This category was open to licensing agencies which their principle business function was to represent the intellectual property rights on behalf of their owners or creators. The nominees must be based and operate in Asia. This award recognises the licensing skills and effort of which an agency applied on one particular brand or property during the calendar year of 2005.

With more than 30 years involved in the licensing sector, Animation International is among the longest-standing and most respected licensing agencies. The agency has strong experiences in handling character business and covers various type of business, such as film distribution, merchandising, promotion, events, musicals and publishing.
Its success can be seen in the large range of popular characters it represents, and in particular its strong stable of Asian properties including Doraemon, Crayon Shinchan, Masked Rider, Robocon, Tottoko Hamtaro, Ochaken and PostPet.
With its wide network and experienced teams with local knowledge in key centres across Asia, Animation International is able to manage business across Asia and the properties it represents are sold in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Chinese mainland, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Promotional strategies
It’s focus when looking to expanding licensing opportunities or raise the visibility of characters and brands is multidimensional and includes:

• Approaching multi-national partners to expand the license across the region and via large local brands
• Building up positive and healthy images, such as working with charities
• Selecting partners with strong distribution networks and advertising support

Relationship management
Animation International has an experienced in-house design team that works on design patterns and styles that are unique to the Asia region. The agency also provides sourcing services for products and premiums, and provides prototypes for 3D products to ensure the highest quality and to shorten approval time by the license holder.
The agency also has strong relationships with the media across the region as well as excellent event development and management skills.
Finally, the agency understands that the protection of the license holder’s intellectual property is paramount. It works closely with customs officials to track counterfeit products in the market and provides legal advice and registers trademarks to mitigate the chance of infractions.