Filmmaker and hybrid creative talent Jason Zada has joined FANCY Content for commercial representation in the U.S. An award-winning filmmaker whose first feature, the thriller The Forest, debuted last year, Zada is known for his long associations with such prior production company homes as Prettybird and Tool of North America. Most recently he was at Los York.
Zada has earned multiple awards over the course of his directing career, including Cannes Lions, a D&AD Pencil, an Emmy and numerous Clios and One Show Pencils. His often-groundbreaking work for clients such as Intel, Samsung, Benjamin Moore, Facebook and many others has frequently been covered by creative, marketing and media publications, and his advertising work has been honored by SXSW, the Art Directors Club, Communication Arts and AICP Next.
Zada’s work, whether in VR, viral media or more traditional ad formats, shares a consistent quality of viewer engagement. Most recently, he directed a New York Lottery spot for McCann, “Get Your Quarters Back,” that brought back the visceral joys of playing Pac Man. A trailer for his newest VR project, “The Extraordinary Honey Bee,” debuted at Sundance this year. With backing from Häagen Dazs and Google, the film “shrinks” viewers down to the size of a honey bee so they can experience what it’s like to be the endangered insect.
“In addition to being a master storyteller, Jason’s work has been the benchmark for agencies, brands and filmmakers who are trying to decode what it is that makes a piece truly go viral,” said Robert Wherry, FANCY founder and EP.
Immersive media work directed by Zada has been seen (and often shared) by over a billion people globally. His “Take This Lollipop,” which won him a Daytime Emmy, is an interactive app that uses your own data from Facebook to create a short film that shows what a stalker could do with your own information once he or she pilfered it. And his Linkin Park video, “Lost in the Echo,” pulled in photos from Facebook to personalize each viewer’s experience of the story.
One of his earliest viral successes was the “Elf Yourself” campaign for OfficeMax, created by Zada’s digital agency, EVB. A cultural icon, the campaign lives on today, more than a decade after its launch, as a holiday phenomenon.
Since embarking on a full-time directing career in 2008, Zada has collaborated with leading creative agencies, including Wieden + Kennedy, CP+B, Sid Lee, Leo Burnett, and RPA, working for such brands as Volkswagen, Verizon, HP, McDonald’s, Toyota, and Target.
As for what drew him to FANCY, Zada said, “Robert and his team represent exactly what I was looking for in a production company, which is a boutique roster of high-quality storytellers.”
