Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/100015
A recent Mill project is this Chest Drums spot for Old Spice. there���s an increasing demand for creative moving images across all media. The marketplace is growing and changing for us. We are trading in a very dynamic marketplace. ���It���s also a market in which great creative work is at a greater premium than ever because the more media there is, the more consumers act as natural selectors editing out messages that are not engaging. To get noticed and get traction [marketers] need to invest in quality and brilliant craft execution.��� WEAKNESSES: ���There���s a real weaknesses in viewing what we do as an afterthought. Businesses like ours have historically existed in the ���post��� part of the value chain, but we try to interact and influence the process of production as early as possible to make sure we���re able to add value. More and more, we���re involved earlier and in a way that is more collaborative; there are a zillion great reasons to engage us early.��� OPPORTUNITIES: ���When I started this business in London 23 years ago, it cost about half-a-million pounds to equip a single person with a color suite, edit suite or a Quantel Henry. Today, technology investments have become less: servers, storage and networking consume more money than front-end tools. Our most significant investment is in people ��� designers, art directors, people with skills in digital and motion graphics. The make up of our creative staff has never been more diverse and reflects all the different kinds of moving image content that we���re now involved in creating. ���Assets produced for broadcast can now be used in lots of different ways, which creates efficiencies for our clients and opportunities for us. When we worked on Nike���s Write the Future campaign for the Football World Cup with Wieden & Kennedy/Amsterdam, the three-minute spot debuted not on television but on Facebook and then went massively viral; the TV media spend was pretty limited. ���There are exciting new ways to collaborate with clients to travel their messages to different parts of the globe on different channels in ways that maintain the integrity of the advertising idea while engaging with an extremely discerning audience.��� THREATS: ���The biggest threat is probably related to the low barriers to entry that now exist due to cheaper technology and, as a consequence, a trend with some clients to view post production as a commodity. Some aspects of post are ripe for commoditization, and there are a number of companies in London, owned by advertising networks, that are sensibly taking in-house simple post work, like the foreign-language adaptation and versioning of projects for different geographies. Our niche is different: It���s creative work, and our challenge is to continually assert our creative credentials and the market value we add. We have to make sure we win the argument that we aren���t a technical service that anyone with technology can deliver but a creative business that only a small number of people in the world can prioritize at a high level.��� OUTLOOK FOR 2013: ���I feel optimistic about the outlook in the US and the UK.The US has been the bigger part of our group for a few years now, and the US advertising industry occupies a position of great advantage. The appetite for media in the US, the inventiveness, the willingness to try new things is enormously exciting and stimulating. ���We feel very good about the UK, too. The scale of the ad industry in the UK is smaller than in the US, but it���s also a great source of innovation, invention and interesting creative endeavor. Many agencies are doing remarkably well and continue to reinvent themselves. In fact, the UK continues to be a fertile market for new agency start-ups. ���Elsewhere in the world, we���re seeing quite a bit of work coming into The Mill NY and The Mill LA from South America, particularly with the growth of Brazil, along with work from mainland China and Singapore. As a business that acts as one company in three locations, we���re excited about the increasingly globalized nature of the industry.��� CHRIS CLAEYS Senior Editor/Senior Partner Cutters Studios www.cutters.com Chicago Cutters Studios is a collaboration of creative services ��� shoot, edit, audio, VFX, design, finish, interactive. Recent projects include the Disney Parks 2013 North America campaign, Capital One���s Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Fallon campaigns, commercials for State Farm, Oscar Meyer and Esurance, and Fiat���s upcoming Super Bowl spot. STRENGTHS: ���The greatest strength is the need for more content because of the Internet. For post houses that means you have to be flexible and diverse. What we do now is different from 10 years ago when we were largely posting :30 commercials. We still do quite a bit of that, but there are so many other types of work: Webisodes and short-form projects that originate in advertising but are not traditional advertising, plus a lot of internal corporate communications.��� WEAKNESSES: ���The flipside is that not all post production companies are necessarily good at diversification. It���s hard to wear all these hats and wear them well. www.postmagazine.com Post���������December���2012��� 19