Brands Are the New Loyalty Currency: Field Notes from Licensing Expo 2026

Overview

Licensing Expo 2026 made one thing clear: brands are becoming a new form of loyalty currency. As consumers, especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha, look for cultural connection, self-expression, and authentic fandom, loyalty programs can no longer rely on points, discounts, or generic rewards alone. From entertainment and F&B to sports, fashion, and heritage IP, the strongest opportunities now sit at the intersection of recognition, emotion, and identity. For retailers, fuel networks, and grocery brands, licensed rewards offer a powerful way to turn everyday transactions into moments customers genuinely want to engage with, collect, and share.

Licensing Expo 2026 closed at Mandalay Bay on May 21 with the largest exhibitor floor on record: 410 exhibitors, 5,000+ brands, 12,500+ attendees, 1,500+ qualified retailers and a 28% international audience from 78 countries. Licensing International put the industry at $389.8B+, growing 5.45% YoY. License Global’s own Top Global Licensing Agents whitepaper had fashion (80%) as the most strategically important category and food & beverage (68%) as the category to watch into 2027.
Meanwhile in loyalty land: ~90% of online adults already belong to a program, declared brand loyalty keeps falling, and most programs are loyalty in name only. Licensing is growing because consumers — especially the youngest ones — are starving for cultural material to attach themselves to. That gap is the opportunity.

1. Fandom > frequency

Netflix CMO Marian Lee opened the show. Founder Reed Hastings’ doctrine, repeated on stage: “We don’t start with revenue. We start with the fan.”
The proof points: Stranger Things final season: Jazwares, Chips Ahoy!, Target, Primark — final episode released in theaters. KPop Demon Hunters: an industry-first Hasbro + Mattel co-master toy partnership, plus Spirit Halloween, Loungefly, and Korean skincare brand Anua. Netflix shopped the IP for nearly two years pre-launch; partners hesitated, then scrambled. Bridgerton × Dove “Let Them Talk” skincare collection ahead of Season 4. ONE PIECE × Quiksilver apparel. Netflix House — permanent immersive locations in King of Prussia (2025), Dallas (early 2026), Vegas Strip 2027. Free entry, restaurant + store + photo moments, ticketed VR/arcade/mini-golf, city-specific merch that sells out.

Loyalty translation: two members with identical receipts can have wildly different lifetime value — one feels nothing, the other tells friends about a collectible.

2. Gen Zalpha is the demographic loyalty must design for

This is the single most important update for anyone planning 2027–2028 loyalty calendars. License Global dedicated an entire report to it.

The size of the prize 40% of global fashion spending within a decade (Boston Consulting Group), spending 7% more of disposable income on clothing/shoes than prior generations. Gen Z = 40% of the global consumer market today (Edelman). Childrenswear = $171B globally and projected to outperform wider apparel by 2028 (Euromonitor) — driven by Asia Pacific, MEA and Latin America. 8 of 10 of Gen Alpha’s favourite brands overlap with Gen Z’s. They move as a single tribe. Top agent priorities: Gen Z (30%), Gen Alpha (17%) — the two biggest demographic targets in the 2026 Top Agents whitepaper.

How they actually buy ~60% of Gen Alpha discovers brands online; 63% of all shoppers are more likely to buy from a trusted influencer (Traackr). ~50% of Gen Z has bought a dupe (Mars United Commerce). Top dupe categories: cosmetics, fragrances, luxury. High-recognition / high-quality brands are immune. Gen Z spends $2,000+/yr on beauty (Statista). 6–12-year-olds spent $4.7B on makeup and skincare in 2023 — more than any other generation (aytm). Numerator (Sept 2025) on Gen Alpha apparel decisions: comfort 47% universal; for 11–14-year-olds → fit 46%, style 35%, brands 26%; for 1–5 → color/design 42%, price 23%. They live inside Roblox, Fortnite, Web3 worlds (Pudgy Penguins, Labubu). Pop Mart’s Labubu IP alone earned $419M in 2024, contributing to the company’s $1.81B revenue. Gen Z nostalgia bias: 42% listen to music to escape, 37% feel nostalgic for the ’90s (GWI) — even though most weren’t alive in it. Vibe over experience.

What this means for loyalty marketing design?

The default loyalty rewards mechanic — points → discount → generic premium — fails this audience on every axis. They don’t experience a logo umbrella as a gift; they experience it as a tell.

What works instead: Identity-first reward design. Every licensed item has to read as a self-expression object, not a freebie. Pop Mart, Labubu and chaotic customization (WGSN) — keychains, pins, patches, charms — are the dominant aesthetic. Co-creation over distribution. e.l.f.’s Glow Up! on Roblox, Pudgy Penguins’ character co-creation model. Programs that let members do something with the IP outperform programs that just give it to them. Speed and drops over seasons. Short cycles, smaller drops, faster turnaround — the licensing model is moving away from annual collections. Loyalty calendars need to follow. Mission and values as a filter. Edelman: Gen Z trusts brands more than any other institution — and punishes inauthenticity faster than any prior generation. The selection criterion is no longer “is this IP hot,” it’s “does this IP have the right to be in this customer’s life.” The Eastern and Central European angle is live. Mr. SCRUBBER × The Smurfs in Ukraine, LPP/Sinsay × Miraculous in Poland, Sesame Street activating at Milano 2026 — these are signals that the Zalpha collab playbook is already operating in our markets, not waiting for it.

3. F&B and alcohol licensing is now a category, not a novelty

68% of agents call F&B the category to watch into 2027. Day 2 keynote: MARS Snacking, Pacsun, Bath & Body Works, CAA Brand Management on the same stage.

Recent collabs worth knowing by name: Tabasco × ABSOLUT (spicy vodka) — riding the spicy trend: 66% of consumers like or love the term. Pringles × Crocs, Haribo Goldbear centenary suite (toys, apparel, footwear, homeware via IMG). Liquid Death × e.l.f. Cosmetics, Guinness × Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Guinness × Higgidy, Sunday Swagger, Finsbury, Farmer. Pepsi Prebiotic launched digital-first with Gen Z creators, then rolled to retail for the Super Bowl. Girl Scouts Thin Mints × Wendy’s Frosty, Coca-Cola × Star Wars, Friends Central Perk Coffeehouse (NYC, Nov 2025).

For grocery and fuel retail loyalty: F&B is the lowest-friction licensed reward category that exists. The shopper already has a daily relationship with the brand. You’re not asking them to learn something — you’re letting them materialize something they already love. Make it a default, not a curiosity.

4. Sports licensing has become lifestyle infrastructure

First dedicated Sports Pavilion. World Cup ahead, F1 surging, post-Olympics momentum. Brands in the room: Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Chelsea, Newcastle, NASCAR, MotoGP, F1, MLB, NFLPA, ATP, Panini America. Categories now expanding into lifestyle, home, gaming, wellness, experiential.

The Eastern and Central European window is now. A football-anchored reward collection buys two years of associative memory at the cost of one campaign cycle.

5. Authenticity and cultural IP are eating opportunism

Two parallel signals from the floor: Cultural IP is outperforming: the Van Gogh Museum‘s licensing program — BE@RBRICK via MEDICOM TOY (selling out in days since 2019), Casely tech accessories, BAPE 2025 — is the proof case that heritage IP with narrative depth beats trend-chasing entertainment IP for premium audiences. SEGA posted $1.3B in licensed consumer product revenue in 2025, up 58% from $950.8M, by leaning into character depth (Shadow, Knuckles, Amy) and underserved fans rather than chasing one hit.

For loyalty: every licensed reward needs two filters, not one — will it sell AND does it have the right to be in this customer’s hands? Get the second wrong and the program loses trust faster than it earns redemptions.

6. The real audience was the retailer

Retailers go to Vegas to assemble next year’s emotional architecture — which collaborations they’ll back, which fandoms they’ll service, which IP becomes the spine of their seasonal calendar. Loyalty calendars do the same job. Agencies that serve these retailers need to operate at the same altitude.

Seven shifts to plan around Portfolio over campaigns. 12–18 month IP mix: one nostalgic anchor, one fandom moment, one F&B comfort license, one sports tentpole, one Zalpha collab. Design every program with the Zalpha filter on. Even if today’s program members skew older, the customers entering your stores in 2027–2028 won’t. F&B as default for grocery and fuel. Zero learning curve, maximum recognition. Lock in sports IP now. World Cup and F1 windows close fast. Authenticity filter on every selection. Written test before production. Heritage and cultural IP increasingly out-earn trend IP at the premium end. Layer experiential on physical. Netflix House is the canary — a collectible plus an unlockable beats either alone. Loyalty = first-party data engine for licensed IP. Post-cookies, it’s the cleanest place to learn which fandoms your customers actually belong to — and which Zalpha micro-trend is forming inside your basket data before it surfaces on TikTok.

The future of loyalty lies beyond points and discounts but in programs that earn a place in customers’ identities.

The most important sentence from Vegas wasn’t said on stage. It was implied by the room: people — and especially the youngest ones — are starving for cultural material to attach themselves to, and loyalty marketing is one of the few channels that can deliver it as something the customer actually wanted, not as an ad.

Programs built around that fact will pull away. The rest will keep optimizing point ratios.

The next-gen KPI isn’t basket size. It’s whether the program earned the right to be part of someone’s identity.