Chelsea Pictures, a production and talent management company, uses Wiredrive to actively track the progress of creative work and create a centralized hub for collaboration in order to perennially collaborate with the industry’s best. Their work across broadcast, digital, film, TV, branded entertainment, and print has garnered the industry’s top accolades, and the work of their directors has been showcased at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, among others.

Always ‘Unstoppable’ Commercial via Chelsea

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Taking communication to the next level

Wiredrive is a key component to simplifying Chelsea Pictures’ work processes, from project management to group meetings. The ease of access to information from past and current projects and clients keeps communication running smoothly within the team, as well as with partners and clients. Whether they’re trying to find a specific director or an updated rough cut, Chelsea Pictures relies on Wiredrive as a content repository that’s crucial to decision making.

“We have team conference calls on Monday mornings to talk about what the week ahead looks like and what’s happening in production. We use Wiredrive as a way to communicate with our reps, executive producers, and everyone in the company about everything our directors are doing,” explains Allison Amon, co-founder and partner.

“One of the reasons we started sending treatments through Wiredrive was so we could trace where the treatments were going, who was looking at it, and how often they were looking. Knowing when an agency producer has looked at our treatment has been super helpful in knowing when to make that next follow-up phone call. How quickly someone looks at your project is often an indication of whether you’ll get the job or not.”

“How quickly someone looks at your project is often an indication of whether you’ll get the job or not.”

One step ahead

Before joining Wiredrive in 2007, Chelsea Pictures e-mailed PDFs of treatments to showcase work to clients. Since making the switch, the company has saved precious time and cut down on the follow-up process as a result of Wiredrive’s ability to track and notify the team of any project viewing activity.

Delivering the perfect pitch

Chelsea Pictures captures the eye of agencies and production companies by using Wiredrive to create custom reels of their talent’s best work, which they often modify in real-time to tailor to their client’s preferences. By having complete control over the way they build and bundle reels in Wiredrive Library, Chelsea Pictures is able to stand out from the crowd and present work in a concise yet influential way. “All of our work is categorized in our Wiredrive system. If an agency producer is looking for a certain director, we put together custom reels that we can quickly adjust based on what they’d like to see—it’s a significantly easy process,” adds Allison.

To learn more about Chelsea, visit their site: www.chelsea.com

Phoebe is a favorite at Wiredrive, and we were able to grab a few minutes with her to better understand her role at Wieden+Kennedy and how everyone in the creative industry can benefit from an organized metadata video nerd.

Tells us about your role at Wieden+Kennedy.

I’m responsible for storing and organizing the agency’s finished creative work, as well as the corporate memory and context of our work, and making sure our teams have access to it.

What does your typical day look like?

I hunt down work and provide context behind it, such as who worked on it, what did it mean, what was the significance of it for the agency, how it is being used now, who needs to connect with it, and who is going to look for it.

How do you keep all of that work organized?

I’m constantly deciding what to keep in the collection versus what to remove from the collection to make it easier for our users to find what they need. For example, we’re not going to include a ton of versions of a broadcast spot. When you search for a specific piece of work, you get the one you need—the final version.

It’s a librarian’s job to cull the collection and use the metadata to point people in the right direction.

How do you cull a collection?

Well, that is where the context piece comes in! Understanding our work well enough to know what versions are the best, or are the favorites, or are the ones that aired, takes a little extra research and a little extra time with the people involved in our creative processes.

From the technical perspective, we created a file-naming convention when we first started and that lent itself to an easy search process even though we don’t have the staff to dedicate to cataloging. Wiredrive has a pretty open platform so that we can manipulate the tool to do exactly what we need. We can create as many metadata fields as we need, which is important.

The biggest product strength for us is how easy it is to build reels and send links so that everyone can benefit from the library. It’s also a great research tool for us.

Phoebe at the W+K headquarters in Portland, Seattle.

What’s an example of a problem you solved today?

I got an email from someone who worked on a very famous global soccer spot in 1994. He wanted a particular reel of a 45-second spot that only ran in Berlin and he thought maybe New York. Since I have an uncanny ability to remember our work as well as a system organized with metadata, I can say, “Actually those were 40-second spots, not 45 seconds! Here’s the work and, also, here’s a great behind-the-scenes interview with Joe Pytka where he’s talking about the campaign with you.” I added it to his reel—already branded with the Wieden+Kennedy logo so it looks sleek and professional—and sent it to him. It’s great because it is so clear and easy.

What about your background makes you a good fit for an advertising agency and why library school?

I have a background in video and film production. I went to film school when I was young and worked in that industry for about a decade before I went to library school. I burned out while making a feature film, and I just wanted the opposite of film. I wanted somewhere quiet and wonderful and academic instead of ridiculous and loud and absurd.

I have a lot of passion in both areas. That makes me a great fit for the agency because I would talk very easily about film and formats—more so than most librarians.

What’s the difference between an archivist and a librarian?

People use those words interchangeably, but they are very different in their purpose.

In a nutshell, and there is a lot of overlap here, an archivist preserves and protects artifacts and information. A librarian provides better ways for people to access and share materials and information. An archivist is also concerned with how to share the information with people, but they also have the directive to protect an original, usually fragile, artifact. A librarian usually has a collection of copies meant to be shared, used, and even replaced. In the digital media world, this gets tricky. It is not uncommon for librarians working with special collections and corporate environments to have more fluid roles. And this is why I am a little bit of each, plus a bit of a knowledge manager, plus a bit of a historian for W+K.

Does an agency need a librarian?

If they want to find their work and the context for that work, then they need a person who knows the agency’s work like the back of their hand, as well as the story behind it. They need someone who can be responsible for the memory of all of their creative content. Librarians are typically hard-wired for this, and can often be useful in hundreds more ways, from helping with HR/training needs and event planning to absolutely every type of research imaginable.

What if an agency can’t afford a full-time librarian?

Smaller companies that don’t make hundreds of spots per month may not need a librarian per se. However, they need someone who connects with the work and has an interest and passion for organizing. You could hire temps or freelancers to catalog for you, but that leaves out the heart and soul that binds the collection together, and you are left with no contextual piece. A librarian needs to have a love for the work the company does. You can’t just be a librarian or simply like video; you have to be a nerd for it.

To learn more about Wieden + Kennedy, visit their site: www.wk.com‍

For nearly a decade, Dropbox has helped media companies and creative agencies collaborate on their projects with greater efficiency. While many have embraced the benefits the service offers, enough time has passed for teams to realize that Dropbox is not tailored to everyone’s needs. Specifically, agencies that work extensively with video have found that slow upload speeds, poor playback quality, and limited branding options make Dropbox an imperfect tool for their projects. As video becomes a more ubiquitous component of the digital landscape, the demand for an alternative option has grown.

The collaboration app Wiredrive is one such option. Built specifically for teams who work heavily with video, Wiredrive streamlines the digital media management process and optimizes team collaboration. Offering fast upload and download speeds, as well as enhanced branding, presentation, and organization tools, it’s a Dropbox alternative designed to address the particular needs of creative and interactive agencies.

Finding a new, reliable option is only half the battle, though. Most groups have already been using their current collaboration app for several months or years, and migrating to a new file hosting service can seem like an intimidating task for agencies. The prospect of moving all your media assets from one cloud over to another can appear overwhelming, and if members of your team have grown accustomed to the interface and function of one service, the idea that they may need to learn to work with a new digital media management product could discourage you from making the switch. While you may appreciate and understand the benefits of another option, you might not feel prepared to actually start using it.

Fortunately, Wiredrive offers a solution to this problem. By allowing users to upload files from their current Dropbox accounts, Wiredrive smoothes the transition process. If you’re already using Dropbox, you can continue to do so, knowing that nothing you work with there will be lost as you begin to explore the usefulness of a new collaboration app. Should you plan to phase out Dropbox use at your agency, you can do so gradually. Rather than making a sudden shift, team members can acquaint themselves with the features and tools offered by a new service. Products that boost the efficiency of team collaboration tend to be most effective when groups embrace them naturally, instead of feeling that they’ve been forced to learn something new.

For creative agencies, Wiredrive also has the added benefit of integrating with popular Adobe software, including Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects. Team members can work on their projects and sync them directly via the Wiredrive panel, significantly reducing the learning curve and allowing them to focus on the creative work.

Dropbox made an impression, but for creative agencies, it’s not the ideal collaboration app. Boasting features that allow for more efficient digital media management, as well as tools which make the transition period much simpler for teams, Wiredrive is an option more fitting those in the creative fields.

One thing that every media company has in common is the need for a platform that allows for fast and easy sharing of large video files. This is essential for any company that depends on delivery of media content, ensuring a business infrastructure that promotes better workflow and higher satisfaction of clients as well as employees. Wiredrive was built with precisely this in mind, providing professionals who produce, manage, and pitch video content, with a streamlined and speedy file sharing website that can’t be beat. Whether you are an independent contractor or an international media company, Wiredrive is the best business solution for sending large video files.

Understanding how to send large video files is far more complex than simply following a prescribed set of instructions. Without the proper platform, any attempts at online file sharing will be time-consuming, aggravating, and potentially unsuccessful. Wiredrive provides a global content delivery network that ensures equally fast uploads and downloads of video files of any size, ensuring that your company can send large video files without any roadblocks or delays.

Our media management platform was built to promote better workflow, expedite and facilitate client review process, and provide reliable access to all digital assets regardless of when or where they are being viewed.

To send large video files via Wiredrive, you simply need access to your custom Wiredrive system, no software installation required. Once on the site, you can upload digital assets of any size and format, from any type of device. Selective transcoding means that everyone on the project can see content without needing to re-encode the files, which saves time and retains quality. You can drag and drop multiple files at once, and can review already uploaded content simply by clicking play – with zero download time or buffering.

Having one workspace capable of handling all your digital assets, is essential to ensuring a streamlined and efficient workflow. Wiredrive provides media companies with everything they need to manage their video files, all in one speedy and reliable place. Using our online media management site means that your company does not need to lose any valuable time and gives you the capacity to tackle any project that comes your way. Sending large video files will no longer give you or your clients any unnecessary anxiety and enhanced workflow will ensure that both your employees and your clients are satisfied.

Managing a media company has its hurdles, but being able to send large video files should not be one of them. Let Wiredrive handle the work and make the job easier for you. Having a Wiredrive system will save you valuable time and money and will make the job easier and more enjoyable for all parties involved. Wiredrive places all of your digital assets on one easily accessible platform that everyone can understand, navigate, and utilize, regardless of their company role or geographical location.

For media agencies and creative teams, finding the right video management system plays a major role in boosting efficiency. Agencies needs to be able to easily organize their files, keep them secure, and access and share them quickly. Many are finding that cloud-based video management offers the perfect solution. With Wiredrive’s media management tool, all uploaded files are hosted on a private cloud in a Tier 3 Data Management Center. This ensures that your videos remain safe. Through this process, your team can focus on collaboration, improving workflow.

Cloud Benefits

A media company that work with video will naturally be preoccupied with IT priorities. All team members need to be sure that video files are accessible to people throughout the company, and that there is no danger that files will be lost or damaged.

While this is an understandable and important concern to have, it can be a distracting one. Teams should be directing more of their energies towards creating the best possible work for their clients. They should not be devoting their attention to file security and availability.

With Wiredrive’s cloud-based video management system, media agencies have a reliable solution to this problem. The software is designed to ensure quick video upload speeds, significantly increasing the amount of work that can get done throughout the day.

Because media companies often collaborate on many different types of projects though, from graphic design to video production, it’s also important that they have options to store all of their media assets in the same cloud. During the collaborative process, trying to organize all relevant files can be very time-consuming if they are hosted on different platforms. Through Wiredrive, videos, photos, and all other media projects are all hosted on the same cloud, allowing for easier communication across departments.

Technological Solutions

The cloud also relieves the team members of their IT anxieties. If an agency hosts its video files on its own platform, it also needs to be sure it has a reliable IT staff to handle any potential problems. When files are automatically uploaded to a personal cloud, that previously major responsibility is shifted to a dependable outside party.

Instead of setting aside time and money to ensure that their media assets are protected by the latest and greatest security protocols. Companies that use cloud-based video management can be sure that the people who actually specialize in keeping files protected are on top of their IT needs. Just like an agency’s internal IT department, Wiredrive’s customer support service is available 25/7/365. While it’s not likely to happen, if concerns do arise, they can be immediately addressed.

For media agencies, the formula to success is far from simple. That said, a key part of the equation involves being able to handle projects quickly. As with any client-centric business, the more work you can do, the more your company can grow. This means using a collaboration app and media management tool that ensures your video files are stored quickly, easily, and safely. Which is exactly what Wiredrive offers.

The Global Goals campaign with Project Everyone and UN agency partners branded the goals and aimed to reach 7 billion people in seven days. Project Everyone is the brainchild of Richard Curtis, a famous filmmaker, with the ambition to tell everyone in the world about the Global Goals so they are achieved in the best possible way. All over the world, the project is supported by many organizations and individuals including celebrities, media, NGO organizations, businesses, film companies, and production companies who have agreed to carry the goals to their fans, customers and users.

The quest for the right collaboration tool

The Global Goals project is by its nature a branding and advertising project. The initiative of this magnitude is dependent on large quantities of media files, created to carry the message across the globe. To be able to successfully and efficiently communicate with partners from all over the world and exchange documents, photos and videos, The Global Goals needed a media sharing solution that would support an operation of this importance and scale.

“We had heard from colleagues in different organizations about Wiredrive, and once we evaluated its features it became clear that this would be a great solution for our needs. Originally we planned to use Wiredrive only internally, as our team’s shared drive, but as time went on and we created more and more content, including videos, sending links externally using Wiredrive proved to be the easiest and most efficient way of transferring large files.” explains Katie Bradford, Director of Operations at The Global Goals.

The quest for the right collaboration tool

Using Wiredrive as their secure file storage and collaboration tool, the Global Goals team is able to share large files faster and more efficiently, both internally and with the project’s partners.

“We use Wiredrive every day as our internal storage system and the sharing function has allowed us to send content all over the world, from classrooms in Panama to the web team at MSN…The benefits we have with Wiredrive, such as ease of use and simpler sharing, are particularly noticeable when using large video files…Wiredrive showed as the perfect tool for all our needs, and became an absolute necessity at the height of our launch campaign. We would be lost without it.”

Besides file sharing, Wiredrive simplifies content organization and collaboration within the Global Goals organization. Unlike other solutions, Wiredrive’s project folder can be shared and updated even after it is viewed without needing to resend the presentation link. This feature allows the Global Goals team to save precious time since they don’t need to resend links every time changes to the project are made or worry if they missed an update.

“Wiredrive showed as the perfect tool for all our needs, and became an absolute necessity at the height of our launch campaign. We would be lost without it.”

Wiredrive stays at the heart of the project

The Global Goals project has impressive impact and visibility within almost every country in the world. In just a couple of days, the project’s promotional campaign managed to reach over 1 billion people over social networks and other digital platforms, with 4 million total video views across all Global Goals initiatives. Within the first and most intensive 7 days of promotion, Global Goals activities were visible to 3 billion people or 40% of the planet’s population.

Being visible and having extensive reach helps the project establish UN Goals as the benchmark of progress and nurture a new generation of campaigners to achieve these Goals in the future. Wiredrive stays in the heart of this long-running initiative, as an irreplaceable media sharing solution and a reliable partner for the entire Global Goals organization.

To learn more about The Global Goals, visit their site: www.globalgoals.org

Latest Improvements

• You can bulk download files from Projects without leaving your web browser. Before, bulk downloading was only offered in the Shift desktop app. Now, this feature is available in both our desktop and browser apps.
• Clicking your profile icon in the bottom left corner now opens a menu with additional options. You can access your Profile, the support articles in our Knowledge Base, and the logout button, or click “What’s New” to see the latest features and updates from Shift.

Additional Updates

• You can now upload a brand logo to display in your review links. This option has been available for accounts with access to Spotlight, and now it’s available for all accounts. Visit the Branding tab in Administration to upload your logo.
• Shift now displays metadata for the audio files you upload to Projects. You can access metadata by opening the right drawer and going to the second tab.
• User names are now displayed properly in the “Uploaded by” section in list view and in the Information tab on the right.
• We’ve addressed a visual defect with misaligned arrows in the options menu and removed an extraneous line of text from the SafeStream section on the project settings page.
• Lastly, this release fixes a bug with applying certain tags to assets.

Let’s say you’re an advertising agency or branding company. Maybe you need to hire externally for a video or ad campaign, and you’d really like to use animation to tell your story. Do you find yourself not knowing where to start?

First, “animation” is an incredibly broad term. At the bare minimum, it’s a visual genre in which images are manipulated to appear as though they’re moving. Basically, any art form that accomplishes this can fall under the umbrella term “animation.” 2-D, 3-D, motion graphics (MGFX), stop-motion, claymation, and CGI are all methods you’ll find within the larger animation genre. (Sometimes it breaks down even further.) Below are some examples to help orient you:

• 2-D: In 2-D animation, every frame of the film is drawn either on paper or via computer drawing software. Disney’s Princess and the Frog is a recent example of a film done entirely in 2-D animation.

• 3-D: All Pixar films are 3-D animated. This can only be done with computer software, and the entire character has to be rigged and posable for it interact in a 3-D space.
• Motion graphics: There’s not a widely agreed upon definition of motion graphics. Generally, it can be considered a more abstract form of animation because the focus is more on bringing shapes and patterns to life as opposed to traditional characters (humans and animals). This style is fairly common in advertising, such as this commercial for Google Cloud:

• Stop-motion: Any kind of object or character (human or otherwise) can be “animated” when you’re working with stop-motion. The subject is photographed once, then moved slightly by hand for the next shot. These steps repeat until the animator has the desired length of film. In the era of silent films, this animation technique was widely used, but now you see it more typically for productions featuring non-living objects and characters. LAIKA used this style to animate puppets and natural elements such as leaves, sticks, and branches for the studio’s film Kubo and the Two Strings.

• Claymation: This is a type of stop-motion animation done with objects and characters sculpted from clay. Wallace & Gromit films are a classic example.

• CGI: Otherwise known as computer-generated imagery, this term is a sort of pseudonym for 3-D computer graphics that are used for special effects or to create scenes that could be either static or dynamic (although the term can also be applied to 2-D). Often, you’ll hear this term in reference to live action films that depict real world impossibilities, i.e., James Cameron’s 2009 Avatar.

The good news is that you don’t necessarily need to know what each of the terms mean or how to differentiate between them when looking for a vendor. Most artists and animation houses specialize in more than one kind of animation. They’re mixed media-based and have multiple animation solutions for your project.

Specialization and agnosticism

Even with these many specializations, there are certain design teams that have a definitive look that differentiates them from other companies. They’re hired specifically for that look, while other companies don’t want to be pinned down by aesthetics.

PJ Richardson, co-founder of branding, design, animation, and VFX house Laundry, describes their style as graphic and colorful. “We have a very bright, colorful aesthetic that we get known for and called to do,” he says, but there can also be a minimalist look within that.

Andy Reynolds, founder of Motion 504, explains that, while the broadcast design, effects, and animation studio specializes in a filmic photo, 3-D, gritty style (think National Geographic titles, promos, or the Sci-Fi channel), they also do fun, whimsical, bright, quirky, character-animated pieces.

On the other end of that spectrum, John Earle, CCO and founder of Houses in Motion, describes the design and animation studio’s style as “design agnostic.” In other words, Houses in Motion intentionally avoids staying in one lane when it comes to aesthetics. “We have a huge toolkit to pull from, and we find the best solution for each of our clients’ needs,” he says. “That’s where we come from when we offer a particular design style — what’s the best fit for each particular project?”

Okay, got it. There are a lot of layers here. Let’s backtrack a bit.

Steps for moving forward 

When you make the decision to use animation in your project, begin with research. If you know exactly what kind of look you’re going for, see which companies or artists specialize in it. For example, if you want that 3-D gritty style, Motion 504 might work for you.

Unless you’re at one of those companies with an established brand identity, though — ahem, Google or Apple — most clients don’t know exactly what they want.

Or maybe you have an in-house style guide and simply don’t have the bandwidth to do the project internally. In that case, hire an animation house to help tell your story while maintaining your company’s aesthetic. Unless you’re at one of those companies with an established brand identity, though — ahem, Google or Apple — most clients don’t know exactly what they want. The next step after research, then, is starting a conversation. Reach out to design and animation studios and see what they can offer.

Earle says that when he meets with prospective clients, he’ll “start with a conversation of what company expectations are, then write up a treatment deciding the aesthetics, approaches, and techniques to achieve that.” The treatment will offer numerous animation-based methods by which to tackle the project, which can become more or less complex depending on how well-defined your concepts are. Ideally, you already have some kind of concept for the project. At the very least, you know what you’d like the animation to achieve emotionally, which gives the art team a jumping off point or guide.

A budget is your guiding light

If you have neither an aesthetic nor conceptual framework, the one piece of information you should be armed with is a budget. Within the world of animation, there are many different ways to approach budgeting, and there’s a lot that an animation studio might be able to do for a modest budget. If you’re not up-front about what your budget is, though, you might be offered animation options you can’t even afford.

Earle says that for Houses in Motion, “revealing the budget allows us to make the biggest impact.” The studio will be able to pitch mixed media options to the client that appropriately fit their budget. Without a budget, it’s a guessing game for the vendor. The studio can come up with multiple pitches that range in price for the same project. However, not only does that mean a lot of work for a vendor, it also puts stress on you to figure out which direction to go in. In the long run, it can mean less time and money if you reveal your project’s budget from the get-go

That said, there are certain components that’ll naturally impact costs, and there’s generally a baseline of what companies can afford to take on. “Fully animated human characters or anything that needs to be physically accurate is going to take more time, which also means higher costs” says Reynolds. So, if you have a budget of $25,000, don’t go in expecting Pixar-level animation.

Generally, it seems as though most design and animation houses won’t take clients on with budgets below $30,000 or $40,000. “Less than that, it starts to get really funky unless it’s logo animation,” says Richardson.

“It can be a lot cheaper when you have some wiggle room, and there’s some leeway in the creative,” says Reynolds.

If you’re open to different animation styles and not set on Pixar, you’ll still have options in the lower budget range. “It can be a lot cheaper when you have some wiggle room, and there’s some leeway in the creative,” says Reynolds.

However, remaining open to the creative doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid having a concept for it. Providing any sort of roadmap to the animation team may lessen the cost. If you provide storyboards, a brand or style guide, or even copy, it means a lot less time and prep work for the studios, which means costs will be lower for all involved. When clients have no real concept, then studios will provide more value.

Additionally, requiring multiple levels of approval on projects will drive up costs. If your brand or agency wants to see the project at every stage of development before it can move forward, then a studio will spend more time and money, thus increasing a project’s overall budget.

The unseen and un-obvious

At the end of the day, there will always be elements of the animation process that aren’t obvious. For instance, viewers commonly think, “That looks so easy. Why aren’t you done yet?” (How do you think the animators feel?) But, as what we’ve described above shows, there are many categories, skill sets, and processes that go into an animation project.

Take, for example, the project that Houses in Motion did for Nick Jr.’s Noggin app. “It’s a fun, mixed media rap video teaching toddlers about thunder and lightning. We created this through a wide variety of techniques. We built paper-craft sets, which we stop-motion animated and shot — assets for our digital characters to live in,” Earle explains. “The characters are all 2-D animation and treated to look like the paper-craft set pieces. Our team consisted of designers, fabricators, animators, compositors — all people who specialize in specific areas to bring a mixed-media project like this together.”

“We think it turned out great!” says Earle.

And if you sometimes feel you’re not seeing the big picture or something’s getting by you, you’re not alone. When Earle searches for a team of artists to complete something like the Nick Jr.’s Noggin app, he sometimes runs into the same trouble that brands and ad agencies do when they’re looking to hire animators. “It still happens to me: I reach out to someone, and they don’t specialize in what I think they do,” he says.

So, even when you’re well-versed in animation, finding the right person or vendor isn’t always clear cut. When that happens, go back to the beginning. Do research. Have a conversation with an artist or animation team. Find out what they can do. Rest assured you’ll get to a solution.

 

• The app now has a more compact layout that fits more of your projects on the screen at once. You can also view twice as many feed cards on the screen without needing to scroll down.
• You’ll notice more options menus throughout the app. Just tap the three-dots icon to reveal additional options, like sharing folders and copying project URLs to share with your team.
• When you review a link with multiple files, the review gallery now includes sender and audience information at the top of the screen, in addition to the link title and description. The gallery also displays more thumbnails at once.
• Finally, we’ve made some additional design updates for a more consistent experience between our desktop and mobile apps. 

“Have you ever tried the experiment of saying some plain word, such as ‘dog,’ thirty times? By the thirtieth time it has become a word like ‘snark’ or ‘pobble.’ It does not become tame, it becomes wild, by repetition.”

— G.K. Chesterton

The word authenticity has become wild to me, liberated from the confines of its OED definition by repeated use in the ad briefs I read and the pitch treatments I write as a freelancer. It’s gone feral, free to explore new identities.

Semantic satiation is the name of this phenomenon. The term, coined by psychologist Leon James in 1962, refers to a type of fatigue. “If you repeat a word,” says James, “the meaning in the word keeps being repeated, and then it becomes refractory, or more resistant to being elicited again and again.”

Could the authenticity that The Washington Post calls for in its gritty “Democracy Dies In Darkness” campaign really be the same authenticity Fiji Water hopes they’ll get from an aspirational Instagram personality? I’ve regurgitated the word so many times that I’m no longer convinced I know what it means, but I do know it’s what everyone wants.
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Trust fails and falls

According to a recent survey asking more than 1,500 people in the United States, the UK, and Australia about their marketing preferences, 90 percent responded that authenticity is important when it comes to choosing which companies they spend money on. Forbes attributed this desire for authenticity to recurring corporate transgressions like data mining that have left consumer trust at an all-time low. “To win the hearts and business of your target customers,” the author writes, “you have to convince them you are trustworthy.”

Until recently, the most noticeable trust-building exercises companies have done with audiences have been based largely on look and feel — think of the rise of docustyle commercials and branded documentaries. But, no matter how authentic an ad looks to a viewer, they know it’s always going to be a fantasy/reality hybrid told through a subjective lens, all meant to sell them something. Authenticity campaigns are emotional — they strike deepest when they evoke feelings that ring true.

However, what rings true for audiences has been exponentially refining itself through a process similar to semantic satiation. Repeated depictions of reality become refractory for savvy twenty-first-century audiences. In 2019, for example, no one would think The Blair Witch Project was depicting real events the way people in 1999 certainly did (including my boyfriend at the time, who thought I’d taken him to a snuff film).

Audiences now require more, an integrity that goes beyond the lens. The process behind how they’re being marketed to matters. Interestingly, two strategies that are addressing this head-on are user-generated content (UGC) and influencer marketing, methods that seem on opposite ends of the spectrum but are actually united in authenticity’s ultimate goal: connection.
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Straight from the source

“There was a whale, deep in the ocean, being suffocated by a rope from a ship,” says Keith Marmon, business affairs manager at The Mill, an Academy Award-winning VFX and content-creation studio. “The scuba divers approached, and the whale looked at them. You could actually see the whale give consent to the divers to cut the rope. It was incredibly emotional.”

Marmon is describing a clip he’d seen of GoPro footage sourced by Catch&Release, a San Francisco-based company taking UGC in an interesting direction. “You could, technically, re-create that,” he adds. “But it’s not the same.”

UGC is a nebulous term for online material made discoverable by people who aren’t necessarily sharing it with the intention to sell. The content could range from Facebook or Instagram posts to original artwork, music, or video clips. Companies most frequently use UGC in marketing — say you publicly post a video of your Mount Rainier ascent and then the mountain guide company you used contacts you to ask if they can share it on their website.

With the rise of social media in the past decade, companies claim that UGC humanizes their campaigns and bolsters their overall marketing strategies, primarily because recommendations made by people who post their footage for fun, not profit, feel more genuine. However, navigating social media to find the nice things people post about your business is such a time-sucking morass that a number of aggregate platforms — Stackla, TINT, CrowdRiff, and Yotpo, to name a few — have sprung up expressly for this purpose.

Like the aggregates, Catch&Release also offers a searchable platform for its customers, but that’s where the similarities seemingly end. One of the company’s essential strengths lies in its staff of curators. “They know all the nooks and crannies,” says Marmon. “They’ve studied the patterns of where the premiere stuff lives on the Internet. [Their skill] ends up taking a lot of time and obligation off my team.”

Catch&Release has carved a niche by focusing on the production industry, which CEO Analisa Goodin believes has become increasingly reliant on technology to scale up to the content demands of the digital economy. “Creative teams are trying to achieve more with less time and less money,” she says. “We believe that found content — already made, already shot, online, discoverable — as long as we can license it, becomes a great supplement to original production.”

She illustrates what she means by pointing to the recent “Seafood with Standards“ Red Lobster campaign her company worked on. Red Lobster wanted to break from its shrimp-dipped-in-butter-style commercials to a “brand anthem,” the kind of ad that declares who a company is and what they stand for. However, the company had a tight budget and an even tighter turnaround. Within three weeks, Catch&Release culled from the Internet enough verité-style footage of fishermen and women (who fished in locations from which Red Lobster actually sourced fish) that Red Lobster was able to produce a collage-style ad with a multi-faceted and emotionally moving message.

Had Red Lobster attempted to document the daily grind of fishing boats in different locations for themselves, it likely would’ve cost millions of dollars, required the services of more than a hundred people, left an enormous carbon footprint, and taken at least three months to produce. Additionally, as is often the case with “real story” branded content, the “real people” featured aren’t compensated the way actors in a regular commercial would be because it’s a “documentary.” Because it used sourced material, Red Lobster had to license the footage and pay the people whose lifestyle it was showcasing and who initially shot those videos solely for their own community.

While other UGC platforms focus solely on social media and then rely on the terms and conditions users agree to on the platforms for licensing (“ . . . you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service”), Catch&Release widens its net to the entirety of the Internet and then works with independent content creators one-on-one to procure rights. Goodin says, “When we ask you to do something like, ‘upload your master file’ or ‘get model releases for your friends that appear in the shot with you,’ it’s because the client has already seen your work, they love it, and there’s a 95 percent chance you’re about to get paid.”

Catch&Release’s resourceful approach not only provides cost-cutting solutions and an added dimension of authenticity to docustyle commercials and branded documentary, it’s arguably a new style of storytelling more akin to the archival footage collage documentaries director Adam Curtis makes for the BBC than typical ad-world templates. “It’s a different process, a reverse process,” Goodin told the Women Worldwide podcast last year. “Clients are starting to come to us and say ‘Here’s what we’re thinking about shooting. Can we start with Catch&Release, find out what’s out there, figure out where the holes are, and then fill those holes in by shooting?’”
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Under the influence

If I were to pinpoint the moment when the meaning of authenticity became murky for me, it might be when I watched a ring-lit YouTube influencer named Andrea Russett — who had been described to me as “authentic” — extol the virtues of Argan Oil of Morocco’s dry shampoo from her funky fresh bedroom. “They must have meant aspirational,” I thought. The whole thing just seemed so orchestrated.

I thought of the documentary Jawline, which chronicles sixteen-year-old Austyn Tester on his quest to become an Instagram influencer. To me, what Tester posts on his Instagram account is aspirational, the best version of his life. What’s authentic are the barely-scraping-by struggles he goes through in Jawline.

But, according to Maria Gonima, I likely felt this way about Russett because I hadn’t been following her or personalities like her since I was fifteen. I hadn’t watched her cry on screen and then, after she apologized for not posting for two weeks because she was having a rough time, I didn’t post an emotional comment saying that I, too, have had rough times. Gonima, formerly at Fullscreen and now the head of Big Smile, a marketing company that specializes in influencer engagement (among other services), says, “Now some of these kids are twenty-three, and their viewers have been with them for eight or nine years. Grown up with them! That’s a relationship to an audience that just doesn’t happen with traditional advertising.”

Russett rose to YouTube fame as a fourteen-year-old in 2009, when her video entry for a Justin Bieber contest went viral. Since then, Russett’s 3 million subscribers have stuck with her as she got her first job, dyed her hair purple, blew up on other platforms, started an acting career, began smoking weed, and came out as bisexual.

They’ve also watched her team up with L’Oreal and Sour Patch Kids, brands that want exposure to a loyal audience who follow Russett and trust her recommendations. However, according to Gonima, it’s Russett who has the final say in how she’ll talk about them. “Behind the scenes, there are people fighting on behalf of the influencers,” she says. “A lot of time, they’re not going to say or do exactly what brands might want them to because, ultimately, the influencer has more power than the brands.”

But what about influencers faking sponsorship for status reasons or the whole Fyre Festival debaclewhen Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid didn’t disclose that their posts were sponsored and sold their followers on an epic fiasco? According to Gonima, as long as influencer advertising laws are followed, social media audiences can be trusted to know when someone is being inauthentic just as much as television audiences can.

“A lot of time, they’re not going to say or do exactly what brands might want them to because, ultimately, the influencer has more power than the brands.”

“There’s the side where the follower knows they’re being sold to, but they don’t care because they want to live that flawless skin life,” she says. “That’s just like commercials, like a CoverGirl ad. Then there’s the other side where the influencer is like ‘Hey, I’m a person like you. You’ve been with me for a while now — come with me while Discovery Channel pays for me to go around the world for a week!’ It’s a tone and trust that’s built over years.”

Influencer marketing is predicated on a one-on-one relationship that’s continuously evolving over time and intuited by viewers. It relies on something that looks more like the ups-and-downs of a friendship than a condensed storytelling experience. So, even though the halo lighting might conspicuously accent the considered, jaunty placement of a background pillow and the influencer’s intensely on-point hair, the aspirational aesthetics framing what a YouTuber chooses to show the public don’t just immediately erase the authentic feelings and trust the viewer has developed for the influencer and his or her world.

Authenticity in influencer marketing is measured by a completely different metric than something like the UGC-heavy Red Lobster commercial, but, as strategies, both UGC and influencer marketing have evolved into effective tools for evoking the more refined emotions of today’s reality-savvy viewers. The goalposts for what constitutes authenticity to any given audience are continually shifting, keeping the industry on its toes.

“To be honest, I really do hate the word authenticity,” admits Goodin. “We haven’t been successful in finding an alternative word ourselves.”

“Transparency?” I offer.

“I thought about that too,” she says. “And then I was, like, ‘Ah, I don’t know.’ Maybe we just need to make up the word. I need to make up a new buzzword.”

“Like imagineering,” I say.

“Exactly,” she says. “Why not? Why can’t we?”