Natural History Museum’s Maxine Lister on the storytelling power of heritage brands

Thanks for talking to us Maxine. Firstly, can you give us an insight into your role at the Natural History Museum and key responsibilities.
My role as Head of Licensing means I oversee the strategic planning for the licensing programme for the Museum – both within the UK and internationally, which is a large focus at the moment.

I have a team of two; Emma Russell who manages the UK licensing programme and Georgie Britton, who manages all product development and works alongside our commercial PR and social teams to help bring our launches to life.

Is there a ‘typical day’ for you?
I don’t think anyone has a typical day in licensing! My days usually consist of meetings both internal and external, either catching up with existing licensees or discussing new opportunities… Depending on the time of year I can be preparing for trade shows, reviewing submissions for award events, building the strategic business plan, or just catching up with other people in the industry.

At the moment a lot of my time is spent on our international plan, including trademarking which I help manage with our in-house lawyer.

The Natural History Museum has had great success in the licensing market in recent years. Can you tell us about some of the recent highlights from your licensing programme?
Recent highlights have spanned many categories, which is what we love about our programme. We have just launched our collection with Biscuiteers, which as a huge fan of the brand I am so excited about.

Joanie has launched their second NHM collection with more in the pipeline, and of course Dunelm continue to create amazing homewares products for their customers.

We were thrilled to be so successful at the B&LLAs this year with awards for both Dunelm and Blueprint Collections, as well as winning the Heritage Brand of the Year award. We also have a lot in the pipeline that we cannot talk about yet so watch this space!

Yes, congrats on those wins! Now, heritage licensing seems to be attracting more attention in the market. Why do you think this is?
Heritage has longevity and the opportunity to tell stories in a different way to other parts of the licensing sector. It has the ability to be incredibly creative in terms of how the designs – often drawn from our collections – can be interpreted. it can inspire and has a huge consumer reach. Licensees and retailers are looking for something new and I feel that heritage can fill that gap.

On design, what’s your approach to that area and how you work with external design agencies?
Georgie, our Creative Development Manager, has great relationships with a number of different design agencies from having worked in the industry for a number of years. This enables us to analyse the creative output for the coming year and then approach the right agency to deliver these assets. This gives us a lot of flexibility. We are so lucky to have so many great agencies in the UK.

How do you prioritise things from a design point of view?
We have a strategic plan as part of the business planning cycle where we review our creative budget against upcoming trends to decide new creative asset drops for our licensees throughout the year.

Are there some specific design themes that you are marketing at the moment?
Our latest trend pack – ‘Day at the Museum’ – is aimed at the baby and toddler market. It’s a new demographic for us, but this is an area in which we feel we could thrive moving forwards. The pack depicts the kinds of incredible specimens and objects you might see at our museum, all illustrated in a naïve art style that captures that wonder and awe from your first visit.

We also recently produced a series of graphics that adopt an early computer graphics theme, that show the likes of T-Rex and Triceratops in an 8-Bit pixel style… Even when drawn in such a simplistic way, these icons of the dinosaur world are still instantly recognisable!

Another guide currently in development focuses on nocturnal creatures, a theme that we recognise as being hugely popular and not something that we have explored until now. This gives us the chance to focus on some of the amazing animals found on our doorstep and to highlight how important they are to our ecosystems. This all ties back to the Museum’s mission to create advocates for the planet.

All sounds fantastic. Now, if you had to persuade a company who is new to licensing that the Natural History Museum is good place to start their licensing journey, what would be your one-minute pitch?
We have worked with many licensees for whom we have been their first licensed collection, so for me it’s the fact that we are collaborative, creative and supportive throughout the process. Ultimately, we all want a successful launch, so it’s crucial to work closely alongside a new partner to ensure the best outcome for everyone.

My one-minute pitch would focus on the incredible breadth of our collection – which encompasses 80 million specimens – and our archives are bursting with incredible artwork. This enables us to be fantastically creative with those we collaborate with. To have such scope can be really exciting – the biggest problem is usually where to start! But it means that we can create utterly unique product collections with partners time and time again because the source of inspiration is endless.

And what do you think makes a good licensee for the Natural History Museum?
A perfect licensing partner for us is someone who works collaboratively with us, is open to being creative and can appreciate the true potential of the brand. With our commitment to better and more sustainable practises, we seek out partners who understand and align with our aims and want to work with us on this journey.

In addition, we love partners who can see a long-term opportunity to develop collections together over time to grow the brand and opportunity.

Thinking ahead to BLE what are your key objectives for the show this year? Do you have some gaps you want to fill?
Our objective every year is to meet with potential new clients as well as catching up with our existing licensees. We are actively looking for partners in a number of categories, currently including toy, plush, apparel and accessories to name a few.

On the back of two very successful BLE Retail Mentoring days, we want to extend our reach into retail and see what opportunities there are in bricks and mortar, online and print on demand. I am also looking at LBE both in the UK and further afield. We have content that we showcase at the Museum which we feel would be perfect to expand into different locations.

Maxine, this has been great. I have two last questions… Do you have a favourite exhibit or gallery within the Museum?
Oh, that is difficult! I do love Hintze Hall for various reasons; one obviously is Hope the Blue Whale who is suspended from our ceiling and represents the fact that if the will is there, we are capable of saving species at the brink of extinction. Another reason is the architecture itself, from the ceiling panels – which are often overlooked but are stunning and intricately hand painted – to the many monkeys carved into the pillars, watching over the hall.

And finally, the specimens that are housed within the hall’s alcoves are so varied; you can see an American mastodon – the elephant’s Ice Age relative – a rock as old as the solar system and a 122-129-million-year-old Mantellisaurus, one of the most complete dinosaur fossils ever discovered in the UK, all in the same room. Where else is that possible?!

Finally, if you have a day off and want to visit another Museum or Gallery, which one would it be?
Every year I visit the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, I love the breadth of work within the exhibition and finding new artists to follow. I always come out with a list of art that I would love to own but can’t afford!

Ha! Maxine, huge thanks again!