1) In the garment industry the word “trend” is often used relating to the latest and greatest, but also inevitably resulting in a passing fad. Much like the fashion world the luster of the newer technical developments such as 3D, Virtual Reality (VR), and Aerial Drone Photography will fade.
They won’t truly disappear, but none of it will be ultimately significant art form in the grand scheme in the commercial/branded space. New tools, new technologies allow us to do more but as in all artistic mediums the truly talented artists, the directors, the editors, and the agency creatives will be the ones who create something truly unique and special with those tools. Story first. Technique second. One development, however, I do see sticking around for a while is the emergence of Non Scripted/Experiential spot and branded work. It seems to be a medium where some good content has been produced already but it seemingly has legs with plenty more room to grow.
2) Today’s commercial and branded content arena is super specialized and the director reels need to seemingly check all the boxes from the agency specs in order to move forward. At TPSC we have purposefully reshaped our directorial roster to include varied and diversified talent offerings which fit the needs and wants of our agency friends. Agencies need their production partners to be skilled and experienced at producing complex multifarious content. Without that expertise and experience they will end up dping it themselves. Advertisers want the opportunity to bid jobs through completion with one vendor overseeing the entire process and saving dollars.
They want choices and since no one vendor can be the very best at every discipline we at TPSC have purposefully built strategic relationships with best in class creative partners in Editorial, Special Effects, Graphics, and Animation. Happily we are able to partner with great folks while keeping the bar as high as our production standards.
3) In 2015 TPSC has been shooting quite a bit in the experiential/unscripted space and I particularly like our latest MasterCard spots conceived by McCann NYC and directed by TPSC director PR Brown. The MasterCard work features LA Dodgers legend Orel Hershiser where he surprises a unsuspecting little league team with a trip to the National League Division playoffs.
The challenge in the live event/experiential space is to be both authentic and entertaining while delivering the branded message. Happily, the piece was spontaneous, magical, and on brand.
4) It’s here already. I call it “Viral Fever.” Corp clients asking their agencies to churn out large amounts of very low budget executions with the high hopes of hitting the lottery with a viral sensation. TPSC produced a Budweiser piece last year that garnered 23 million hits so we know how it’s done right. However, most of the time the work is grossly under funded and over scrutinized.
