Ketama Collective, part of the team that won the Grand Prix for Creative Data at Cannes last year, is merging with its two sister companies, Bitgeyser and Pasto, to form one integrated digital creative, production, and technology resource known as Bermuda.
The new entity, which has opened a U.S. office in Miami, spans everything from content production for brands to experiential executions and activations, extended realities, metaverse executions, meta-human creations, AI infusions and prototyping, as well as CG animation and design. It is billed by its founders as a Creative Technology Lab that’s focused on offering proficiencies and specializations global brands are searching for in today’s social media and experience-based landscape.
According to Nico Ferrero, CEO of Bermuda (and formerly managing director at Ketama), this move is a natural evolution: Ketama, Bitgeyser, and Pasto have frequently collaborated on complex projects for a roster of global clients, he pointed out. Collectively, their work has been recognized by the industry’s leading awards shows, including a Grand Prix and Gold Lion at Cannes for Stella Artois and GUT, a Silver Lion for LATAM Airlines and McCann, and a Gold Clio for the “Tweeting Pothole” for Medcom and Ogilvy.
As it seeks to expand its footprint in the U.S. market, Bermuda has lined up a national sales operation. On the East Coast, Bermuda will be represented by Minerva, led by Mary Knox and Shauna Seresin. Bermuda has also signed with Marla Mossberg and N CAHOOTS for West Coast representation and Isabel Echeverry and Kontakto for the U.S. Hispanic market,
Bermuda is led by a group of bilingual executives from the three merged companies whose backgrounds encompass everything from agency creative to production to software engineering, experience design and fabrication. In addition to Ferrero, they include chief creative director Santiago Maiz, head of production Agustín Mende, regional new business director Matias Berruezo, and CFO Juan Riva.
“Bermuda has opened for business backed by a combined 30 years of experience creating digital content,” Ferrero said. “We now have a unified team of 50 experts all under one roof: digital artists, AI engineers, animators, industrial designers, software and fabrication engineers and creative technologists who specialize in multimedia executions, as well as specialists in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality content, metaverse executions, and the use of block chain.”
The new company was born after a whirlwind 2023: In the US, experiential/digital and fabrication projects staged in New Orleans, Miami, San Diego, and Chicago were executed for such agencies as Area 23, DAVID, and McCann, and for clients such as Google, MasterCard and the pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim. It also marked the debut of a 52-episode five minute show, “Dino Pops,” that was created in hyper-real 3D animation fully executed in Unreal Engine for NBC’s streaming platform Peacock.
Last year saw the sixth consecutive year of growth for PackStory, the largest Augmented Reality program for packaging in the world, created for Tetra Pak. PackStory is a Web app that allows users to scan everyday product packages and discover animated educational and interactive content. As a multi-brand platform, Bermuda has developed unique experiences with personalized content for literally hundreds of products distributed in Tetra Pak packaging. To date the studio has created more than 1,000 digital experiences representing over 150 household brands marketed across 28 countries.
“Our goal is to go even bigger, with more work from the U.S. market, as we flex our muscles across all of our disciplines,” Ferrero stated. “Operating as Bermuda will allow us to produce projects on a larger scale while working in different countries at the same time while we handle more complex and challenging projects. And it allows our clients, both on the agency and brand side, to consolidate the number of entities they have to deal with while making internal collaboration easier and more efficient.”
Bermuda currently has its headquarters in Buenos Aires and offices in Mexico and Colombia, as well as the newly opened base in Miami, to oversee its projects throughout the Americas.
As for how they came up with the name, Ferrero smiled. “It’s the idea of the unknown, this mysterious world,” he says, referring obliquely to the legendary Bermuda Triangle. “When you arrive at an idea, it basically comes from a magical place. How well you execute that idea, and the process by which you do it, sums up what Bermuda means to all of us.”
