licensing programs developed and achieved by an agency for the development and execution of a licensing program, consisting of not less than one (1) licensee, and marketed in China anytime during the year.

Licensee of the Year – Toy
This award honors toy manufacturers and brands for an innovative licensed product or product line created for one specific property or brand.

Licensee of the Year – Apparel/Accessories/Footwear
This award honors apparel, accessories and footwear manufacturers and brands for an innovative licensed product or product line created for one specific property or brand

Licensee of the Year – Personal Care/Beauty
This award honors personal care and beauty manufacturers and brands for an innovative licensed product or product line created for one specific property or brand.

Licensee of the Year – Houseware
This award honors houseware manufacturers and brands for an innovative licensed product or product line created for one specific property or brand.

Licensee of the Year – Food/Beverage
This award honors food and beverage manufacturers and brands for an innovative licensed product or product line created for one specific property or brand.

Licensee of the Year – Stationery/Novelty
This award honors stationery and novelty manufacturers and brands for an innovative licensed product or product line created for one specific property or brand.


III. Prizes
There will be 5 finalists from each category and 1 winner of all the awards, excluding Young Property of the Year Award, which will have 3 winners of 10 finalists.
1. Prizes for finalists: online promotion, included in Licensing Expo Shanghai E-newsletter, onsite promotion at Licensing Expo Shanghai.
2. Prizes for winners: trophy, online promotion, included in Licensing Expo Shanghai E-newsletter, included in press release, onsite promotion at Licensing Expo Shanghai and other events organized by Licensing Expo Shanghai.

IV. Preparing Your Entry
The following are eligible for entry:
• Licensors
• Licensing Agents
• Manufacturers
• Promotions That Utilized Licensed Properties and/or Licensed Product
• Locations or Events that utilized licensed properties
(You can either nominate yourself or nominate other company)

In order to be considered:
1. There is no limit for the origin of the IP, whereas it must have licensing activity in China.

2. You may enter in any of the categories – a separate online entry must be submitted for each category you enter (both in Chinese and English). You must use the official online entry form which can be found on our website. Hard copies, faxes, and e-mail versions will not be accepted.

3. You must write a short statement explaining to the Awards Committee why you believe your entry is deserving of recognition on the Awards Ballot. Awards criteria includes:
• Creativity, Originality, and Innovation – What was innovative about the property, product, or promotion?
• Marketplace Acceptance – How well was the product, program, or promotion received in the marketplace in terms of placement, sell through or achievement of other goals?
• Social Impact – How does product, program, or promotion influence the society notably in a positive way?
Note:
You should include only the most important and relevant information that will support your nomination. The inclusion of retail sales revenue and number of doors are very helpful to the Committee when considering your entry. This information will be kept strictly confidential. You will be informed if this information needs to be released.

4. Please make sure the content that you filled in can be released to public.
Please fill the online form completely before submission.

Any query, please send an email to Siyang.Li@informa.com