Sweet Rickey, a female-run production company, has opened in Boston with quarters located beneath sister editorial shop EDITBAR on historic Union Street. The new venture is headed by Vanessa Macedo Lonborg, a former broadcast producer at agency Hill Holliday, Boston. Phoebe Cole and Scott Burtnett serve as executive producers at Sweet Rickey. Cole is an ex-sr. producer at Arnold Worldwide, Boston, while Burtnett was a sr. producer at Element Productions, Boston.
Sweet Rickey’s directorial roster includes Marc Colucci, DeMane Davis, Max Esposito, Max Gutierrez and Brett Karley. Colucci and Davis were both with Element Productions. Esposito, Gutierrez and Karley were freelancing prior to coming aboard Sweet Rickey. The lineup of directors has fluency across all media platforms, equally at home turning out experiential content as well as traditional broadcast TV advertising.
“Sweet Rickey was designed to be a fresh force for inspiring work,” said Lonborg. “The mission here is equal parts creativity and open client communication–transparency to foster seamless execution from treatment through delivery.”
Central to the Sweet Rickey community are planned events and screenings to bring people together to explore creativity in various forms and expressions. “Our industry is notorious for ingenuity and artistry but we need opportunities to step outside of our daily roles and appreciate it,” added Lonborg. “Our goal is to keep fires burning and spark imagination.”
Also in the Sweet Rickey/EDITBAR family are color and finishing crafters via remote collaboration with Nice Shoes and artist-owned audio house Sound Lounge. Now, with Sweet Rickey, production and postproduction assistance will be offered under one roof. Services may be packaged to provide agility, consistency, and above all, artistry for any approach.
Changes Afoot For Cannes Lions 2025, Including Increasing Festival Access For Underserved Communities
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is putting plans in motion for its 72nd edition, set to take place from June 16-20, 2025 in Cannes, France. The Festival has announced that it will double funding to provide €2m (some $2,150,000) worth of complimentary passes to underrepresented talent and underserved communities through its Equity, Representation and Accessibility (ERA) Pass, returning for a second year.
Frank Starling, chief DEI officer, Lions, said the increased investment was “crucial to continue to drive progress for both Cannes Lions and the industry.” Starling added, “The ERA pass plays an important role in fostering a global representation of talent within the creative communications industry at Cannes Lions, and to date our funded opportunities have reached creatives in 46 countries globally. With the Festival being the destination for everyone in the business of creativity, we recognize the importance of creating equitable access to it, and this is why we’re prioritizing increased representation from the Global South to support a greater range of voices and perspectives from the region at the Festival.” Applications for the ERA pass are open now and close on December 5, 2025. More details can be found here.
With submissions into the Cannes Lions Awards opening on January 16, 2025, innovations to the Awards have also been announced today. Glass: The Lion for Change celebrates 10 years since its introduction. The Glass Lion was launched to champion work that used creativity to drive a shift towards more positive, progressive and gender-aware communication, and Marian Brannelly, global... Read More