Brand Entertainment Czar Jae Goodman Joins Ryff Board

Ryff, the technology startup reimagining product placement, welcomes another high-profile member to its board. Jae Goodman, founder and former CEO of Observatory, is joining Hollywood film studio executive Sophie Watts as Ryff's newest board member. 

According to Jeff Beer at Fast Company, Jae was most recently known as the guy who proved to brands that they could make Hollywood-level entertainment. "Jae Goodman has spent 16 years convincing brands like Nike, eBay, Doritos, and Chipotle to forgo ads and make content that entertains us instead."

One of Jae's recent achievements was helping Nike build an in-house content studio, Waffle Iron Entertainment, and negotiate a first-look feature deal with Apple Original Films to develop and produce sports films.

Jae is a pioneer of brand entertainment, focused on creating content that attracts and engages rather than interrupts and annoys. While virtual product placement may seem worlds apart from brand entertainment, it shares the same goal: to make the product part of the story. Ryff's 3D product integration technology, inspired by the world of gaming, can insert new products digitally into existing footage that, as simply as a gamer, could change out armour. 

"I've long been a believer in the power of product placement, but I've found the process by which it happens to be clunky, unpredictable, and not particularly scalable. While integration deals can be made from brand to studio, actual execution requires warehouses of the latest physical product, and large teams of people interacting with production managers, set designers, heads of transportation, and more," said Jae. "Virtual product placement as a category removes all friction from the buy and sell side. Ryff's on-screen experience and customer experience are orders of magnitude greater than the so-called competition. I am aligning with Ryff because I believe Ryff is best-in-class and because of my long time admiration for the persistent vision of CEO Roy Taylor and the remarkable Ryff team," 

"When someone who predicted the future decides to try it again, one better pay attention." Linda Knight, the chief creative officer at Observatory.

Jae recently announced his departure from Observatory (formerly known as CAA), which he founded in 2017. Under his leadership, Observatory was named as one of Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies for three years running 2020 - 2022.

Jae is also a two-time Cannes Lions Entertainment Jury President, has won four Cannes Lions Grand Prix in four different categories, 27 Lions in total, is on the board of Effie Worldwide, and was named on Ad Age's Creativity 50 list.

"We are honoured to welcome Jae Goodman to the Ryff board of directors," said Roy Taylor, founder, and CEO of Ryff. "He is an incomparable fountain of innovation, brilliant content, and raw creativity. This is just the beginning of what we anticipate will be announcements featuring Jae and Ryff."