Licensing International has fully unveiled the shortlist for this year’s Global Excellence Awards, which will be presented live at next month’s Licensing Expo in Las Vegas. 

New categories for 2024 include Best Advertising Campaign Featuring a Licensed Brand and a Members’ Choice Award, which is nominated by the awards committee and voted on by the Licensing International’s global membership. Other returning categories that are relevant to the kids biz include Best Licensed Brand, Best Licensed Product, Best Collaboration and Best Experiential or Location-Based Initiative. 

One of the hottest awards this year is Best Licensed Toy Brand, which will see Mattel’s Barbie duke it out with Jazwares’ plush phenom Squishmallows and Hasbro’s NERF and Transformers franchises. 

Meanwhile, Hasbro and Mattel are sharing the spotlight in the Best Product: Toys, Games, Novelties or Role Play category (Ages 8+) with Monopoly: Barbie Edition. But this hot-pink co-branded board game will have to outdo Big Potato Games’ U.S. Postal Inspection Service detective game, Hot Toys’ John Wick Chapter 4 action figure, The LEGO Group’s Disney Tribute Camera construction set and a Puffer Coat Snoopy exclusive plush for CVS from RUZ to claim the ultimate prize. 

The Best Product (Ages 0-8) category is just as stacked, with Italian toyco Clementoni’s Disney Baby story projector looking to edge out Melissa & Doug’s National Park Foundation toy collection, WowWee’s Monopoly Splash obstacle course, Fun.com’s Disney Pixar costumes and the licensed Lemonade Stand Starter Kit from Me and The Bees and Fashion Angels. 

Four kids IPs are vying for top honors in the Best Licensed Animated Brand category, with Gabby’s Dollhouse, Bluey, Peanuts and Peppa Pig up against adult-skewing South Park and iconic anime franchise Naruto. 

A full list of the 2024 Licensing Excellence Awards finalists is available here.