DDB launched an in-house production unit, appropriately called ‘Maker’, about six months ago and says its ability to quickly create digital content for its clients is resulting in increasing demand.
The unit has been used for a some of the agency’s bigger campaigns over the past few months, including the ‘Born to defy’ campaign through Steinlager, which did a good job of drawing attention to its ambassador, freediver William Trubridge, covering his World Record dive attempt with real-time coverage last December.
It was also used for McDonald’s ‘Our food, Your Questions’ initiative to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at what happens at McDonald’s.
DDB chief executive Justin Mowday says the agency has formalised its approach to content production and established a dedicated facility to meet the work it’s being commissioned to do on a more frequent basis.
“Our clients want thoughtful, relevant and shareable content produced swiftly and more affordably but of a similar quality to TV production,” he said in a release. “DDB is a leader in creating content and the amount of client work that has gone through Maker, and in the pipeline, is testament to this. Since its inception, Maker has produced a strong body of work including content for ‘We Compost Weekend’, Westpac’s ‘Giving Tree’, McDonald’s ‘Our Food Your Questions’ and real-time coverage of William Trubridge’s live-dive attempt thanks to Steinlager Pure.”
TV producer Kate Moses was brought aboard to head up Maker, and is happy with how its working, saying that in a new connected digital and social world we often want to create lower-cost content for a campaign for non-TV channels, like ‘making-of’ film, extra footage of people engaging with a campaign and a script that will live in the digital space or educational films for staff.
“In addition to this, client demand for content for social media and online continues to grow. Maker does exactly this – it makes the content that helps brands engage with their audiences almost immediately, often at a lower-cost than a traditional TV production process.”
