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The Gate Films to put spotlight on online entertainment

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

August 6, 2008 | 3 min read

Production firm The Gate Films has announced a collaborative partnership to both create and research online drama and entertainment.

The Gate Films and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama are to team up to produce a range of content and then, with the involvement of an as yet unnamed university, study the spread and impact of the programming.

The team is currently hunting for an appropriate brand to tie-in to the first project, which is set to take the form of an episodic drama, and for the commercial effectiveness to be a key strand of the study.

Speaking about the announcement Simon Lewis, MD of the Gate Films, said: “I’m fully aware that in reality branded content is nothing new – we’ve all been producing it for years in one form or another – but what really appealed to me about this partnership was the opportunity to actually go out and produce what a lot of people in the industry have been hypothesising for a couple of years now; quality programming online with a brand at it’s core.

"The RSAMD has the talent and resources to allow us as a production company to really maximise our filmmaking strengths so that we can make exceptionally creative, engaging content that delivers in a commercial sense”.

The research is expected to produce a range of new measures by which the industry can judge the impact of ad funded programming online with the aim of moving beyond cursory measures of hits, click through and time spent on the site.

Lewis continues, “there have been great movements forward in terms of measuring ROI online but programming remains somewhat unchartered territory so that until now brands or channels have been satisfied to look at surface figures. Through this partnership we want to expand that and put forward a new model that allows agencies to pitch online programming concepts to their clients with true confidence”.

The intention is that the first content will go live before the end of the year. Although yet to be confirmed, it is thought that the first brand to be involved in the project will be a charity and that the creative will come from the Gate Lab which was launched as a platform for creatives earlier this year.

Leading the co-ordination with the RSAMD will be BAFTA nominee Cosmo Wallace who has already worked on a number of commercial projects with the Gate Films.

Wallace said: “Both myself and The Gate feel that the Internet is rapidly becoming a more mature viewing space where – especially when you consider the increasing convergence of platforms – viewers are expecting a better quality of entertainment. We’d like to show that an ad funded model doesn’t have to awkwardly shoe-horn brands into the viewing space.”

The RSAMD has opened up its resources for the project including studios, over 300 actors, props and wardrobe.

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