As the advertising business changes with marketers looking to attract eyeballs in an increasingly fragmented media, production companies will need to expand their offerings beyond just spot production. To find out how shops view the changing and evolving ad arena, SHOOT asked production company owners and execs the following questions: As the spot market continues to grow ever more competitive, in what ways is your company diversifying? What will the commercial production company look like in five years? What projects have you completed outside the spot arena, and were these projects client-direct or done via an agency? Below are their answers:
Mark Androw
Executive producer
The Story Companies,
bicoastal and Chicago
National chairman
Association of
Independent Commercial Producers (AICP)
It’s a sea change out there, and we are navigating the waters of change carefully. Our goal is to represent interesting and relevant talent in the marketplace. That may be traditional spot directors, crossover feature talent or longform experts. Meeting the needs of our clients never goes out of style.
Jeff Armstrong
Managing director
A Band Apart Commercials, Los Angeles
We are partners with our directors at A Band Apart. We are working together on projects, bringing their ideas and our ideas together. We are currently producing a reality TV series in partnership with one of our directors, and are making inroads into corporate media, longform DVD production and feature filmmaking with others. We are also enhancing our core business through alliances with production companies in other markets, and through informal agreements with postproduction companies and other creative services providers, enabling us to offer creative solutions in one package.
We believe that commercials will remain a cornerstone of our business in 2009, but they won’t be our only end product. Commercials provide a natural stepping-stone to branded content, client-direct production and similar emerging media—probably something that doesn’t even exist yet. We are already seeing opportunities to leverage our talent in these areas, and in the future, they will be an important part of our mix—even as we retain our focus on traditional advertising.
As mentioned, we are producing a reality TV series, with three or four other series in the works. Two of them should go into production in the near future. We’ve done a number of client-direct pieces to air on local outlets and Web sites, and we’re collaborating with clients on creative branding and production incorporating both concept work and production. On the music side, we’ve done longform concert DVDs directly for artist management, as well as labels.
Don Block
President
GARTNER, bicoastal
Our first level of diversification is to broaden our reach in our core business. This includes establishing new brands domestically and internationally. Tight, our newest company, is an example of this, with others in the pipeline. Each company or alliance will be sharply focused on a particular market segment.
Five years from now, commercial production companies will require a tool set that will have to go beyond 35mm film production. To that end, we will be engaging in establishing and/or acquiring companies that expand our range of production and advertising capabilities. Aside from increasing our tool set, we will be developing new business models and practices that leverage our core historical expertise in ways that will bring greater value to our clients.
Jules Daly
President
RSA USA, bicoastal
I think production companies will always be the go-to model for content—as long as we can stay diverse within that model in terms of experience and depth of knowledge with regard to the medium and narrative and, of course, awareness of talent. A production company makes its mark and keeps up as long as its talent is interesting. The content is evolving and so must we [as a company]. BMWfilms.com is our most notorious [effort] to date, and more recently a round of Internet films for Amazon, both from Fallon, Minneapolis. This year, we are also doing a short film for Prada.
Phillip Detchmendy
Managing director
Tool of North America, bicoastal
For most of Tool’s 10-year history, we have grown with a roster of mainly performance-driven comedic storytelling directors. And while this has been and will continue to be a big part of Tool’s core, we’ve also been expanding our roster in other directions, for example with Robert Richardson. We’ve also added a relationship with English comedic director Sam Cadman, and our partnership with Paranoid Projects gives us the opportunity to represent and work with the Poiraud Brothers and Francois Vogel in this market. While the individual styles of our directors may vary, what links them together is the fact that they are all creative, smart, conceptual, idea-driven people.
Right now production companies are exploring new models for how they will play a part in the changes and also expand their core business. There’s a concerted effort by many to redefine what we currently think of as a production company and its role in the business.
For us, we feel that many different types of production companies will be successful in the future—there is no one model. We feel that while the :30 and :60 landscape we live in will evolve and change, our core business, which is delivering creative content for agencies and clients, will not. Whatever the format is, clients and agencies will continue to need to deliver creative communication. In addition to this, we believe that the successful companies of the future will be more active entrepreneurs, constantly on the lookout for new opportunities.
Jason Farrand
Founder/director
Bryan Farhy
Executive producer
Uncle, Santa Monica
We’re not the kind of people who jump up on the soapbox championing new directions in advertising. We don’t pretend to posses any divine knowledge on the subject either—we simply pursue projects that excite us creatively and this is clearly reflected in our diverse body of work outside the commercial arena.
In the last year, this company has created a 20 minute film for TiVo direct, assuming responsibility for concept all the way through to the distribution of 500,000 DVDs. Alongside the film we have created and produced a half dozen celebrity driven TiVo direct projects aired exclusively on the TiVo showcase. We are in the middle of physical production on three new TV pilots. Among them a four-episode commitment on a show co-created with and for the Discovery Channel. Among our slate of short films are Nobody’s perfect directed by Hank Azaria, Mr. Dramatic starring Oliver Hudson and Kate Towne made in association with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn’s Cosmic Films. We also secured financing on two feature length projects, Open Mic and Waitress. Most recently, we signed a deal with the BBC, which allows us exclusive rights to exploit any of the BBC’s content library.
The one consistent theme that runs throughout these projects is that an Uncle director, producer, and writer were at the head of every single one. For us to bottom line the answer ‘what will the commercial production company look like in five years.’ We would say, much as we do today, we haven’t had to diversify; we have been this way from day one.
Nancy Fishelson
Executive producer
Reactor Films, Santa Monica
Given our historical connection to the film business, we have had a very clear understanding of what’s involved. What we have done rather consistently is provide our directors with support, introductions, etc.—a kind of overall management that extends to features and other longform projects. Many of our directors have done features, TV, screenplays, even novels. Michael [Romersa, owner/executive at Reactor,] is about to produce a film that keeps us involved in all the arenas that encompass filmmaking. Our primary focus is still the advertising community and its various production formats.
As to what the commercial production company will look like in five years, maybe we’ll all be defining ourselves as "advertising production companies," since advertising is no longer limited to commercials.
We had a fantastic experience doing a three-spot Saturn package with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. It was not intended for broadcast—it was a sponsorship piece that would play on site at the X-Games—but it ultimately became a national campaign.
Jim Geib
President/executive producer,
commercial division
Melissa Butts
Executive producer,
branded entertainment
Twist, Minneapolis
Advertising is an exciting industry right now. Due to globalization and the variety of media outlets, agency and vendor services are expanding. We don’t anticipate the death of existing formats. We expect more attention to brand and an increase in collaborative efforts to execute brand messages for the many emerging outlets. Our branded entertainment division was created to support these industry changes. The division often works in tandem with the commercial division to develop campaigns beyond their commercials while maintaining brand integrity. Many of our projects are on a client-direct basis, but we see a great value in nurturing agency involvement in content development, sponsorship relationships and the brand message that accompanies sponsorship. Hopefully agencies will partner with their vendors to redefine protocol and keep these creative channels open.
To successfully tackle a multi-legged global project, vendors will need to diversify their services or create alliances. Twist has opted to do both. With the advent of the branded entertainment division of Twist, we began to identify emerging markets that could utilize the strengths of our commercial directorial roster and production skills in-house. One of the markets that we focused on was educational content for the museum community produced in a very compelling and entertaining way. On Oct. 8, we unveiled the world premiere theatrical release of the HD 3-D project MARS 3D for 3D Cinemas powered by Panasonic. We are slated to develop two more projects and recently finished the 2-D documentary Future Frontiers: Mars that was created for HD displays and distributed to the museum community in Japan, Canada, the U.S., South Africa and New Zealand.
Loretta Jeneski
Partner/executive producer
nonfiction spots, bicoastal
The market is definitely not for the faint of heart right now, and diversifying is something I think every company needs to look at. It can be a good survival strategy, and our plan to diversify was built into the company from the get-go, when we made a commitment to a roster consisting exclusively of notable documentary filmmakers. Because the spot directors here are also filmmakers, it’s natural that we would be called on for other creative film projects. That means client-sponsored films, long and shortform projects for the Web, feature-length documentaries—whatever. Of particular interest to us at nonfiction are feature-length documentaries destined for festivals, theatrical distribution and TV. We have two of those projects in development now, with the plan that they will be entirely client funded and sponsored—"branded content" in the way that Stacy Peralta’s film Dogtown and Z-Boys and [shoe company] Vans were able to work together.
Our primary business is spots and I don’t see us abandoning that over the next five years, but with this group of documentary filmmakers, we will be moving more and more into the arena of sponsored feature documentaries.
Jessica Yu directed a series of four short films for Microsoft. The Realizing Potential project was commissioned by Bill Gates through McCann Erickson, San Francisco, and was a human look at how Microsoft technology has helped individuals and companies. The films went to the Microsoft site and were screened at one of Gates’ corporate presentations. Steve James and Peter Gilbert directed a TV segment for Sports Illustrated’s Prelude to the Games. The piece was done directly for the show and nominated for two Emmys. The pair also co-directed a short film about a HIV positive marathon runner for Nike direct. Gilbert is currently in production on a series of short films about amateur football called Real Sports that will premiere on Sony HD networks for PRN direct. Another nonfiction director, Robby Kenner, directed a series of short films for eBay out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
Mike Jurkovac
Founder/CEO
cYclops productions, New York
We branched out to include areas outside commercial production in our business model, such as branded and network content and graphic design. Our work on the Lost Change initiative (which teamed Levi’s, Motorola and Sony and their respective agencies with MTV, atomfilms and IFC), brought us to the attention of BMG, which partnered cYclops with the Elvis Presley Estate to produce, market and position the successful launch of Elvis Presley’s greatest hits CDs, Elvis: 30 #1 Hits and Elvis: 2nd to None—including the execution of a 70-market "Mobile Graceland" tour.
At the same time, we’ve also expanded our commercial production business. While advertising is in a period of transition, we don’t believe TV commercials are going to disappear overnight. What the form needs is a steady infusion of new talent, which is why we partnered with veteran European spot producer Federico Fasolino earlier this year to launch foreignfilms, which represents top European directors, and are currently in discussion with a pair of music video houses regarding an innovative new joint venture.
We think the production company of 2009 will have to produce communications that run in a wide range of media, from the Web and broadcasting to newer, yet-to-be-determined formats delivered on a multitude of wireless platforms.
In addition to our work for BMG and the Elvis Presley Estate, we’ve also partnered on several branded content and endorsement projects with will.i.am, the lead singer of The Black Eyed Peas, including a pair of critically acclaimed original content CDs—Lost But Not Lost and Mustb21.
We are currently in production on our first network series, titled America or Busted, which will air on a global basis on MTV. This is the first of three upcoming network projects being led for cYclops by executive producers Sheri Howell and Marina Sargenti.
We’ve also produced two major integrated campaigns that included Web-delivered short films, print ads and interactive content for Levi’s. We continue to work with the in-house creative departments at Universal, Island, Def Jam, Rocawear and Motown, among others, providing both creative direction and design for their print advertising, packaging and merchandising materials. In addition, we’ve worked with an assortment of the top hip-hop artists and their labels to help them pitch integrated entertainment and branding projects to ad agencies.
David Lyons
Partner/executive producer
MOO Studios, Burbank, Calif.
I imagine that in five years, traditional commercial production companies will be a curiosity of the past. Pick any news outlet, be it SHOOT or The New York Times, and there are bleak projections of the impact of DVRs on television advertising as we know it.
In order to survive and thrive in the future, production companies must be proactive creative partners for agencies and clients alike. We must stop thinking of ourselves as a service company that represents directors who make commercials. Instead, we must feel like hybrid marketing consultant/content producers for hire. Why? It’s partly the competition, but it’s mainly the need of advertisers to find their customers wherever they might be hiding, and that might not be in front of network TV. We need to be set up to deliver a service of products and to create content across the board. Directors could become team leaders, teams that include Web designers, motion graphic artists, photographers, writers and so on. Creative production companies should be just that: a place that produces any plethora of products—be it commercials, shorts, Web sites, banner ads or print.
In the last year, we have extended our roster to include several accomplished photographers, graphic artists, Web designers and, of course, directors. We don’t know what five years’ time will look like, but we know that in our careers, that’s par for the course.
We feel very strongly that our directors benefit, both creatively and in the long term, by utilizing their talents beyond traditional film directing. Currently, one of our directors is working with a major agency on a short film relating to a medical client. It’s a combination of important content and the chance for creative freedom. Another of our directors made a hilarious film directly for the client, which opened a show as part of New York’s Fashion Week, and created banner ads that tied into a beer commercial he made earlier in the year. Overall, it is important to work with creative people—whether it’s at an agency, working for a client or working for the man.
Tommy Means
Executive producer
Mekanism, San Francisco
Mekanism has diversified its production services to take advantage of three macro-trends in broadcast advertising. Production budgets are shrinking. We have embraced digital filmmaking and desktop postproduction. The new generation of 24p cameras, most notably the Panasonic DVC900, is enabling us to shoot high-value production video at a fraction of the cost of film—and our agency clients have been extremely satisfied with the results.
We have also set up a Mac-based postproduction facility where we can provide offline editing via Final Cut Pro HD, motion graphics via Apple Motion and Adobe After Effects, Flash animation, and 3-D CGI with Mac/PC based Maya. These desktop solutions require little overhead, and coupled with our editors and designers, they allow us to create an exceptional final product. Agencies have been extremely receptive to us handling directorial, CG and editorial offline post as they help effectively drive down their post budgets.
The :30 audience is shrinking. Agencies are continuing to crack the code of how to create broadcast spots that live beyond TV. Mekanism works with agencies to create and produce campaigns that integrate TV, DVD, interactive and longform original programming. Our producers and directors develop storytelling that holistically embraces all media.
Agencies expect more of a creative partnership from production companies. Our most successful campaigns have been the result of partnering early on in the creative process with agencies, long before the storyboards are finalized. We invest a great deal of time with agency planners, media directors and account teams—totally unheard of for typical production companies. Many of our long-term agency partners even contact us to help pitch new business. This early development gives us an enormous competitive advantage.
Production companies will always compete with talented directors. That will never change. But the directors of tomorrow will be able to extend their vision of a story beyond the traditional :30 spot to encompass more non-linear media such as video-on-demand, DVD and broadband. Over time, this will lead to a closer working relationship between directors and production companies, thereby enabling them to seamlessly entwine branding and entertainment.
Within the next few years, the industry will fully comprehend that today’s audience will always be able to choose what they want to watch and when—and it’s likely they will choose not to watch "traditional" advertising unless it’s highly provocative.
Nancy Osborne
Executive producer/head of sales
Boondoggle, Santa Monica
As an overall production entity, we are diversified. Between Boondoggle and FM Rocks, we are working in videos, spots and multimedia/product placement. We are also developing longform projects, basically keeping an open mind, and getting involved in all areas where creativity can flourish. And in my view, that’s what most commercial production companies will look like in five years—you can be specialized, but you cannot be limited.
One of the more exciting projects we were involved in was the Sunkist "Charged Experience" campaign via Young & Rubicam, New York. Bryan Barber directed and appeared in the broadcast portion, but our involvement extended way beyond the spotwork into events and TV and radio appearances for the director. We worked closely with the agency, their publicity people and ours to promote the program, which gave career-learning opportunities in the film, fashion and sports worlds.
Lauren Schwartz
Executive producer/owner
kaboom productions,
San Francisco
All of our directors are creative people with unique talents that complement spot directing. Our directors maintain these skills to keep busy, certainly, but also to hone their overall creative approach. Whether it is photography, editing or screenwriting, each of our directors taps into creativity in ways that support directing commercials. Because of that, we have been able to develop and leverage their talents in ways that lie outside of the traditional agency/production company relationship. For example, we have created a relationship with a PR company that handles much of California’s state initiatives. In addition to the community outreach programs and public relations efforts, there is usually an advertising component that entails television commercials. We have partnered with them on multiple occasions, often getting involved early on in creative development.
We’ve also produced longform, short films, Internet pieces and a wide variety of projects [outside of television]. We do this because the nature of what is considered traditional advertising is changing, opening up, merging and melding into many other forms. And we want to be the place to call for all your needs—not just your :30 broadcast spot.
Commercial production companies are diversifying because the marketplace is diversifying, and the ways in which people are being targeted with marketing and products is changing and expanding. We are experts in helping folks craft a message and bring it to life. It doesn’t matter what form that message takes or where it ends up being shown. It is the ability to craft that message that’s important.
Chuck Sloan
President
Plum Productions, Santa Monica
Personally I’m not concerned about the spot market becoming more competitive. There is a bottom to every well and this year we hit it—keep the overhead in check and ride it out.
In regards to what a production company will look like in five years, probably paint peeling off the walls, old furniture and worn carpets. But on the sets and locations, we will still be catering gourmet lunches and craft service, cafe latte, vitamins, massages and all the other luxuries carried over from the extravagant ’90s.
Diversification is imperative and vital to survival. We’re looking into military training films and the possibility of manufacturing high tech weapons.
Deborah Sullivan
Executive producer
@radical.media,
bicoastal/international
@radical.media has always been one of the top production companies in the world—and continues to be—but its diversity is probably one of the most compelling factors in my decision to join the company. Having worked with @radical.media over the last 10 years, I’ve seen them nurture their commercial business and develop their directorial talent, all the while being ambitiously focused on what opportunities the future of our business holds. They have always believed that the perfect answer could be something "in addition to" the :30 television spot and have always promoted the idea that diversity in media would be required to address the future needs of its clients. Television commercials, content for the Web, music videos, movies, television programming and branded entertainment—these are all "radical" solutions we actively provide our clients. And very importantly, because we are so deeply involved in this creative evolution, we’re also able to provide our directors with varied avenues to develop their careers across all media, a unique opportunity for our talent, as well as our clients.
@radical.media was recently awarded the Smithsonian’s 2004 Cooper-Hewitt National Award for Communication Design, honoring the company for its work in graphic and multimedia design. This award recognizes an entire body of work, across all aspects of communication. It speaks to our involvement in such terrific film productions as director Errol Morris’ Academy Award-winning film Fog of War, and to a number of other film projects such as Jay-Z’s soon-to-be-released Fade to Black documentary, and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. These, along with our numerous design projects—which include the "Made in NY" campaign, the NY 311 project and the just-launched TUBE Music Network—are just a few of the projects outside the spot arena that we’re involved in.
Our branded entertainment division continues to evolve and create partnership models with clients, agencies and media entities—depending on what the solution requires. We’ve produced "The Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman" for American Express; The Life, a half-hour TV series for ESPN; Nike’s Battlegrounds through Wieden+Kennedy Entertainment, which aired on MTV and MTV2; last year’s broadcast of The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which ran on CBS; and the documentary A Day in the Life of Africa. And we’re currently in development on a very special project with Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami, that’s slated for release early in 2005. This new model is one that provides all of us—agencies, clients and production companies—with an incredibly exciting and creative future with potential that truly is limited only by our imaginations.
Erin Tauscher
Co-founder
Trio Films, Los Angeles
Trio Films has been a diverse production company since we opened our doors. We started our company in 2002 during a grim financial time in advertising, but we went into it having experience outside commercial production.
Originally being known as a commercial production company, Trio has emerged as a company with a vision that is in the business of creating exciting work through a variety of different media. We have a separate division at Trio that has produced projects covering a broad creative spectrum, including direct-to-client, short films, graphic design, network branding, music videos, interactive DVDs and public relations. We’ve recently expanded our company to include an in-house editorial facility with graphics capabilities, giving us the ability to develop and finish projects in standard definition and high definition.
Most recently, we’ve done a :90 short film for nikesoccer.com, as well as the opening title sequences for The L Word, Boston Legal and Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire. We’ve also done network branding for Playboy Entertainment and a music video for Five for Fighting through Sony Entertainment.
It’s hard to forecast five years out, but our gut feeling is that it’ll be much of the same—we don’t see advertising going away anytime soon. There will just be more and different formats and venues involved. It seems to us that production companies themselves will still be around and have competition, but perhaps they’ll be smaller and more streamlined with some of the creative being generated in-house.
Camille Taylor
Co-founder
Crossroads Films, bicoastal
and Chicago
Crossroads continues to diversify. Currently, we produce commercials, promos, music videos, feature films and television pilots and programming. We also have a post facility and design company. Over the next five years, some of these entities will surpass the current forerunners, others will mutate into different types of service companies and yet others may be eliminated all together. To succeed and survive for another five years is an exciting challenge, although it does mean continued vigilance, investing and promoting what works and eliminating what doesn’t.
We have worked on numerous branded content pieces anywhere in length from three to seven minutes for such brands as Motorola. The projects come to us from many different sources including ad agencies, agents of clients and directly from clients. We currently have a film that may be financed due to the fact that it’s perfect as a branded content piece.
Luke Thornton
President/executive producer
Believe Media,
bicoastal/international
When we founded Believe Media, we designed it from the ground up to be flexible and sensitive to the changing needs of agencies and their clients. We knew our company must be prepared to evolve and adapt to be competitive, and at the outset formed an in-house creative division focusing on the needs of our clients as they extend into new media and different forms of commercial production.
We realize that our core business is and always will be the production of top tier spots, and we are actively partnering with agencies and clients to create new ways to connect to consumers and measure feedback. From enhanced DVD authoring to online content utilizing client feedback and data mining, our in-house creative team is a seasoned group of new media developers supporting Believe Media production efforts in every aspect of today’s demanding and diverging media outlets. Recent additions include console game developers with an eye toward specialized branded entertainment in the exploding gaming market, and a newly formed music video division in London.
An integrated approach that embraces a wide variety of opportunities is essential to the continued success of production companies. The production companies that will succeed will be those that are versatile and resourceful entities for clients and their variety of needs. For Believe to continue to be effective, we must anticipate and meet new challenges facing clients and agencies.
One of our first projects as a company was to co-conceive and co-create the first BMW Films series with our friends at Fallon, Minneapolis. [The initial series of films, "The Hire," was produced via bicoastal Anonymous Content.] We knew the Internet would increasingly become a factor in reaching and enabling interaction with the consumer, and the film series proved to be an excellent way to utilize this new medium and solve problems for our clients.
Since our experience with Fallon, Believe has created—in addition to a steady body of spots—a stream of content and Internet support for a variety of clients and uses. In the past 16 months, we’ve produced content for Mercedes’ AMG division, Kaman Music Corporation, Nike and others. Some have been done through agencies [as in the case of Nike and Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.], and some have been client-direct.
Our directors are uniquely suited for creating content that is entertaining, informative and can support the spot message in a variety of ways. Much of our roster is experienced in features and documentaries, and also knows how to tell a story well in 30 or 60 seconds.
Steve Wax
Partner/executive producer
Chelsea Pictures,
bicoastal/international
Besides our regular commercial business, we’ve been heavily involved in a number of branded entertainment projects—ESPN/ Sega’s Beta-7, Sharp Aquos, etc. Although these are a small part of our business financially, they represent significant future possibilities.
Most recently, [Chelsea] worked on the Sharp Aquos branded entertainment project. The project is a fictional narrative on the Net (www. moretosee.com), created by Wieden+Kennedy, New York and Tokyo, and The Haxan collective (our The Blair Witch Project directors), and supported by spots from Errol Morris of bicoastal/international @radical.media, and design by [the design collective] Tomato of Curious Pictures, New York. It’s a huge global project for a mainstream client, in seven languages reaching millions of people, and with an overall budget of about $60 million. It’s the story of three people in the south of France on the hunt for hidden urns, carrying on with each other in beds, cars and swimming pools. Media includes: Web sites, chat rooms, spots, eBay, a space in SoHo. Our particular strategy in this area is to create stories that spill out hourly over the course of a number of months so an audience comes back regularly. We’ve gotten millions of hits in the first 48 hours on Sharp already.
As we do in commercials, with branded content we’ll continue to work via agencies. But we come in much earlier in the development stage and frequently play a larger role, drawing in outside partners like GMD Studios [Orlando, New York and Research Triangle, N.C.], our interactive partner on both Sharp and Beta-7.
Agencies are just beginning to adapt to the new environment, led by innovators like Wieden+Kennedy, Fallon and Crispin Porter+Bogusky. Production companies can play an important role in helping them move into branded entertainment.
Robert Wherry
Partner/executive producer
Go Film, bicoastal
As the spot market grows more competitive, those that diversify into businesses they do not understand will falter. Their core business will shift since it is that core that becomes the bank for diversification. We put more focus on helping redefine the spot market and the potential it holds, rather than creating new Go divisions in uncharted territories. Using the knowledge we have in production, marketing and management, we have created a company that not only services agencies’ needs, but also services our clients’ needs, those [clients] being our directors.
Whether it is production of short films, working directly for clients that have approached us or creating multi-use elements that cross the boundaries of broadcast, Internet and branded entertainment, we embrace these forms of diversification on behalf of our directors and have succeeded so far.
Five years from now, the current model of a company won’t look much different, but there will be fewer companies around. More work will be done directly for clients. The number of mediums to produce in will grow to include digital video and high definition on a regular basis. More of our projects will include crossover to usage as branded entertainment and Internet.
In 2004, Go worked with TBWA/ Chiat/Day, New York, in the production of a still shoot with artists painting giant Absolut bottles. These ended up as TV commercials, print ads and Internet films. We also shot an eight-day project for Lincoln in high definition to be used as an Internet marketing piece, a print campaign, broadcast commercials and a branded content film. We also produced a considerable amount of broadcast work for clients that approached Go directly. Some of this work was product-specific, while some was public service.D
