news archive
How to make money in new media 12.30pm Tuesday 2nd October at Framestore
The APA Branded Content Group invites you to "How to make money out
of new media for commercials producers" at 12.30pm Tuesday 2nd October at Framestore CFC 19-23 Wells Street W1.
The presentation is by media guru Mike Yershon.
Whilst at Colletts between 1973 and 1978 Mike worked with Frank Lowe,
John Salmon, Alan Waldie, Paul Weiland, Terry Lovelock and was involved in the Hovis, Heinekin, Benson & Hedges, Hamlet , Harveys Bristol Cream as well as all the other famous Colletts Campaigns. Alan Parker and Ridley Scott directed many of the agencies commercials over that period. David Puttnam was a client and Mike helped him by doing the media plan and buy for the Mahler film.
Mike led many creative media innovations. The first buy of a complete ad
break for a two minute commercial to launch the Ford Capri II. The
change to a metric length rate card so that spots could be created in units of 10 seconds. Purchasing all the space in Cinemas showing Jaws for Colletts clients.
In his own business Yershon Media which Mike set up in 1980 he was
involved with the setting up of Direct Line which revolutionised the selling
of motor insurance in the UK by selling policies off the screen. He was also involved with the setting up of Intelligent Finance in the 1990s
which was the Uk's first telephone and internet bank.
Recent clients include ensure and Sheilas Wheels.
After selling his business to create Carat the Uks largest
independent media company Mike went back to MacCan 20 years after he first left to help the agency save the Coca Cola and Nescafe accounts in media.
Please rsvp to info@a-p-a.net
Shots Forum this Thurdsday! (13.03.08)
Yes, our friends at shots are hosting Advertising But Not As We Know It.
Now in its 7th year, shots forum is the one-day event with creativity in
advertising at its heart. Leading creative visionaries from all four corners
of the globe will gather at the event to inspire, challenge and energise as
they discuss today's industry and tomorrow's trends, and showcase the most exciting and ideas-fuelled work out there.
Speakers include Malcolm Poynton, Chris Palmer, Dick Powell and Craig Davis.
To book go to www.shotsforum.net
APA 07 Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford, Friday 28th September
The APA 07 Collection will be screened at the National Media Museum, Bradford for the first time.
The Museum’s advertising exhibit includes an archive of the APA Collection and this screening marks a development of our relationship with the Museum, and their recognition of the significance of commercials, both in terms of creativity and as a record of social mores.
For details of the screening, including how to book, go to www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk
Green Production Guide Launch
APA Members are invited to the launch of the APA's Green Production Guide
At 10am, Tuesday 12th February at the Gennaro room, The Groucho, 45
Dean Street, London, W1
The guide will be introduced by:
Trewin Restorick – Director of Global Action Plan
Will Moore – Director of MooreSustainable and the author of the Green
Production Guide
The aim of the guide is to provide APA members with a system for
minimising the environmental impact of production which is practical and easily implemented.
As well as meeting that objective, the guide will also assist the advertisers and agencies which work with our members achieve their environmental objectives.
Happy New Year!
Looking forward to 2008:
We start with the new Masterclass commencing Monday 14th January. Places have now been allocated to the 70 successful applicants and we look forward to making sure they get the maximum benefit from the course.
The 100 new customers for APA members project gets underway this month too.
Dates will be fixed shortly for the APA Editors Showcase and for the Branded Content forum at BAFTA, to bring you up to date with the most insightful thinking into how advertising and the opportunities for APA members are developing.
Events for members at Cannes and the APA Show 2008 will take us through to the autumn.
We will also be marketing APA members in overseas markets, building on the impact made in Shanghai last November.
And of course we are here to help with your queries on production,
contracts, copyright, crew issues.
Shanghai London Advertising Forum 2007
The Shanghai London Advertising Forum 2007 is a brand new APA event. It takes place in Shanghai from 20th to 22nd November 2007.
Delegates from London, from the APA Membership: representatives of commercials production, post, editing and music companies will join with the Shanghai advertising industry to learn about each others work and explore the potential to work together.
The event launches on 20th November with a reception hosted by the British Consulate Shanghai, their are presentations all day on Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd November- with the delegates from London presenting to the theme "Why work with London"- a unique opportunity for the Chinese advertising industry to meet representatives of top production companies and directors, and top post editing, post and music cos from London- and for the UK delegates to hear from top Chinese advertising agencies and production companies, to enable the UK delegates to gain a real understanding of how they work and what they need.
The event concludes on the evening of 22nd November with a party hosted by shots magazine.
Rushes Soho Shorts
Rushes Soho Shorts commences Saturday 28th July. As London's premier short film festival, it gives you an opportunity to see short films, commercials and other short form content at venues around Soho. For details see http://www.rushes.co.uk/sohoshorts/sohoshorts.htm#.
Film London working for you
Film London are making filming in London easier.
They want to help commercials producers- and are doing so:
There Location of the Month is a Vodafone commercial shot at Marylebone Station by Simon Ratigan at HLA.
See http://www.filmlondon.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=814
Their June Location of the Month was also a commercial, with the streets of London featuring in a Ford commercial directed by Phillipe Andre at Bikini
TV advertising- latest from Thinkbox
Thinkbox's quarterly review, for Q2 2007, shows commercial viewing is up:
We now watch an average of 2.26 hours of commercial television per day, a rise of ten minutes a day on five years ago.
The most marked rise is in the 16-24 year old group and, within that, the ABC1's group- good news for advertisers who are not interested in old or poor people.
Commercial television now accounts for 62% of all viewing and its share of viewing continues to grow.
Commercials impacts are also up.
The review also lists the top TV advertising categories and top TV advertisers. See more at http://thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.678?refCode=newsletter147
MediaGuardian Changing Advertising Summit 2007
New media, new models, new rules, new results
Thursday October 4 2007, London
This one-day summit will bring together senior executives to examine the
challenges of modern advertising and how to engage with consumers in the digital age.
Book your place today at:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/commercial/advertisingsummit or call 01462
744054 for more information.
The Cannes report
Fireflies arrive safe and sound
A record number of Fireflies- 66 cyclists- arrived in Cannes to a hero's reception and are on course to push the total raised for Leuka, for leukemia research at Hammersmith Hospital, since the ride's inception, past £500,000.
See the Fireflies arrive in Cannes at www.cannesfringe.com (click on Wednesday).
Young Directors Award plays to a packed theatre
The Young Directors Award, which we stage with our partners in the CFPE, saw over 800 people pack the Hilton Theatre for the biggest event of the Cannes fringe.
Once again there were British winners (and more shorlisted):
Virals
First prize: SSSR at Passion Pictures
Second prize: Christian Bevilacqua at Therapy
European Broadcast:
First prize Arrun Bowyen at Bare
You can see coverage of the ceremony and some of the winning films at www.cannesfringe.com
The World Producers Summit looks to the future for producers
The WPS brings together 100 production company owners from around the world to consider the latest issues facing the industry. It's a unique opportunity to gain intelligence on the issues producers are facing up to, across the globe.
This year, we focused on the opportunities in non-traditional media, developing themes we have discussed within the APA Branded Content Group and the AICP have discussed within AICP.NEXT.
For Summit's thoughts are summarised in a short interview with Steve Davies and with Matt Miller, from the AICP,at www.cannesfringe.com (click on Thursday).
Straight 8 provides the fun
Straight 8, which we staged with Straight 8 and Rushes, saw 24 films shown at the Star cinema, with many of the film makers there to see the films they had made, for the first time.
Again, you can see coverage of Straight8 at www.cannesfringe.com (click on Friday)
Many congratulations to Patrick and the team at Draw Pictures for their
coverage of all these events and the success of www.cannesfringe.com, which brings events alive for those who missed them.
CONGRATULATIONS MASTERCLASS STUDENTS 2007!!
Many congratulations to all our Masterclass students who successfully completed the course - it was great to see so many of you receive your certificates at the graduation ceremony last night, at Café 1001, 91 Brick Lane, E1, in conjunction with 'Short and Sweet'
Please click here to see photos from the evening.
Thank you again to all our course leaders and tutors, and to everyone who contributed to make this year's course, truly fabulous!"
Audi TV- the story of the biggest branded content project to date
Wednesday 23rd May saw a packed Framestore CFC cinema here from Mark Boyd, from BBH- the brains behind Audi TV.
Mark explained Audi's objectives, how they went about developing content- to run over the 24 hours a day, seven day a week channel ( Ch 884 on Sky)- and assessed its effectiveness.
With BBH approached to produce channels for other advertisers and clients
who have not used TV because they regarded media time as too expensive,
wanting screen advertising produced, this opens up an area of vast potential for APA members.
UK branded content at Belgrade Design Week
Belgrade Design Week drew an audience of 600 to a conference to hear the latest developments in advertising, design and architecture.
Belgrade Design Week is an excellent festival, which enables the
participants to be brought up to date with the latest projects and thinking
in these areas, from top architects, such as Rem Koolhaus and Droog Design and designers, such as Ora Ito and Matali Crasset.
The APA was invited to demonstrate the latest projects from London in
Branded Content, reinforcing London's reputation- and that of APA members, in particular, as leading the world in creating branded content projects that work for advertisers.
For more information please visit www.belgradedesignweek.com
APA Meeting report
Over 50 APA members attended the APA members meeting on the 26th April.
Among the items discussed were insurance issues relating to studios and locations, carbon neutral production,
Fireflies and Cannes.
Philip Thomas, the new Chief Executive of Cannes, attended to discuss with APA members why they do not become delegates at Cannes and what Cannes would need to do to persuade them to do so.
The meeting also got an update on the APA Show and on our plans to market APA members in China- following on from our research into the potential of the Chinese advertising market for APA members (downloadable- left) the APA is organising the Shanghai-London Advertising Forum 2007, in November.
It will centre around two days of presentations by the APA members who attend and Chinese agencies and production companies and will be an opportunity for the UK commercials production industry to build strong links with this rapidly developing market.
APA members will be invited to a meeting, shortly, in which they will be able to register their interest in being part of the Shanghai-London Advertising Forum 2007.
Fireflies 2007
The APA is organising Fireflies 2007. Fireflies is a cycle ride from Geneva to Cannes, arriving in the advertising festival. It grew out of RSA and is now in its 6th year, over which time it has raised over half a million pounds for Leuka, the charity which provides equipment and support for the leukemia unit at Hammersmith Hospital, helping it to develop its world class research and equipment and advances which has improved the survival rate of leukemia sufferers.
Fireflies at the APA is organised by
Fran Thompson, with the assistance of Anna Tracey (production manager) and Laine Lindsey Law (sponsorship producer).
Fireflies is now the official charity of the commercials production industry and we look to create an event which will generate over £100,000 net per year for
Leuka.
www.thefirefliesride.comIPA study predicts exponential growth for television advertising
The IPA's report "The Future of Advertising and Agencies", written by
The Future Foundation, looks at the future of advertising, analysing
trends and the opportunities for the industry.
Within it is a new definition of marketing communications,
categorising them as:
Display v Classified
One way v Two way
Named v Not named
Screen v Non screen
The IPA's prediction is for "exponential growth in screen
advertising" and, in the words of IPA Director General, Hamish Pringle
"creators of good quality short form content will prosper".
The chart below shows the IPA's prediction for the growth of screen
based advertising- with the central line marking the median estimate
of growth.
For more information on The Future of Advertising and Agencies or to
buy a copy of the report, go to
www.ipa.co.ukFirst APA Editors Showcase rocks!
Our Editors Showcase at the Soho Hotel featured work from Cut and Run, Final Cut, Johnny Bongo, Marshall Street Editors, Speade, The Quarry, The Whitehouse, Wilcox & Wilcox and Work Post.
The great variety of work commercials editors showed to showcase their expertise, from award winning commercials, to new projects, music videos and even a vampire film, entertained the audience and reminded us of the contribution editors make to the process of great film making and the abundance of editing talent we have here in London.
John Smith, from The Whitehouse, who introduced the event explained: "The purpose of the night is to help raise awareness and the profile of what we do here in London, and to show off a selection of the work we've all done over the past year or so, even if it is only to each other. This showcase isn't a competition, there are no prizes to be given out, we just sit and watch,our own work,our peers work, and celebrate what is an amazing craft ,which when used properly, can make people laugh and cry, educate and inform,...or just sell sausages."
A great insight into Branded Content
Our Branded Content conference at BAFTA brought 170 people from the APA membership and agencies, including delegates from Europe, together to hear the latest thinking on Branded Content. All the presentations were excellent and provided genuine insights into the future for producers of commercials.
Micky Tudor (CHI) spoke about how to engage consumers across media, demonstrating this by way of a film showing him presenting his talk on the street outside BAFTA, to the bemusement of shoppers, demonstrating his point about the need to engage. He also spoke about the need for brands to ensure they were not seduced by the opportunities of new media into going off-brand.
Mark Cridge (Glue) shared his insights into the keys to success in new media " a good idea, brought to life with good craft skills, with intelligent thought applied to deciding the best channels to utilise."
Steven Hess from Weapon 7 reinforced the importance of all material reflecting the brand's values but also stressed the importance of understanding the different contexts different media provide.
Hamish Pringle from the IPA introduced the major new report from the IPA on the future of advertising. The report redefines advertising as, for example, screen and non-screen, envisaging that commercials on television or on a telephone, for example, will be seen as one solution to the advertisers objectives.
Vanella Jackson from Hall and partners explained how research models for branded content were now in place, to be used to establish that it produced returns for advertisers
Tess Alps from Thinkbox explained why television advertising has a bright future in the branded content future (see Thinkbox below).
Kathryn Parsons from Ogilvy told us about the success of their project for Save the Children Fund on Second Life.
Marc Giusti from Good Technology explained the success of their launch of the Audi RS4 over a wide variety of media, from TV to the internet.
Jess Greenwood from Contagious concluded the event with an insightful look at the best of branded content from around the world.
The tone of the event was markedly different from last year, with anxiety replaced by enthusiasm as to the prospects for producers in a world in which consumers will see a great deal more audio-visual advertising and where it will be even more important to advertisers that the content they create is creative and engaging and makes an impact.
We are all doomed- except we're not
Thinkbox, the organisation that represents the commercials broadcasters (see www.thinkbox.tv) organised Thinkbox Experience, which brought 500 top agency planners and marketing managers of advertisers, among others, together to learn about the latest trends in television advertising. The message was clear: – saying the 30 second commercial is dead, is dead.
Tess Alps from Thinkbox explained how:
The proportion of our viewing which is of channels carrying commercials increases every year.
We watch 3.6 hours TV per day on average- more than 5 years ago.
In 2006 we watched 2.2 billion commercials every day- the highest figure ever.
16-24 year olds- sometimes said to be the key audience TV is losing relevance to- watched 3.8% more commercials in 2006, to reach their highest level of viewing of commercials ever.
People with PVR's. like Sky+ spent 86% of their viewing time watching live TV and watched 20 minutes per day of television on average- seeing more commercials overall, despite forwarding through the breaks on programmes they had recorded, than people without PVR's.
Simon Marquis summarises the new and sunny view of the future of tv advertising in the Media Guardian (5th March 2007) at http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2026426,00.html.
ukshowreels redesign
ukshowreels, the website that enables agencies around the world to view APA member's reels online is now even better. With our partners in the site, Beam TV, we have developed new features and a new look to the site, following a consultation with users of the site. Apart from being clearer and easier to use, the site now shows the top five most viewed showreels over the past month and the five newest showreels.
China
Following our fact finding visit to agencies and production companies in Shanghai, the APA has prepared a report for its members entitled China: the opportunities for APA members and is planning to take a delegation of APA members to Shanghai later this year, to enable members to explore the potential of the Chinese advertising market for themselves, based around a two day event in Shanghai for agencies and production companies based there, organised by the APA in conjunction with the trade section of the British Consulate in Shanghai. To down-load this report, please click on 'APA China Report' in the right hand column.
Advertising and TV commercials outlook for 2007
We have seen a busier start to the year for production than for some time but what does the rest of the year hold? The IPA's Bellweather report (15th January 2007) shows new budget setting by marketing directors of 250 Uk companies for 2007-8 to be its most buoyant for seven years. The strongest growth is in internet advertising but all media, including main media, which includes television, show the strongest upturn in budgets since 2001.
The Bellwether report anticipates the market because it is based on marketing directors budget but an analysis of actual advertising expenditure over the past five years shows that the predictions it makes are very accurate.
The Financial Times (15th Jan) reported a more gloomy picture from Channel Four and ITV, with both showing reduced ad revenue for 2006 and predicting a further fall for 2007. Unfortunately, this decline in the share of the viewing public for the main commercial channels leads analysts to conclude that television advertising is in the doldrums, ignoring the fact that as multichannel households grow, viewers are inevitably spread over more channels but that a higher percentage of viewing is of commercial channels than ever before.
APA 50 in Tokyo, Stockholm and Copenhagen
The advertising community of each of these cities invited us to present the APA50. All of the events were very well organised- we simply showed up and presented the APA50. At each city it was extremely well received, which is a testament to the expertise of our members and agencies in the UK.
These events provide us with an opportunity to promote APA members to overseas markets.
Commercials Producers and the Internet
Seventy APA members gathered at the Framestore CFC cinema for the APA Branded Content Group's seminar on commercials producers and the internet. It provided insights into the value of the internet as an advertising medium and the type of creative work that is proving succesfull. Our thanks to Guy Phillipson and Kieron Matthews from the Internet Advertising Bureau for an excellent presentation.
New APA Council
The new APA Council is
| Name |
Company |
| Mark Benson |
MPC |
| Robert Campbell |
Outsider |
| Karen Cunningham |
The Pink Film Company |
| Lizie Gower |
Academy |
| Cathy Green |
Another Film Company |
| Adrian Harrison |
Streetlight Films |
| Kai Lu-Hsiung |
RSA Films |
| Tim Katz |
Knucklehead |
| Hector Macleod |
Glassworks |
| Amanda Martin |
2am Films |
| Kate O'Mulloy |
The Whitehouse |
| Richard Packer |
Independent Films |
| Paul Rothwell |
Gorgeous Enterprises |
| Madeleine Sanderson |
Partizan |
| James Studholme |
Blink Productions |
| Debbie Turner |
MJZ |
| John Hackney |
President of the APA Council |
| Lewis More O'Ferrall |
President of the APA Council |
| Stephen Davies |
Chief Executive of the APA |
We look forward to working with the new Council for the benefit of all our members and would like to extend our thanks to all the candidates.
APA Show 2006 Wow!
7th September saw the APA Show at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Once again, the show was a sell out and the audience of 750 saw the premiere of the APA 50 and enjoyed what is becoming the most popular event in the London advertising calendar. The APA 50 will now be distributed as a DVD in the next issue of shots (which carries a special supplement on London production) and at events in Japan, China, Denmark and Sweden, to promote the expertise of the creators of these great commercials and to demonstrate the continuing power of television advertising.
To see the photos from the APA Show 2006,
click here
To purchase a copy of the APA 50 DVD exclusively through Shots
APA 50 DVD in shots
hereCannes 2006 Report
A very successful Cannes for APA members
For the APA, the main focus of Cannes was the World Producers Summit and the Young Directors Award that we organise with the other European Producers Association as Commercial Film Producers Europe.
The Young Directors Award, (YDA) which has become the biggest event outside the official festival, enabled an audience of 800 to see the best work from new directors, at the Hilton cinema on the Croisette.
UK production companies were among the prizes again – the only country which has achieved that in each of the seven years the YDA has been running. This year, Daniel Wolfe from Pagan won second prize in the European test commercial category and Chris Cairns from Partizan won second prize in the viral category.
APA members did spectacularly well in the Cannes Lions, with NOITULOVE directed by Danny Kleinman, post produced by Framestore CFC and editied by Cut and Run, winning the Grand Prix and Academy, Partizan, Stink, MJZ and Gorgeous all winning Gold. The Palme D'Or for top production company went to MJZ USA but 5 of the top 11 most successful production companies in the world were from London.
World Producers Summit in Cannes 2006
The World Producers Summit, which we organise with our colleagues in Europe and the AICP, with the support of Kodak, saw 100 production company owners and producers from 27 countries gather to discuss the future of the industry and to share intelligence on the threats and opportunities in production worldwide.
The format of the event is that each table of ten discusses issues identified in advance over lunch and then summarises its findings in a whole room discussion.
Among the topics discussed were:
-shooting internationally: service company issues and payments to the company lending a director.
-Client preferred supplier list.
-Costs of doing business, including treatments, and which of these should be passed on.
-Issues specific to particular markets and how producers there – and their producers' associations had tackled them.
It was a very useful discussion, inevitably throwing up more questions than answers but enabling the producers and producers associations present to be very well informed about issues facing the industry worldwide, that will inform the strategies we develop for our individual markets.
The UK delegates were:
Heather Wright – Aardman
Amanda Martin – 2am Films
Philippa Thomas – Thomas Thomas Films
Patrick Holtkamp – Draw Pictures
Debbie Mendoza – Mendoza Film
Rob Sanders – Amarillo
Tom SHard – Amarillo
John Doris – Mustard
Giles Skillicorn – Moon
Yanina Barry – Good Film Company
Colin Offland – Chief TV
Spencer Friend – Joyrider
John Hackney – APA
Lewis More O'Ferrall – APA
Masterclass Graduation
This years record number of APA Masterclass Graduates received their certificates and our congratulations at the Moving Picture Company on Monday 5th June. To see pictures of the graduates of APA Masterclass 2006
click here.
We are grateful to the speakers and tutors and to all our members and advertising agencies who have made the Masterclass such a success.
New Producing Advertising Commercials guidelines
The APA, IPA and ISBA have revised the Producing Advertising Commercials best practice guide.
The guide is regarded as the bible of commercials production, not just in the UK but overseas.
Given it was last revised in 1996, changes were needed to bring it up to date. It is now available in electronic form,
rather than as a book, and you can download it
here or under the "Producing Commercials" icon on the left.
Copyright Law - Essential Points for Producers
The APA have teamed up with leading law firm CMS Cameron McKenna to produce Copyright Law - Essential Points for Producers. It provides ten essential points on copyright law for commercials producers and an explanation of copyright law and other areas of intellectual property. It is a practical guide, designed to help our members understand what copyright law permits them to do and the pitfalls to avoid.
Click here to read Copyright Law - Essential Points for Producers.
New service company draft agreement under Draft Agreements
Log in and click "Draft Agreements to see the new draft agreement- a blueprint to contract a service company.
There is a new draft agreement for you to use when engaging a service company on the APA website. In comparison with the draft it replaces:
it makes the payment process/calculation simpler.
it says the mark up will not be reduced. It does that to remove the disincentive to the service co of reducing costs that its mark up would also be reduced. If you do not want to contract the service co on that basis, you will need to amend this section.
insurance - who insures what - is more comprehensive.
it adds (in point 8) that if the service co agree to pay cast with the agency, they are not to drag the prod co into it- something that some APA members have identified as a potential problem.
it adds a few subsidiary points, such as confidentiality.
As with all the template documents on the website, you need to check that the draft provisions reflect what you want to agree and alter them if they do not.
For some productions, the production company sometimes relies on an oral agreement between themselves and the service company. We recommend that a contract is signed, even when the production company is entirely confident in the service company because it reduces the prospect of their being a misunderstanding about an area of responsibility.
Please log in and click here to view the new draft service company agreement.Commercial Film Producers Young Directors Award
The APA, as part of the CFPE, is organising the Young Directors Award in Cannes. The YDA has become the biggest and most successful event outside the Cannes Lions festival. Young directors from APA member companies have enjoyed considerable success in the competition over the years and winners have enjoyed a significant boost in getting their careers as commercials directors going.
Sponsors play a big part in the success of the event- their support enables us to make the YDA awards free to enter and free to attend.
The entry deadline is 20th April 2006- see www.yda2006.com for details of categories, eligibility and how to enter.www.a-p-a.net the number one place to find commercials production staff
Our job vacancies section is now the best place to find new staff or to advertise that you are looking to work for APA members. Member companies report that posting details of a vacancy provides them with high calibre applicants, quickly- and it's free for APA members.TV advertising expenditure figures and forecasts and media consumption trends
The latest predictions on TV advertising expenditure from ZenithOptimedia are for TV advertising expenditure to rise by 3.3% in 2006- despite a 5% fall in the first quarter.
The IPA's Touchpoints survey- described as "the most ambitious piece of media research undertaken for a generation"- is a comprehensive study of media consumption trends, based on a survey of over 5,000 people. It shows that TV is still the lead advertising media.
Click for details.
Branded Content Conference a success
 | |
The APA and IPA Branded Content conference at BAFTA on 1st February drew 170 delegates. Over the afternoon, the delegates from production companies and agencies and post production- with some of them coming in from Finland, Sweden and Belgium, heard great presentations covering the whole spectrum of Branded Content-
Seb Royce, Creative Director of Glue London gave an overview, followed by Alex West who explained the latest thinking. Chalres Mills from twofour- the biggest producers of branded programming gave an interesting case study on a series they had produced on digital photography, funded by Epson.
Two further case studies followed- Matt Smith, co-founder of The Viral Factory- shared his insights into how virals were growing up and where they go from here.
Simon Whalley from Framestore and Nic Gorey and Charlie O'Farrell from Flix explained a project they have worked on together to produce content for mobiles.
David Docherty, ex head of strategy at the BBC and ex Chairman of Flextech shared his fascinating view of how the digital world has evolved and where it is going.
Nick Walford, MD Mindshare Performance explained how he persuaded clients to use Branded Content to communicate with consumers.
We reached a lively conclusion with an interesting panel of speakers looking at how they saw the digital future and what they would do to respond to it if they were running an advertising agency.- see photo of the panel.
The Location Guide
"The essential guide for location filming worldwide"
The Location Guide has recently launched a completely new free website www.thelocationguide.com with an online Pre Production Forum allowing production companies to post locations briefs online and to connect directly with production service companies, location finders and fixers globally.
To check this out please click on www.thelocationguide.com and see all the new functionalities out for yourself.
To mark the recent relaunch of www.thelocationguide.com, The Location Guide is offering all APA members 20% off The Location Guide 2005/06 at only £56. To order your copy please call 0207 297 3393 or email clara.le@thelocationguide.com
Masterclass 2006
Masterclass 2006 is now underway, with a record number of students and has got off to a great start with Dave Waters and Nick Southgate from dfgw explaining how an agency works on session one, Sarah Martin explaining the role of an agency producer in session two and Tim Katz and Tim Page explaining the expertise required by a production company producer in session three. All excellent presentations, which the students have very much appreciated.
APA Japan update
Click here to read the APA Japan report November 2005:
"The market for the production of TV commercials in Japan for UK production, post and editing companies"
The APA presented the APA 50 and met with leading agencies and production companies in Japan.
The objective of the presentations was to build upon the success of last years visit, where 35 APA members went to Tokyo- and made a great impact. Since then, there has been a significant increase in work between London and Tokyo for APA members.
Recognising the value of that, the DTI met the cost of this years trip.
The agencies and production companies we met with in Tokyo were eager to see the latest work from the UK and to develop their relationships with APA members. We get a great reception because the Japanese advertising community know that the work that comes from the UK will be exciting.
We have a host of insights into the industry in Japan, which we will publish in a report for members and of contacts in Japan, which members can access.
For more on the APA in Japan, including the impact the APA 50 made in the Japanese advertising festival, see today's shots newsletter
APA Music Production Group launch
The APA and the founder members of the group- Aardvark, Adelphoi, Amber, Beetroot and Finger, launched the APA Music Production Group with an event on Wednesday 9th November. The aim of the group is to promote the use of music composed for commercials and the understanding of the commissioning process. And with 48 of the APA50 using pre-existing music tracks, the need for composers and producers of original music for commercials is pressing.
TV Advertising Works
Television is a unique advertising medium. Media comparisons focus on the time which consumers spend engaging with various media. Newer, more sophisticated, research methods investigate how individual media work and how effective they are.
Go figure TV Advertising from Media Guardian 21st November shows how television commercials- far from making viewers tune out- engage parts of the viewers brain which are suppressed when they are watching programmes. The research is believed to be the first to use neuroscience in this way. It also draws interesting conclusions as to commercials being more impactful in terms of brain activity, in terms of the relationship between the commercial and the programme it is part of. Click to read Go Figure TV Advertising.
Professor Geoffrey Beattie – Professor of Psychology, University of Manchester, undertook research entitled TV and the Brain, which shows tested recall of advertising of an imaginary product by different methods. His findings were that in terms of recall of information and what could be remembered of the advertising some months later, TV was very substantially more effective than other media. Again, a fascinating study, which you can read by click on TV and the Brain.
Thinkbox.tv is the initiative of the UK's commercial broadcasters, which the APA supports. Thinkbox- see www.thinkbox.tv – provides research for advertisers, explaining that, for example:
• TV is growing
• TV is less complicated than you think
• TV works for all budgets
• TV is accountable
• TV is targeted
• TV is innovative
• TV is trend setting
Viral contract
We have added a template contract for the production of a viral contract to the documents under draft agreements. It is based on the commercials agreement, with a couple of important changes- use of the commercial is restricted to the internet and the process of agency approvals, attendances etc is streamline.
The agreement could be used as a basis for a contract for any non-tv/cinema production.
It is one of a number of agreements under "draft agreements" available to members logging in.
Job Vacancies
Have you looked at our Job Vacancies site for all your company's vacancies. There are a number of positions available from Senior Producer, Directors Rep, Office Manager/PA and those most valuable of all – Runners.
APA Office
The APA is now at 47 Beak Street, London, W1F 9SE. Click on "where to find us" for a map and contact details.
