1) In 2015, the industry realized that all of the access and technology available today actually allows us to go back to the basics of storytelling and to focus on the talent who create that. For the past several years, we got lost in the tools, put the technology at the forefront of what we were doing while, too often, forgetting that the talent and the story are what the tools should be serving, not the other way around. Looking back at 2015, I am very hopeful that we are going back to what we know how to do best – tell stories by investing time and energy in human talent.
2) At Havas, our content model is realized by Studio 6, our in-house content production studio, with locations in Chicago, New York and Boston. It offers a best-in-class suite of in-house services that were traditionally performed by out-of-house vendors. We recruit talent with diverse and varied skills from the film, fashion and experiential worlds.
Our agency producers can line produce. We have a maker group in Chicago and New York, which allows us to turn on a camera quickly, a design and animation group, a full service post-production facility.
We always look at being as efficient as possible. The standard agency production model is people heavy and often requires the tripling up of producers – an agency producer, a line producer and a post producer. We’ve looked at making sure that the team was diversified enough to handle most scenarios by streamlining talent who can fulfill multiple roles. Studio 6 being at the center of the agency allows us to include content thinkers at the forefront of the ideation process and plug into existing creative teams.
3) One example which perfectly applies to what I was saying above around making sure that the tools are there to serve the story, is the work we did with Sony for Bob Dylan’s new album release. The client came directly to Studio 6 and we created an experience called Studio A Revisited. Sony gave us exclusive access to the stems of “Like a Rolling Stone” and we created an interactive experience in which we allow the audience to re-interpret a classic song from the analog era as well as tell the story of Dylan’s legendary sessions in a non-linear way.
The team was lean and driven by multi disciplinary people who embodied the collaborative, creative ethos of a content studio. By our ability to design and prototype ideas quickly, we were able to make a challenging budget work.
