Stink Studios Move Beyond Digital

What’s in a name? Well, in an industry with a seemingly infinite number of post and production houses, actually quite a lot. One name that brings with it a lot of expectation is Stink – the multi-award-winning commercial production company with offices all around the world. Already riding high in 2009, the company launched a digital-focussed division (called, unsurprisingly, Stinkdigital) and kicked off production with a bang, scooping up a Grand Prix in Cannes with their ground-breaking ‘Carousel’ for Phillips.

Flash-forward to 2017 and the company – now 125+ staff deep in six offices covering London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin and Shanghai, shelves heavy with 350+ awards and sitting pretty on a list of 50 companies creatives would kill to work for – decides to drop the ‘digital’ and join forces with sister-company Stink Studios under the same name.

We caught up with CEO Mark Pytlik to chat about the unification, the bolstered set of services and what it’s like to run a company people are desperate to work for.

Stink Studios – what’s the big news?

There’s a couple things. The first is that Stinkdigital is changing its name to Stink Studios. The second is that, as part of the move, we’re also combining forces with Stink’s content company, which was already called Stink Studios, to become a larger, integrated company that does everything from content to interactive.

Why was the decision made to merge the companies? Was there a lot of crossover in the content?

We were already working together on a lot of projects and it got to the point pretty quickly where it just naturally felt like the right thing to do. We were so complementary in terms of our capabilities and our client base that once the subject was raised, it just made total sense to bring everyone together under one roof.

You’ve taken on the ‘Studios’ name rather than keeping the ‘Digital’. Why’s that? 

‘Digital’ is definitely in danger of becoming an empty word, and we wanted to get out in front of that change before it happened. ‘Studios’ is perfect because it connotes both big and small (both of which we are, depending on how you look at us), and it telegraphs execution. 

Whether it’s an immersive WebGL experience or an entertaining content series or a thoughtful and considered rebrand,  we really do make all sorts of different things, so we wanted to emphasize our ability to execute above everything else. ‘Studios’ does that; no matter how things evolve in the industry over the next ten years, we’re always going to be the ones making the things.

How is this merger going to affect the brands and agencies working with you?

If it does at all, it will only be for the better. We’re not losing any staff, and we’re only adding new skills and capabilities that are super complementary to a lot of the existing work we’ve already been doing. 

The company has become insanely prolific since the Cannes Grand Prix win in 2009 whilst still maintaining the insight and quality of execution that garnered the award. Did you imagine back then that you’d be working on the breadth of projects that you tackle now? What is it that’s made the company fly?

That’s easy! It’s the people. If we’ve been good at any one thing, it’s been at identifying people who have the right mixture of talent and character and creating an environment for them to do some of their best work. I’m not a big mantra guy, but “Hire great people and get out of the way” is a good one.

If you can build a culture like where teams genuinely put the quality of the work first, then after a while it becomes more of a self-sustaining thing. Super-talented, creatively-motivated staff will notice it, appreciate it, and recruit their smart and talented friends. Great people tend to know great people. Every single one of our offices has employees who were recruited by other co-workers; the best way to build and grow any culture is from the ground up.

What does 2017 hold for the Studios?!

In terms of operations, we’re going to continue to build out the content side of our offering in key markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Paris and London. We’re also looking for larger office spaces in New York and Paris, growing our team in Shanghai, and exploring a few locations for future offices as well.

Work-wise, there are lots of exciting things in production. We can’t talk about specific brands, but the breadth is as fun as ever - we’re doing everything from 360 shoots to bots to realtime digital out of home to product and branding work.