Susan Bonds, president/CEO and executive producer of 42 Entertainment, Pasadena, Calif., is about to serve as a Cannes International Advertising Festival judge for the first time. She will be on the Cyber Lions jury.
However, Bonds is hardly a stranger to Cannes’ Cyber space. Last year, 42 Entertainment’s “Year Zero”–an alternate reality experience and first of its kind concept album combining music with multimedia and interactive storytelling for Nine Inch Nails–won the Cyber Grand Prix at Cannes.
“Year Zero” represents but one of assorted notable experiences created, designed and produced by 42 Entertainment. For example, 42 turned out last year’s groundbreaking alternate reality game (ARG) experience Why So Serious? that helped to market Warner Bros. The Dark Knight, which went on to become the second highest grossing movie of all time. The ARG brought Batman’s Gotham City to life through varied media and platforms, and attracted more than 10 million players worldwide.
Previous 42 creative and marketplace successes include: the ilovebees campaign for Microsoft’s marketing launch of Halo 2, which won the Games Developers Conference Award for Innovation in Gaming, and a Webby Award for Best Games-Related Website; the Dead Man’s Tale interactive game for Disney/Microsoft; and The Vanishing Point, billed as having been the first global puzzle game with clues to online puzzles embedded in spectacular events held in a dozen cities around the globe. The Vanishing Point helped to celebrate the launch of Windows Vista in ’07.
Bonds had a key hand in all of these and many other 42 projects.
Prior to joining 42, Bonds was chief design and production officer for Cyan Worlds where she led the design, production, technology integration, marketing, publishing, music development and project management for the online interactive game URU: Ages Beyond Myst, and served as producer of realMyst, a 3-D world version of the popular 3D game.
Earlier, Bonds enjoyed a 10-year tenure as creative director/senior show producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, where she directed the design and development of major attractions, themed architecture, Internet entertainment projects and proprietary new ride systems. Her portfolio there included attractions such as Indiana Jones Adventure for Disneyland, Alien Encounters for Walt Disney World, Mission:SPACE for Epcot, and the ABC Times Square Studios exterior in New York.
SHOOT caught up with Bonds to get her takes on the upcoming Cannes Lions Fest, her role as a juror there, and the diversification of 42 into other ad industry sectors.
SHOOT: What attracted you to the Cannes juror gig?
Bonds: I met the Cyber Lions jury president from last year, Colleen DeCourcy [chief digital officer of TBWAWorldwide, N.Y.] and I found the job she did in that role to be inspirational. The thoughtfulness of the jury, their dedication, the tremendous amount of work they did as judges impressed me. To now get the chance to be part of that same learning experience, and to gain exposure to work from all over the world was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Getting to meet leading creative people from around the world and to compare notes with them will be worthwhile. It’s a learning experience that I think can’t help but develop in you a true appreciation for what the tent poles of greatness are in our industry’s work.
SHOOT: What doors, if any, opened up for 42 Entertainment as a result of last year’s Cyber Grand Prix?
Bonds: The experience of winning was fantastic and I think it helped open others up to the possibilities of creating nontraditional experiences and ways for people to connect with brands and for brands to connect with people.
But it’s difficult to pinpoint the results [of winning the Cyber Grand Prix]. By the time we won at Cannes, we had been doing our thing for six years. It’s not like you’re an overnight success with a Cannes win. Those six years went a long way towards helping us achieve the success we’ve enjoyed. And during that time, we’ve seen a rapid development and adoption of technology. We’ve seen the market grow from an early adopter crowd of video game players to a wider cross-section of people who are open to a valued interactive experience. People are programming their lives differently and engaged in a wider range of media touchpoints. Nontraditional marketing approaches are becoming more traditional and mainstream. We are seeing more examples of effectively coordinating the use of different platforms to get a bigger signal in the marketplace, to build brands, to have a true value proposition. The past couple of years have seen a tremendous increase in this learning curve.
SHOOT: Along these lines, has 42 managed to diversify into more mainstream types of clients and advertisers? Categories like packaged goods and automotive?
Bonds: Yes, that has started to take hold for us. We did an original interactive web series, If Looks Could Kill, which came out in 2008 for Toyota Camry in association with Burrell Communications in Chicago. The series is a marriage of espionage and high fashion–Alias meets The Devil Wears Prada. The audience serves like a sidekick of sorts to help the show’s heroine figure things out. She not only has the audience but her own smarts and a Toyota Camry to get the job done. It’s a series that targets the female professional audience. It was a great project for us to work on.
SHOOT: Getting back to Cannes, this year’s upcoming festival has experienced a decrease in entries–by 20 percent as compared to 2008–and will likely have a drop in attendance. What’s your take on the event in light of a troubled economy?
Bonds: Attendance may not be what it has been in years past with people counting their pennies. But there’s great value in being there, particularly for me as a judge. Cannes is a showcase of the best of the best. You get to meet with and compare notes with people who face the same challenges as you do. Being able to interact with people at Cannes and see great work can help you come up with some answers to such questions as: How can we be more creative in our approach? How can we break through to reach consumers? How do we best cope with the economic challenges we all face? I think the bottom line is that you can find inspiration at Cannes.
Susan Bonds is one of several judges and notable creatives who offer their perspectives on the upcoming fest in SHOOT’s Cannes Preview coverage, which will appear in the 6/19 print issue and concurrent electronic edition.
