The New Agency Model: Being a Movie Studio

Well, maybe not, but it does seem to be a new trend amongst agencies these days. Also, it makes sense to diversify in this way, especially with clients looking for more and more efficiencies (see recent adage article), with less offline production dollars coming in the door, and more smaller agencies stealing business away from larger global agencies (see another recent adage article). Here are some good examples of what I'm talking about:

1. Avec Eric co-produced by Anomaly (see Reuters article)

2. Somers Town by Mother London (see Campaign article)

3. Ginga by W+K Entertainment (see movie)

Somers Town by Mother London

It's not like this is brand new...I think WK Entertainment has been around since 2001 and how can you forget about Fallon and BMW Films, but when smaller shops start to get in the game you have to think about what this means. I think it all comes back to cost efficiencies: why pay bigger studios to produce work when you can have an agency, with the same pool of talent and resources do it for much cheaper. You can still sell advertising against it for the same cost and with the higher visibility of film festivals these days, such as Sundance, Cannes or Tribeca, you can generate a lot of enthusiasm and grass roots support. There's also the opportunity to create more impact with your target audience considering they are paying for or choosing to watch the film instead of being interrupted by ads.

UPDATE: just read about a new arm of Lowe called Lintas Production, which is slated to produce up to three feature films over the next three years