The SHOOT stories that generated the most views in 2016 delved into subject matter ranging from marketing implications tied to the Summer Olympics, to insights from Oscar and Emmy Winners at the Produced By: New York Conference, Agency of the Year coverage, the push for industry diversity, "Game of Thrones" topping the Emmy nominations derby, ad agency creatives discussing their Emmy-nominated commercials, a movie review, and director and producer signings.
Topping the click tally for SHOOT in 2016 was the story “Olympic Marketing Rules Making It Tougher For Smaller Brands,” which chronicled how smaller brands and even accomplished athletes were struggling to make their mark in Summer Olympics-related marketing due to strict rules.
Next up in our rundown was a push to gain financial support for arts education in the Los Angeles public school system. Former TV writer and producer Rory Pullens was hired as the school district’s executive director for arts education in 2014. He has since hired an arts teacher at every school. Pullens is convinced the push for meaningful arts education in a district that has 90 percent minority students will one day help diversify Hollywood.
Third in our hit parade was SHOOT’s Agency of the Year coverage, looking into the inner workings at McCann New York, including the backstory on Lockheed Martin’s “Field Trip to Mars,” the single most awarded campaign at Cannes 2016, earning 19 Lions across 11 categories (including Cyber, Entertainment, PR, Innovation), reflecting the range of different disciplines that the immersive project spanned.
A movie review, for The Light Between Oceans starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, was the next most click-worthy entry in 2016. The feature film was directed by Derek Cianfrance whose commercialmaking/branded content roost is RadicalMedia.
Finishing fifth was the Emmy Awards nomination derby which saw Game of Thrones (HBO) topping the field with 23 nominations–followed closely by The People v. O.J. Simpson (FX Networks) with 22 nods.
The Emmys also figured in our sixth most clicked story of 2016–interviews with ad agency creatives behind this year’s crop of nominees for the primetime commercial Emmy Award. Creatives from the following agencies reflected on their Emmy-nominated spots: RGA on Ad Council’s “Love Has No Labels”; TBWAChiatDay, Los Angeles on Gatorade’s “Dear Peyton”; RPA on Honda’s “Paper”; 72andSunny on Gatorade’s “Year in Search 2015”; and BBDO New York on Snickers’ Super Bowl spot, “Marilyn.”
Next up was news that Framestore had signed Guillaume Raffi as creative producer across its VR, Design and Labs departments in the L.A. office. He earlier launched the L.A. office of Paris-based Nightshift Post. At Nightshift Raffi contributed to campaigns for Hennessy, Gucci, Nespresso and L’Oréal, and worked with Iconoclast’s We Are From LA on the award-winning music video for Pharrell Williams’ “Happy.” Prior to that, Raffi was executive producer at Psyop and producer at visual effects shop BUF in Paris for features (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Wong Kar Wai’s 2046, Oliver Stones’ Alexander), animated features (Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Invisibles), and commercials.
Garnering numerous clicks in 2016 to take the #8 slot was SHOOT’s coverage of The Producers Guild of America’s (PGA) third annual Produced By: New York Conference held in October. Produced By is held through the Producers Guild of America’s charitable entity, the PGA Foundation, whose core mission is to educate those who work in the producing profession. The event featured insights from such notables as Matt Damon, Lauren Beck, Chris Moore, Kimberly Steward and Kevin J. Walsh, producers on writer-director’s Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea; Hidden Figures producer Donna Gigliotti and production designer Wynn Thomas; Loving producers Sarah Green and Peter Saraf; Lion producer Iain Canning and composer Volker Bertelmann; Sully screenwriter Todd Komarnicki and producer Allyn Stewart; and PGA president Lori McCreary, who is CEO/co-founder of Revelations Entertainment.
The ninth most clicked story of 2016 was Iconoclast’s signing of director Nima Nourizadeh for worldwide representation. Nourizadeh is the director behind the 2015 action comedy film, American Ultra, starring Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, and Project X, which was nominated for three MTV Movie Awards. Formerly with Partizan, Nourizadeh is also a noted music video director, with work for Hot Chip, Lily Allen, Santigold, Chromeo, and Mark Ronson. After winning Best Director at the UK Music Video Awards, he branched out into commercials with two memorable ads for Adidas, including the Cannes Lions winner, “House Party.”
And rounding out our Top Ten clickable stories was coverage of “How A Single Piece of Paper Can Change A Family’s Life,” an interactive video which shows what life is like in the U.S. for documented and undocumented families. Univision produced the piece in collaboration with Wondros. Directed by Shane Vales of Wondros, the video opens with a father waking to begin looking for work. While his wife prepares breakfast, their daughter asks if she can go on a school field trip. The video can be watched in English or Spanish and viewers can click on the “documented” and “undocumented” buttons to see the very different parallel versions highlighting how different life can be for a family depending on their legal status.
According to information on the Univision site where the video plays, more than 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States with the largest populations in California (2.4 million), Texas (1.2 million), Florida (925,000), New York (750,000) and New Jersey (525,000). Undocumented immigrants account for 3.5% of the total U.S. population. More than 8 million undocumented workers contribute more than $13 billion in social security taxes each year.
When asked by SHOOT what attracted Wondros to the project and would there be further collaboration with Univision, Jesse Dylan, Wondros founder and creative director on the project, responded, “Wondros is committed to examining all kinds of societal inequities. We have great regard for Univision and It has been a wonderful collaboration. Together we can amplify messages about combating inequality, which is even more important in today’s climate. We are discussing additional projects that explore themes of democracy, justice, and fairness.”
Here's a rundown of the 30 most viewed SHOOT stories of 2016:
