BBDO Worldwide looks to draw on talents of influencers, filmmakers and more as it launches agency crowdsourcing platform, Flare Studio
In light of the increasing demand for video content from brands, BBDO Worldwide has launched what it believes to be the first ever agency, or network, crowdsourcing platform.
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The group has unveiled Flare Studio, a curated crowdsourcing initiative which will create "diverse and authentic," video content for online audiences. The offering will be led by AMV BBDO out of London, giving clients access to a global talent pool of creatives, influencers, filmmakers, production companies and more.
The platform will build on the social and digital capabilities of the network's in-house content division, Flare, which launched two years ago and now operates in 12 BBDO offices globally. The content arm has produced work for Mars, Pepsi and government road safety initiative, Think.
Creatives and directors in the Flare Studio database will be invited to compete for briefs posted on behalf of BBDO agencies and their clients, with the model built on a system of tiers which can deliver content to accommodate different solutions and budgets.
"There is an insatiable demand for video content," said Ian Pearman, chief executive at AMV BBDO, adding: "Flare Studio has been created to help our clients meet this exploding demand, and to demonstrate how BBDO can handle this increased volume, quickly, efficiently and with the highest level of creativity on a global scale. We call it curated crowdsourcing."
Mars has inked a deal to use the platform as an inaugural partner, with the global chief marketing officer for the company's Petcare division, Leonid Sudakov, calling it a "massive transformation," in the content production space.
"This is a demonstration of our belief in uncommon collaboration both internally and externally with the goal to create the most relevant and impactful content for our brands."
Along with Flare Studio, the FMCG giant is also teaming up with the National Film And Television School (NFTS) for the launch as a way to give back to the content-making community.
The two companies will offer £25,000 scholarships to the National Film and Television School via a new initiative dubbed The Flare Foundation which will put a portion of its sales revenue into training those who are active on the crowdsourcing channel in 2017.
Commented Nik Powell, NFTS director, “Flare Studio and the concept of curated crowdsourcing is an incredibly exciting and progressive idea that our students are most certainly going to benefit from. We are extremely grateful for Mars and BBDO’s support in giving our students this opportunity as well as the scholarship. We take this area of creative filmmaking very seriously and have recently announced a new Directing Commercials and Promos Diploma which will start in January 2017, and we expect the students who enrol in this exciting new course to be very involved in our work with Flare Studio.”
It is expected that Flare Studio will be rolled out across the BBDO network in 2017.