On the heels of one of its directors, Daniel Bird, earning inclusion into SHOOT‘s 9th annual New Directors Showcase which premiered on May 10 at the DGA Theatre in New York, international production company Savage, headquartered in Prague, announced that it has opened a New York office.
Savage’s first stateside operation is being headed by the company’s founder, executive producer Pavla Burgetova Callegari. Prior to Savage, she was the director of international operations at Prague’s Stillking Films where she grew that company’s network across Europe, South America, South Africa and Asia. Her experience also spans running productions as exec producer at Bright Pictures in N.Y. and serving as a content consultant for The Mill.
Joining her at Savage N.Y. is executive producer Megan Kelly whose credentials include being head of production at Public Domain, CZAR.US and The Sweet Shop, and executive producer in the video content department of Publicis Modem.
Savage has an international roster of directors and has thus far this year turned out in excess of 20 productions for worldwide clients such as Pepsi, Kodak, Snickers and Mitsubishi. More directorial signings are planned for the second half of the year, including U.S. directors. Bird, incidentally, got into SHOOT‘s New Directors Showcase largely on the strength of his online spot “Facebook Unfriend Coal” for Greenpeace.
Effie UK and Ipsos Report Concludes Marketing Industry Should Do Its Part To Heal Societal Divisions
Society has never been more divided, according to a new report Healing the Divide in which Effie UK and brand and advertising experts from Ipsos explored brandsโ role in shaping society and healing societal divisions.
The report details how instability, inflation, and COVID recovery โthe convergence of multiple interconnected crises around the world that coincide with and amplify each other, causing hard to resolve systemic challenges, have become the norm over the past few years. As a result, the use of division as a weapon is now a major theme in todayโs culture and politics, and sadly 47% of the UK and 49% of the US agree with the statement that โWithin my lifetime, society in my country will break down,โ according to Ipsos Global Trends 2024.
While some brands have tried to respond to this, the report finds responsible marketing is now threatened by weaponized division. It points to the World Federation of Advertisersโ decision to shut down the Global Alliance for Responsible Media following an antitrust lawsuit filed by Elon Muskโs X, combined with DEI rollbacks, as significant setbacks.
The report says these setbacks underline the importance of marketing in solving collective problems, such as climate change, food security, and harmful online content. It also points to a need for marketers to take more interest in and more responsibility for healing divisions.
Research claims marketers are ideally placed to build and rebuild the antidote to division (trust, empathy, a sense of control, connection and collaboration). According to the Ipsos Veracity index of trusted professionals, society is becoming more trustworthy of advertising executives. Additionally, 57% of Britons agree that brands should communicate their... Read More