Creative content and production company SuperBloom House, with offices in NY and L.A., has launched Social Studios and Branded Entertainment divisions while adding two execs to its leadership team–hiring Carsten Pruijs as head of content management and promoting Elizabeth Lefler to head of operations.
As a result of the need for brands to be more relevant in culture, SuperBloom Social Studios was formed to expand the company’s social offerings beyond content creation to now include social newsrooms inclusive of insights, trends, strategy, creator and influencer programs, community management, measurement, fan engagement, and full service content development and production. The end-to-end solution guides brands–like Panera, Activision, and J&J–towards what to make and who to make it with for the best results.
In response to the attention economy, SuperBloom Branded Entertainment will guide brands towards using their ad space as opportunities to entertain; a new opportunity as streamers start to offer more innovative placements for advertisers. Current projects in development at SuperBloom Branded Entertainment are an all-female creator series, a whodunit mystery series for a travel brand, and a retrospective on toys titled “History Dolls”; ideas inspired by social culture and developed in collaboration with creators from within SuperBloom Creative Collective.
Pruijs, Lefler
Pruijs and Lefler will team to help clients navigate all the new ways to create and make content, with new models that deliver more engaging and attention grabbing content for brands. Together they will also develop more flexible ways to work with brands for more of their quick turn content needs.
Pruijs will head up SuperBloom’s growing client services and project management practice across 20+ clients. A true hybrid talent, Pruijs comes to SuperBloom House with experience spanning client and brand management to strategy and growth at agencies including Sid Lee, 72andSunny, and most recently Cartwright.
Lefler, who was promoted from head of content management to head of operations, will lead operations and behind-the-camera casting, giving clients access to SuperBloom’s talent from within its fast growing collective of alternative creative talent otherwise inaccessible to brands. A brand and operations expert, she’s had stints at Brand Citizens, Hecho Studios, Phenomenon, and MAL.
SuperBloom has also had an infusion of talent to help service and expand upon its new offerings, including:
- Kevin Kinder, director of social at Social Studios. Kinder comes over from Glow Social Agency.
- Casey Thibodaux, sr. strategist, Social Studios, who ws formerly at Laundry Service.
- Christina Connerton, sr. content creative (SuperBloom’s Creative & Development), who had been at Hecho Studios
- Paloma Bido, sr. post producer (All Media Productions at SuperBloom), who comes over from The Pub Production
- And Trish Nguyen, assistant editor (All Media Productions), whose former roosts were Hudson Edit and Pluto TV
Chief creative officer Tom Dunlap and CEO Briony McCarthy are SuperBloom co-founders. Dunlap said, “With 20+ brand collaborations executed in our first year of business–including Voodoo Ranger IPA, Activision, YouTube, Honest Co, Creative Juice, and Sonic–SuperBloom continues to challenge the legacy models of the creative and production industry that have traditionally served the marketing community. Our growth and investment in this talent is proof that we are just getting started.”
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More