GO Film Notches More Gold, Sees ’08 as Breakout Year
Partner Robert Wherry reports on a killer year for this growing US-based production company.
Created by McCann/T.A.G. in San Francisco, the campaign featured as one its more prominent elements a series of TV spots and web shorts produced by GO Film and directed by Simon McQuoid. Darkly haunting and almost malevolent, the spots capture the intensity and tension of the game via a series of what are essentially testimonials—grizzled war vets talking about their experiences on the front lines. As Wherry likes to point out, the scripts were great and the concept was flawless. What McQuoid and his GO Films team did “was took these and make them into monumental stories.” The industry responded, with the campaign winning the Grand Prix in two key Cannes Lions Festival categories—Internet Film and Titanium, as well as a Grand Clio, Best of Show at the One Show (along with two Gold Pencils) and the Andy Awards GRANDY.
The company, which was founded in 2000, also includes on its roster directors Christopher Guest, Markus Walter, RAD-ISH, Andrews Jenkins, Tim Hamilton, Steve Chase, Caitlin Felton and Benjamin Weinstein. It’s an eclectic mix, ranging from the feature work of actor and writer Guest to the comic talents of commercial directing veteran Chase, whose long association with Aflac has given the ad industry one of its more enduring animal icons. The production company was named one of the top five most awards production companies this year by Creativity—they actually placed 4th, Wherry points out with pride. “We were in great company,” he notes.
Not to be outdone, McQuoid is also responsible for several of the currently running Holiday Inn Express spots from Fallon, while the icily cool and sophisticated style of the RAD-ISH directing team—which recently returned to the GO roster—just shot a major Guinness campaign out of BBDO/New York. Wherry cites the return of the Austrian team as an example of how GO’s touch with directors has benefitted its workload. “It’s a reflection of our management style, which focuses on nurturing the careers and creative goals of our core group of artists,” he explains. “We believe it’s what keeps our directors focused and motivated, and has paid off with us being able to deliver for our agency clients.” One of the secrets of the company’s success, Wherry feels, is that GO’s partners come from key areas of the business and bring with them a deep understanding of how to make it work best for their roster. “Gary has a strong background and knowledge in production, while Jonathan and I come from a sales background,” he says. “You blend those aspects together and it offers a unique management style for our directors. Simply stated, we believe that at the end of the day the reel is all that matters.”
On the new media side of the equation, Goon Media has collaborated on projects for clients such as Motorola, Dove, Stolichnaya, along with several projects for the Cartoon Network. Goon has also worked hand-in-hand with GO Film on a number of multimedia projects, including TiVo, FedEx (starring race car driver Denny Hamlin) and a brilliant Aflac piece starring driver Carl Edwards. The company functions as a creative collective, bringing in outside talents as needed to work on a different and less constrained palette than the traditional thirty-second spot. “We’re really set up to push the envelope with original content and non-traditional advertising,” says Wherry. Establishing the division the way they did also allows them to build a separate brand identity in the new media space, he adds. “It’s a very collaborative set up, with lots of different projects in the works. We don’t compete with agencies, and in fact we’ve worked with them in the past and are working with them now. What we all love about it is that it creates its own vision, its own buzz and its own pulse.” So far, Goon Media’s work also includes projects for Cisco out of Ogilvy & Mather, an Internet film/online campaign for Jeep from Organic and some truly inspired work for Microsoft that can be viewed on both the Goon Media and GO Film web sites. Even with all this new and exciting stuff happening, for the GO Film partners the year reached a deafening roar in late June, at the Palais in Cannes. “It was really exciting, going up on stage with my partners to accept the Grand Prix for our work for McCann and T.A.G. on Halo,” Wherry says. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. But it’s really more a reflection of why we set up the company in the first place—it was to go great work by carefully managing the careers of our directors. I think what we’ve accomplished in the past year sort of backs that up.” |
By Halo he means the now-universally recognized Xbox Halo 3 launch, which won just about every major advertising award under the sun this year. From Cannes to Clio to the One Show to Andy, the Halo work cleaned up in a wide range of categories, making it one of the most celebrated, multi-platform integrated ad campaigns of the past few years. The work just won its latest honor, a Gold medal from the London International Advertising Festival. 
But there’s more to the GO story this year than just Halo 3. With partners 
In addition to the honors that Halo racked up, the company’s work also earned a Gold ADDY and a Webby Award for director Andrew Jenkins” “Extreme” commercial for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes out of Leo Burnett in Chicago, and a Webby Award in the Branded Content category for “The Stu Osborn Show” for Microsoft, a hilarious project from Goon Media for McCann in San Francisco that was directed by Guest. 
The list of campaigns that GO has produced this year is impressive, ranging from the 
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