Andy Uterano and Billy Bell have launched GameBridge, a company that licenses characters from popular video games for use in advertising content and ad campaigns. Based in New York, the new venture’s licensing relationships include game publishers Sega and Capcom, with more publisher agreements in the wings.
Uterano and Bell are veterans of the music sales and licensing industry and have worked with video game publishers on their music needs at Sumthing Else Music Works (SEMW), which licenses and distributes video game soundtracks. SEMW will function as a strategic partner to GameBridge.
Among the characters GameBridge represents is “Sonic the Hedgehog,” the lead hero of the wildly successful franchise from Sega that first debuted in 1991. Still going strong, “Sonic” and his friends – “Tails,” “Knuckles”, “Amy,” and “Sticks” – are starring in their first ever CG-animated TV series, “Sonic Boom,” which premiered in November of 2014. In the future Sonic will also hit the big-screen with a hybrid animated/live action feature film.
Also on the GameBridge roster are the “Street Fighter” characters Ryu and Chun-Li (the latter a breakthrough female character and videogame icon), along with Ken and Blanka. The GameBridge lineup also includes characters from “Resident Evil.”
“Video games have become a part of popular culture,” said Uterano, “and their pervasiveness presents unique opportunities to the owners of these intellectual properties. Our goal in founding GameBridge is to leverage these opportunities and pair our licensed characters with familiar consumer brands.” The company will act as an agent for its licensing partners, negotiating deals between advertisers, their agencies and the IP holders of the respective video game characters.
“Our characters are well-suited to serve as brand ambassadors,” commented Rene Flores, director of licensing, Sega of America. “We’re looking forward to uniting some of our most-loved characters with America’s best-loved brands.”
In addition to Uterano and Bell, the GameBridge management team includes creative director Glenn H. Mason and strategic media partner Steven Horton. Mason is a seasoned creative professional who’ll be responsible for developing and executing GameBridge’s creative strategy, while Horton, the founder and exec producer of production company Grand Large, brings marketing, advertising and video production capabilities to the company.
Grand Large will function as the production arm of GameBridge on a non-exclusive basis, providing its advertiser clients and publisher licensees with access to a full range of high-quality film and video production and postproduction resources. Beyond its own roster of creative talents, it works closely with MacGuff, a European animation and effects studio, and with Prologue Films, a major producer of broadcast design and identity packages, opening title sequences, gaming characters and visual effects. Both studios will partner with GameBridge clients on game-driven ad content.
