You may have read that UTA, one of the large Hollywood talent and literary agencies, has partnered with Spotrunner to start a “studio” called 60Frames, which will create video content to pair with brands. They see that many brands are unwilling to take a high-budget flyer with user generated content and see an opportunity to leverage their stables of professional writers, directors, and actors. In fact, the first film makers they are working with are the Coen brothers, which gives them some instant credibility. There is a lot to chew on here, but the story underneath the story is, I think, the canary in this coalmine.
Between UTA’s move and CAA’s finding VC money for Will Ferrell to develop funnyordie.com (no doubt you’re among the 40 million people who saw his first video, “The Landlord”), the Hollywood agencies seem to be looking beyond the ten percent business. In the short term, there’s a likely work stoppage coming when the writers guild likely goes on strike after their contract runs out. It is in the agencies’ interests to find non-Guild work for their talent in order to keep revenue coming in. But in the long term, the agencies may be doing what their clients have largely failed to do, which is get nimble and hedge against the decline of the old media business model by looking for new ways to monetize their assets. I think that just the first couple of kernals have popped and we may see a lot more new digital efforts coming out of the Hollywood talent community in the very near future.
Last week, Tracy Richards and I were at Ad Age’s Entertainment Marketer of the Year Awards, where two of the three honorees were friends of Organic. Jeff Bell, formerly of DCX and now of Xbox, was honored, as was Val Van Galder, President of Worldwide Marketing for Sony Pictures. On a panel, Jeff Blake, co-Chairman of the studio, was very blunt about how their media mix is changing and dollars are moving toward digital: "You've got to be brutal about getting off the stuff that doesn't work so much for you anymore, and moving on to the new stuff."
Matt Rosenberg
Strategists & Planners