After two decades of spearheading creative and strategic initiatives both on the client side (ABC, Universal) and the service side (Pittard Sullivan, Trailer Park), Curt Doty has joined legendary creative consultancy Bemis Balkind, and will spearhead the agency’s newly expanded Digital Group in the next phase of its client offerings in the areas of digital content, advertising, and distribution. Doty will serve the company as both its GM and as Executive Creative Director, Digital.
For the past several years, Bemis Balkind’s digital services have been focused primarily on the creation of websites and banner advertising campaigns promoting major theatrical releases. With Doty onboard, the agency is, today, now positioned to build the groundbreaking platforms and coherent interfaces that will deliver user-centric design and dynamic content to an increasingly savvy and connected consumer. Doty will weave the agency’s existing digital service capabilities into the newly expanded Digital Group, which, under his wing, will work closely with major corporations and media companies, helping them to make sense of their digital futures.
Bemis Balkind is a multi-award winning, renowned and highly regarded creative agency which designed and implemented campaigns for many of the biggest motion pictures hits recently, including Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland 3D,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Black Swan,” “Bad Teacher” and “Shrek,” with Mr. Bemis even featured in Morgan Spurlock’s recent documentary “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.” Historically, the agency crafted the infamous campaigns behind “Rosemary’s Baby” (“Pray for Rosemary’s Baby”), “Alien” (including the tagline, “In Space No One Can Hear You Scream”), “Superman,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Forrest Gump,” and countless others.
In addition to its theatrical work, Bemis Balkind has also stood at the forefront of countless media revolutions, from launching cable TV giants CNN, HBO, and ESPN, (complementing Doty’s branding of over 20 TV networks in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including Star TV, CBS, ABC and FX) to allowing true multi- platform information sharing with Adobe Acrobat. Always industry agnostic, the agency also guided IBM through its transition from mainframe to desktop, and repositioned Goldman Sachs for its IPO.
“I’m incredibly excited to be here, because these guys have innovation in their DNA,” says Doty. “We’ve been on parallel paths all our careers, helping clients through complex and difficult sea changes in the media and business landscape – from broadcast to cable in the ’80s, theatrical to home entertainment in the ’90s, and brick and mortar to e-commerce at the millennium. Recently the music and publishing businesses have also been revolutionized, TV is appearing on computers and tablets, movie consumption and distribution is on the verge of exploding into a multitude of different platforms, and books have turned into immersive interactive experiences. I feel it was inevitable that I would wind up here.”
Recently relocated to Los Angeles from New York, Aubrey Balkind, Chairman of Bemis Balkind and formerly CEO of Frankfurt Balkind, said, “It’s an exciting opportunity to bring Curt Doty to our agency. His record of success is enviable, and his expertise in building infrastructure enormous. Creating a user-centric interface for consumers is vital to the success of our clients, both in and out of the entertainment industry. We can now become true co-creators with our diverse array of clients and their consumers.”
Bemis Balkind President Peter Bemis adds, “What I like most about Curt is that at heart he is a designer and a creative. The key for us is creating beautiful, simple, user-centric design. Without that, the consumer has got nothing to be passionate about, and the client’s brand expression suffers. I believe that Curt’s expertise across the full digital spectrum will elevate our client’s marketing campaigns to the next level.”
“We see a world where we collaborate and participate with the consumer instead of just talk at them,” continues Balkind. “We want to empower people to create and, in a sense, socialize their own campaigns. There are all these new ways of delivering content today, whether it be on TV, PC, smart phone, tablet or eReader. We can provide the word and image elements that will begin meaningful conversations that evolve into cultural memes. The power of real people talking and delivering coherent messages to each other is enormous. For most people, especially young people, advertising feels like an uninvited guest. We now have the opportunity to seamlessly embed marketing within entertainment and entertainment within marketing, to become a welcome and integral part of people’s lives.”
Doty becomes the third Executive Creative Director with Bemis Balkind, along with Charles Reimers, formerly one of the founders of Crew Creative, and Kishan Muthucumaru, formerly of 30 Sixty Advertising.
About Curt Doty
Creative Executive, Creative Director, Designer and Director Curt Doty has over 20 years of leadership experience across the entertainment, marketing and branding universe.
Prior to joining Bemis Balkind, Doty launched and served as President of the Advanced Content Group for entertainment marketing agency Trailer Park, where he focused on user experience, building and leading design and development teams that focused on creating Mobile and TV apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, Silverlight, Xbox and Google TV. By forming mobile and iTV units, Doty quickly expanded Trailer Park’s clientele into new markets, mobilizing such brands as E!, G4, ING and El Pollo Loco. iTV projects included those for Comcast and NBC.
Additionally, Doty became a leader in the nascent digital publishing industry, by developing immersive reading experiences for eReaders and tablets, including the introduction of video and animation to eBooks.
An Art Center College of Design graduate, Doty got his start at ABC, designing on air for ABC News and ABC Sports. He later moved on to work in entertainment design, promotion, branding and integrated media at branding agencies Pittard Sullivan and 3 Ring Circus. At Pittard, Doty grew to the role of EVP and Executive Creative Director, responsible for the product, process and structure of the entire company. He led creative strategy and development, design, creative resources management and creative direction for marketing entertainment, media and technology brands worldwide. Doty’s clients during this time included ABC, FX, EA Sports, Electronic Arts, SAT.1, Kabel 1, TV Guide Channel and Discovery.
In 2004, Doty was recruited into the home entertainment world of Universal Pictures. There he created successful campaigns for “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” “Serenity,” “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army.” He was actively involved in home entertainment campaigns for a number of Dreamworks and Focus Features titles, including “Shrek 2,” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Doty oversaw AV, online, print advertising and packaging for Universal Studios Home Entertainment releases and creatively led the industry through the transition from DVD to HD DVD and Blu-Ray.
About Bemis Balkind
Bemis Balkind’s DNA is firmly rooted in the disciplines of strategic business consulting, design and advertising. The chemistry ignited in New York in 1968 when Steve Frankfurt (President of Young and Rubicam and inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame) and Phil Gips (an internationally recognized Yale designer) joined together to create the industry changing advertising campaign for the classic film “Rosemary’s Baby.” Since that time, Bemis Balkind has led some of the most iconic and groundbreaking campaigns of the last forty years. They had the foresight in 1968 for viral marketing (placing classified ads announcing “Pray for Rosemary’s Baby”) and coined the iconic “In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream” for “Alien.” Other milestone campaigns included those for “Superman,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Forrest Gump,” and many more.
In 1972, Aubrey Balkind (Columbia MBA with post graduate studies in Architecture and Design) joined his partners and the agency began to add corporate, financial and technology clients to its growing entertainment base. An office was opened in LA in 1987, focusing on entertainment and in San Francisco in 1991 serving technology clients. In 1997, Aubrey received Ernst and Young’s “Industry Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
In 2002, as Frankfurt Balkind, the company’s center of gravity moved from New York to Los Angeles and under the leadership of former Grey Advertising International Creative Director Peter Bemis, (recipient of the rarely awarded “Hollywood Lifetime Achievement Award) changed the name to Bemis Balkind. Bemis recently oversaw the campaign for the Academy Award Winning Film “Black Swan” and chaired the print jury for the Key Art/Clio Awards.
From traditional to new media, Bemis Balkind’s core mission has never wavered: “Use the power of creativity to involve audiences in newly created cultural memes.” The majority of their assignments require launching new products, whether movies (Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland 3D,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Black Swan,” “Bad Teacher,” and “Shrek”), companies (IBM, Chase, Pitney Bowes, Time Warner), networks (CNN, HBO and ESPN,) Internet properties (About.com, ML.com and GS.com,) retail brands (The Limited, Bath and Body Works) or physical venues (The Getty Center.) Bemis Balkind is equally at home with David Lynch or Merrill Lynch.
On a macro level, Bemis Balkind has helped launch new industries like premium cable (HBO), 24-hour news (CNN) and sports (ESPN) and even Internet delivered financial services (Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch). The company is located at 6135 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048, and at 134 Spring Street #302, New York, NY 10012. For more information, please see www.bemisbalkind.com.
