An Exclusive Interview with Panini Senior Executive Peter Warsop
By Chris Olds
2/8/2009 11:51:56 AM
Story copyright 2009 Beckett Media
Say this about The Panini Company senior executive Peter Warsop: He’s a man who knows exactly what he wants out of his company’s headline-making foray into the U.S. trading card market, knows how to get it and really seems to enjoy talking about it.
Warsop, Panini’s Group Licensing Director, took time from his hectic schedule late last week for an exclusive interview with Beckett.com’s Tracy Hackler. During an action-packed 25 minutes that seemed more like five, Warsop discussed Panini’s NBA plans, why gaining the support of the United States hobby community is of the utmost importance and, oh yeah, those pesky Donruss rumors.
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Beckett: What can you say about the rumors going around that Panini could potentially purchase Donruss?
PW: The Panini Company is intent on doing the very best job on the NBA, first of all. This is how we prove ourselves to the trade and to our principals that we are capable of taking on this important job. We are aware that to be successful in the United States we will need to grow the business. There are a number of ways in which we can do that. We could be patient and buy in other licenses when they become available or when we can win them from our competitors or generate new business. Other ways would be to acquire other businesses.
Panini in the past has done both. We’ve grown our business by working hard within new territories, fighting hard for licenses and we’ve made some acquisitions along the way. Our philosophy in the United States will be no different. We would deal with whatever opportunities existed and if we felt that there was another business out there in a facet or with an infrastructure that will be helpful to our growth, then it would be natural that we would want to look at it.
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Beckett: What was so attractive about the NBA exclusive for Panini?
PW: You will know better than most people that there has been a decline in the market. There has also been a decline in the amount of trading card series that are being published. However, given the state of the market at the moment, there probably is still some over publishing going on. What we were trying to determine really was, let’s evaluate all the card sets that are being produced and ask why. Why is this in the consumer’s best interest? Or why is it, perhaps, in the trade’s best interest? What we concluded, frankly, was that there was some publishing that was going on that was being done for competitive reasons rather than for good consumer or trade reasons. What that led us to conclude was that there was still a few too many card series going out.
The benefit of having a single licensee is that you only need consider the consumer and the trade and put out just what is required. We do feel that there’ll be a further reduction in the number of series launched but nevertheless, more than adequate to fulfill the needs of both the trade and the consumer.
What we also hope to do, frankly, is to clarify for the consumer and the trade the purpose of some of these collections. We were worried that if one was to look at the array of merchandise at offer, it would become quite difficult to a consumer to know where to enter the hobby. Where do you start? What is always fearful is that you make the wrong choice. This is the consumer’s nightmare. They obviously are very conscious of what the hobby is about; they know that it’s not just about buying a package of trading cards. You buy a package of trading cards with the full intention, of course, of buying then many more thereafter. You’re looking to build up your whole collection and that’s quite a commitment in terms of both expenditure and time as well.
People, when they’re doing that, want to make sure they get it right. If they’re fearful of making the wrong choice, some people will be brave enough to make the choice, but a lot of people will not. They’ll say “I won’t enter.”
There’s an opportunity for us to clarify the way in for a lot of new collectors. This is one of the things we want to try to accomplish as well.
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Beckett: Talk about the international appeal of a sport like basketball and how that ties in with the international strengths that Panini has established over the last five decades or so.
PW: I think it would be fair to say that basketball is probably the most international of the American sports. The NBA has done a sterling job in terms of gaining recognition abroad and that’s still growing very quickly. [The NBA] sees that as very important to their own future. So having partners on board that could mirror their own activities and their own direction is important to them. And of course, for us, it’s wonderful to be able to pick up an international license and exploit it around the world in so many of the territories that we’re working in anyway. I think you probably are aware that a lot of things we do are on an international basis; a lot of the licenses we buy are international ones. Our FIFA World Cup rights that we’ve had for many, many, many years now, and that we’ve already secured for the next two World Cups, we’ve put that product into about a hundred countries around the world.
We’ve just finished this year with the UEFA for Euro tournament, Europe 2008, which was had in Austria and Switzerland. Again, that’s a European tournament but nevertheless Panini sold products – trading cards, trading card games, sticker album collections – in 75 countries. So it wasn’t just a European event for us; it was an international event. We were selling in Latin America, we were selling in Asia. We will exploit things internationally wherever there is an appeal and there is a growing appeal for the NBA. They’re growing some very substantial markets. We would certainly hope to be able to follow into these markets.
Frankly, we only notified some of our territory managers and our managing directors of the NBA news last week. I was able to send them out some fact sheets on the various happenings on the NBA within the territories. Immediately I was getting e-mails back from our managing directors saying ‘Wow, this is fantastic.” We had one from Brazil, for example, say the timing just could not be better in Brazil because the TV has just been strengthened enormously, there’s a buzz going around about basketball and it’s a great time. I had a similar one from Turkey, where the managing director there said “this is great. I’m already talking to the local NBA people and I’m looking to see when would be the right time to get involved and start publishing.” So it’s certainly created a buzz amongst our own people.
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Beckett: So it’s safe to say that you guys are excited about this opportunity?
PW: It really is exciting. It’s always good to have something that has a got lot of good potential in a lot of different markets. But as you can imagine, the main focus will be the United States. Obviously, it’s the domestic scene that is the most important to us at the moment. We are preparing to get that right and I think a lot of what we do over here can be taken into these other territories. On the other hand, as far as some of these other territories that are not quite so sophisticated in terms of their NBA appeal, we’ll develop special merchandise and collectibles for them.
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Beckett: You mentioned being sure to get it right here in the states. Have you built a sense of what getting it right means to American card collectors yet?
PW: We do intend to get it right. We’ll do things very carefully. The true collectors out there that have enjoyed collecting NBA cards for a long time are an immediate concentration. I started off [last week] by talking to a number of hobby shops because we will be appointing a number of hobby shops to form an advisory panel. We had our very first call through to them. We had six of them on the line and it was the first call so there was the matter of making our introductions and just starting to talk about some of the things that would be important. They’re a very vocal group of people that know an awful lot about the business and they will be invaluable, I think, moving forward. So we will listen to people like that as well as listening to collectors and we’ll be reaching out to as many of them as we possibly can as well.
This will help us to define the publishing program. We’re working on that now and doing a lot of analysis on what has been happening over the years, going back over the last five years, in fact, looking to see what had been done and asking the question “why would that have been sold?” “Who would have that been targeted to?” “Who enjoyed collecting that series and what was it about it that made it a special collection for them?” With all of that sort of information gathered or being gathered, I think, between us all, we’ll be able to make some important decisions but make them with some clear idea of what they might achieve. So all of this process is going on and it will continue to go on over these coming weeks.
Panini is still not absolutely sure when we will be launching our first NBA series. Our contract starts on Oct. 1 and I understand that there is a desire on the part of the NBA to have us launch some collections on the new season before then. But that’s still to be decided and it’s still being worked out by the NBA.
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Beckett: You might not know what you’re going to put in every product in terms of content, but what are some of the hallmarks of a Panini product that you might be able to share with potential new collectors?
PW: First of all, we understand the importance of card content. We know that the market has grown accustomed to exceptionally good quality and the inclusion of some really good memorabilia and autographs; this sort of thing plays a very heavy part of most card companies’ products and Panini will be no different in that respect. We have to say we admire the quality that has gone before and, of course, we will make sure we deliver nothing any less quality orientated. We will try to cater to all tastes, so we will be catering to all those collectors out there that value the memorabilia, value the signatures.
We’ll be looking to see exactly what memorabilia and signatures we can bring in the short term to ensure the first sets that go out are nicely laden with all of those juicy bits of collectibility.
Hopefully we can bring some new ideas to the fray as well. We’ll continue our tradition of producing exceptionally good quality cards and I think mixing with that a little bit more clarity in terms of why things are being launched and who within the marketplace might be the consumer of them. I think the trade will appreciate that as well.
One of he biggest tasks, really, will be enticing into the hobby a lot of new collectors. We will be working out ways to entice new collectors in and we will be concentrating a lot of our marketing effort into what we do. I think that’s good for the trading card business. I think if we can add some new colleagues for the collectors out there they will appreciate that. They will be hopefully part of a bigger family and I think it will make their hobby more meaningful. I think they’ll feel that they have more support and more people to trade with.
The more people that become interested, the more people will appreciate the value of trading cards. As a consequence, I think the value of trading cards will start to increase again. There’s an awful lot to be done and there’s an awful lot to be considered. I assure you that we’ve already started work to ensure that we do this right.
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Beckett: You’re in the process of starting a New York-based office, is that right?
PW: We’re in the process of developing a team of people and an office in America with a whole bunch of people that are very well qualified in doing what we need to do.
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2/8/2009 4:31:13 PM |
Prime B
Total Posts:
535
Member Since: 6/16/1999
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All i have to say is Frankly!
All kidding aside I must say that was a VERY interesting read.
Mr. Warsop is obviously a highly intelligent businessman who knows a lot about marketing and such. He also deals with an IMMENSE market at that, being global. I think, overall, this will help the basketball hobby as a whole.
As far as the products? I am not sure how in tune Panini is with what collectors expect but I give them credit for immediately reaching out to hobby shops and people in the US to start formulating ideas and concepts for their products. Good move.
When you see a guy like Mr. Warsop or with hockey, ITG's Brian Price, front line guys who want to feel the pulse first had of their ventures. Then you have a guy like Richard McWilliam at UD who hides in the shadows and let's his peons handle business. Is it any wonder then UD is on a steady decline?
Collectors respect guys like Warsop and Price, and their trading cards succeed because of they listen to what collectors want, not acting like greenback grubbers.
I know a lot of you are upset UD is out of the NBA trading card scene but give it time, it might work out very well. My belief is in this hobby if you have manufacturers who CARE about the hobby first and their bottom line second, it'll trickle down in a positive way to the consumer, YOU!
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I collect Los Angeles Kings, Rob Blake and Peter Forsberg.
http://www.beckett.com/estore/news/?s=1&eskin=beckett&a=2683
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