As Bioworld celebrates it’s 25th anniversary, Jason Mayes talks values, creativity – and partners

Jason, thanks for making time. You’re the Senior Director of Marketing and Intellectual Property at Bioworld… For the uninitiated, what does Bioworld do?
Bioworld is a global brand growth platform helping partners of all sizes reach consumers in every channel. For 25 years, Bioworld has empowered brands to forge stronger connections with their global audiences through elevated product design, merchandising and distribution.

We build, license and acquire consumer-focused brands to bring products to market that engage consumers globally… From design and production to marketing and global distribution, every brand in the Bioworld ecosystem benefits from customer strategies at every level of the go-to-market process.

Thank you! And who are some of Bioworld’s global partners?
We’re the trusted partner of choice for brands of all sizes across the globe. We have hundreds of partners, including global brands like Disney, Marvel, Lucas Arts, Sanrio and Nintendo. Within those partners, we’ve represented thousands of properties. We’re able to successfully support these types of brands because of our infrastructure support services that bring dynamic solutions to everyone we work with – big or small.

Let’s talk about those! What do they include?
They include new and emerging brands, content creators, sports brands and professional leagues, active lifestyle brands and more. We also have proprietary direct-to-consumer brands that engage consumers one-to-one, which elevates a comprehensive consumer engagement model that’s second to none in the industry.

I understand you’ve been with the company for a very long time! How did you come to be doing this?
Yes! I’ve been with the company for 21 years. My early career was on the agency side of the business. I honed into my media planning and multi-tiered communications skills across several larger consumer brands and, ultimately, felt like the client side was a better fit for me. I ended up joining Bioworld in 2004 – and I haven’t looked back since!

And what does your role entail now?
I now handle a wide variety of initiatives across corporate marketing and branding, retail marketing, trade show and event management, digital marketing, social engagement, and intellectual property matters related to trademarks, patents, and copyrights. A key aspect of my role is brand strategy and omni-channel execution, managing the nuance of consumer engagement across all channels. My team is successful at driving partners’ success by connecting to the right consumers on a global scale by translating each brand’s consumer demand strategically through expert product design.

You mentioned earlier that Bioword is 25 this year. Congratulations! What’s been noteworthy in 2025?
Our 25th anniversary has been such a whirlwind – we’ve had so much to celebrate, both past and present. In 2025, we provided global distribution of Minecraft collections to support the highly successful theatrical release… We also created and distributed multiple assortments inspired by Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters phenomenon, and we’re looking forward to providing fans with a new Stranger Things collection in celebration of the final season.

Amazing! And putting that in context, what are some of the key milestones from the past two and a half decades?
Over the last 25 years, we’ve seen tremendous growth globally. Bioworld CEO Raj Malik started the company in 1999 with a music headwear line for Limp Bizkit to fill a void in the pop-culture market. From there, Bioworld invested in infrastructure to support growth across product categories, including licensed novelty backpacks, apparel, accessories, travel and luggage, home goods and more…

As you know, we started in the US but have since expanded our physical footprint across Canada, the UK, India, Europe, China and the Philippines to better connect with fans around the world. We’ve continued the momentum by acquiring lifestyle brands across the globe to better serve our fans, and we’ve launched DTC brands, like Heroes & Villains, to serve specific fan-forward needs.

And in terms of expansion, what are Bioworld’s key values when looking for a brand partner?
Bioworld has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. We like getting things done. We don’t like saying no, so we try to find ways to help partners of all sizes grow their brand and audience exponentially, wherever they are. Through our new global brand growth platform, we can do this better than ever. From the incubation of new brands to establishing brand equity for those emerging, Bioworld has a solution set to grow your business.

We need to start wrapping things up, Jason, but I have a couple of questions on creativity… First, how important is creativity in what you do?
It’s paramount. We have an obsessive focus on product innovation that we support through worldwide trend analysis. We have teams devoted to specific product categories, as well as IPs, to continuously build upon our extensive knowledge of cultural context and consumer demand. No one translates brands onto products like Bioworld.

Perfect. And in regard to that, what keeps your team creative?
Diversity and agility. We always strive to be the first to the next big thing – it’s our entrepreneurial spirit. No one at Bioworld wants to settle. We want to push the boundaries of the industry to continue generating dynamic growth for all of our partners.