HOME.corp's New Home: Making it in America
Emily Bliss (seen here), Managing Director of the London-based production company, talks about what it takes to successfully export your brand to the US.
HOME.corp's New Home: Making it in America
The London-based production house is one of the few
to emigrate from the UK to the US. MD Emily Bliss
explains what it took to make it in America.
For musicians, 'breaking the States' is seen as a major benchmark for any British act worth their salt; it means making it on the other side of the pond. The same applies in the less high profile but equally tough world of ad production, where many try but few succeed in penetrating America's highly diverse and competitive production landscape.
One company that's bucking that trend is the London-based production company HOME.corp, whose US headquarters opened its doors in the fall of 2010. The shop has already produced more than a dozen projects for brands such as AT&T, Dove, Guinness and Olay.
So it's no surprise that HOME's talkative and engaging Emily Bliss, Founder and Managing Director, is tickled with their progress. She spoke recently to SourceEcreative about the process and what it was like to export her production brand to America.
SourceEcreative: What made you decide to open in the US?
Emily Bliss: Over the last few years we saw a significant surge in the quality of work coming out of the US. You only have to look at last year's Cannes: nine Grand Prix Lions for US work against only two from the UK. Some British agencies and production companies have been (and still are) sniffy about American work creatively. I just don't see that. In my view, US agencies are making some of the most exciting and innovative campaigns out there.
So of course there's an element of wanting to play where the cool kids play. But there's also the economic picture, where American brands are responding to recession by advertising their way through it and fighting for market share. I felt there was both a creative and a business case.
I don't want to knock London. I'm passionate about the work we do here and I think there's great talent here with something to offer, but maybe Brits take the wrong attitude sometimes. I also thought about a US partnership, but it felt like a half measure. If you want to build relationships and enter a new market, you have to show people you're committed. So we decided to jump in the deep end. I didn't take the decision lightly, and I spent a long time traveling back and forth meeting people, courting and hand-picking the right team.
The idea was to give American agencies a totally reliable local production experience, but with access to talent that inevitably brings a different perspective to what they can access locally.
Relatively few UK-based production houses have opened offices here, with Rattling Stick being the most recent. If anything, it's been the other way around - @radical.media, MJZ, Smuggler and Hungry Man all have offices in London. How did you go about it without a template? And did you seek advice from friends in the US?
EB:I never thought about the scarcity of examples as a negative. Actually, the opposite - that's almost the definition of a gap in the market.
Support from friends in America has been and continues to be invaluable, none more so than Betsy Kelley, our US EP. I knew Betsy from my Propaganda days, and I've always been a huge fan. Her expertise and experience speaks for itself, not only at Believe Media, but as Head of Production at Headquarters. She's also worked at Anonymous and Serious. The list goes on.
She was a key part of the master plan. Without her there's no way we'd be where we are now. So I flew out and luckily was able to persuade her to come on board. We set up HOME.corp, Inc. (our official US title), put our heads together and, with the help of Dana Astrow, set about building a team.
Why New York over L.A. for your base?
EB: In terms of the diversity of work and agency focus, New York still has a huge account base. The suits are gone, but there are still plenty of Mad Men around.
But it wasn't this big, strategic decision, though. You have to open somewhere, and perhaps selfishly New York felt closest to home, both culturally and physically. The late night phone calls aren't quite so late night.
There's no doubt our heritage and talent in the fashion and beauty worlds has helped us in New York in terms of breaking through quickly, establishing that trust, but there's great work coming from all over the US: Chicago, Portland, Dallas and Austin, and of course L.A. and San Francisco.
So nominally we're based in New York, but to be honest we're working all over. An L.A. office is in the pipeline, however, so the late night calls are going to be pretty late after all...
What were the biggest obstacles to the launch?
EB: Finding the right people. Always.
First and foremost, I think the business is about people. You can find good reps relatively easily, but to get the exceptional ones takes time and a kind of obsessive, almost geeky dedication. Plus a significant investment. A lot of traveling, a lot of meetings. It was tough, but I loved it. Maybe I should get out more.
We looked for reps who don't just have outstanding contacts in their region, but who are plugged in -- who think about where the industry has come from and where it's going. They also have the ability to work across all media: live action, CGI, animation, etc.
After assembling the team, I would say the next thing was bureaucracy: Jumping through all the hoops legally to make sure our roster were all cleared and ready to go. As I say, a big part of the philosophy was for American agencies to feel like they're working locally, production-wise. So we couldn't have hold ups, doubt over visas or so on. Again, it was an investment in providing the kind of service we had in mind.
How different have you found the US market, now that you're on the ground here?
EB: Very. From the way our team engages with agencies, the people they talk to regularly, all the way through the production process. There are hundreds of subtle differences that affect a creative process.
An example: In London, face-to-face meetings are easy. The sheer scale of the States challenges the traditional approach to sharing your directors and their work, and by extension your brand. It's mostly virtual, so of course you have to respond to that with infrastructure and the right systems.
Having reps in each region is a big plus, but we knew we had to go further, which means the London team spending more time in the US. Our last excursion, just before Christmas, confirmed that the reward is unquestionable. Each time you can see that your presence makes a difference - both with brand awareness and hard scripts coming through the door. Of course, our team also learns a lot, so there's an educational benefit.
In addition to having Betsy, I now divide my time about equally across the Atlantic. I watch the first half of a lot of films. Incidentally, I also think the education can be a two-way thing. We always try to share insights with our American clients and agencies, not just about London but other production bases -- we have a global network -- and I think (and hope) they find it interesting to learn what's going on outside the US bubble.
What are you plans for growing the HOME.corp director roster in the US?
EB: We have a small, focused roster right now and I like that. In a healthy production company, everyone is visible and operating at the top of their game. Again, I think that's helped us a great deal in making an impact.
I would certainly expand, but carefully. For example, we have some fantastic US-based directors whom we represent in London, so I'd like to think that as we become an ever stronger presence in the States, they and other US-based directors will come under our banner there.
Ultimately, every year that passes the world becomes smaller, and a good product is a good product. That's true whether you're selling chocolate bars or creativity. For now we're about showing that we understand the American market and can offer a creative / production package that US agencies can't get anywhere else.
Where do you think the production business for ad content and TVCs is heading? How do you eventually see HOME.corp in that context?
EB:I see us as a global production brand. I don't think I'm being precious to say that in many ways we are that already. On the bigger question, clearly content -- be it TVC or non-traditional -- is king. If it's fresh, entertaining and interesting, it can make a bigger impact than ever, faster and more measurably. So there's more and more being produced.
Where we come in is that, although the rewards for success now are higher, so is the creative bar. If we can produce higher quality, more interesting creative work than the next guy and produce it at a competitive price in a professional and reliable way, then I believe the good work will come to us.
There is an alternative philosophy -- a quantitative approach, you could call it -- which is to drown the audience in a deluge of low-quality, super low-cost content that they're not interested in, and hope you can force them to watch it. I have a feeling history will prove that to be something like responding to the invention of the personal computer by making a bigger typewriter. I certainly hope so.
Which in fact brings me back to the US, and to another big reason I was so confident about investing the resources to fully commit there, which is that in the digital arena, America is way in front of anything we are making here.
So being in the US not only allows us access to more volume and a better standard of the work of the future, but it keeps us ahead of the game in London, too. It has been, as the actor Vinnie Jones once said, 'educational.'
Published 17 February, 2012
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