1) I think we’re going to see the continuation of two key trends: The proliferation of brand direct engagements outside of traditional agency relationships, and the growth of higher volume/lower cost digital video content. We’re seeing more and more global brands building their own internal creative teams and agencies, bypassing the traditional agency model and coming to the production, VFX and post community directly. On the other end of the spectrum, the growth in mobile, social and digital video platforms is also driving new engagement models. Creatively there are new opportunities for companies like ours to provide end-to-end services, from core creative to editorial, VFX and post – for both traditional ‘high end’ work as well as low cost/high volume content.
2) At Deluxe we have multiple brands that face the feature film, TV and advertising communities. In general, features work is global, while advertising is local. Behind the curtain across our companies, we have been working to extend integrated global production capacity; giving our clients the ability to tap into global capacity, technology and creative resources anywhere in the world, but still offer a high-quality personal experience at a local level. It’s not our new year’s resolution – we’ve been doing this for some time. The focus is to extend and expand.
3) Get as much cash as you can up front. That’s not new; it’s just still true.
4) I’d like to get more sleep.