Esther Bunny, Ganadi, and Zanmang Loopy All in One Place: 'Character Licensing Fair' to be Held July 16–19

The Character Licensing Fair 2026, a premier festival for character and content intellectual property (IP) in Korea, will be held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, from July 16 to 19.

Hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and co-organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency and COEX, this year's event is themed Expanding: Content IP. It will showcase cases where characters combine with various industries to create new added value.

The event will also be held in conjunction with Board Game Con 2026, Korea's leading board game festival, allowing visitors to experience a wide variety of content in one space.

A total of 186 companies will participate in this year's exhibition, operating 443 booths.

Visitors can meet various popular domestic characters and content IPs on-site, including K-Vision's Esther Bunny, H&F's Ganadi, Iconix's Zanmang Loopy, Shinhan Bank's Shinhan Friends, Neowiz's mobile game Cats & Soup, and OllaboX's Rescene character Remini.

Various special exhibition halls demonstrating IP commercialization capabilities will also be featured.

The event will operate the Build-Up Pavilion, which introduces collaboration cases between content and related industries; the Hallyu IP Pavilion, which showcases domestic content IPs with potential for overseas expansion; and the Animation Special Pavilion, which highlights the artistic quality of Korean animation.

During the event, business matching programs between domestic and international buyers and participating companies will also take place.

The organizers plan to support the business expansion and overseas entry of participating companies by identifying various cooperation opportunities, such as licensing agreements, merchandising, distribution, and joint ventures.

Kim Gyeong-hwa, Director General of the Cultural Industry Policy Office at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated, "We will provide support to ensure that the Character Licensing Fair serves as a practical business space that assists domestic content IP companies in commercialization and overseas expansion."

(Photo courtesy of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.