senckađ
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Group745
Company Profiles in association withCompany Profiles on LBB
Group745

How FAMILIA Wants to Add Value to Productions in the US

23/05/2023
Production Company
London, UK
131
Share
FAMILIA’s Toby Walsham on how a unique data-informed approach will make the production company a ‘FAMILIA’ face in the US, writes LBB’s Ben Conway


FAMILIA is a next-generation production house, defined by its cultural awareness, integrity, and shared love of the craft. Makers at heart, the company’s unique roster of diverse creators tells stories in both the UK and the US through film, photos and other visual content. With a focus on utilising data and innovative new tools to add value throughout the production process, they go beyond simply executing ideas in the pursuit of elevating them.

Despite always producing work in the US, FAMILIA has never targeted the region as seriously as it has recently. Previously, a couple of State-side productions per year would have satisfied partner and managing director Toby Walsham. However, sitting down with LBB’s Ben Conway to discuss the company’s American ambitions, he reveals that the company is now specifically targeting directors more suited to the US and is working closely with its East and West Coast reps.

By pivoting its roster and attention towards this market, the company is excitedly preparing to make a larger mark there, hoping to increase its presence and market share. With American projects currently making up less than 15% of FAMILIA’s creative output - Toby shares that the goal is to double down on marketing in the States and to set up a location in New York next year.

“The last two years, we changed our entire approach to how we produce,” he starts, explaining how a modern production company now has to offer more than simply execution. “Those days are done… Why can’t you come to us for added value? For strategic value?”


[FAMILIA's partner and managing director, Toby Walsham]

After ruminating on these questions for some time, Toby says that it kickstarted an obsession with using data to inform these decisions, subsequently hiring a ‘top-secret’ data strategist to expand this part of the business. As a creatively driven business, “obsessed with visual and creative excellence”, he says that the team has found using these data insights a great help when executing at the highest level.

“This has been so successful that we won 98% of our jobs last year,” he says. “In fact, in the US, we won 100%. In the US, every cent is really scrutinised - which is fair because often clients are parting with millions of dollars - and we’re able to go, ‘Well, this cent is going to work harder for us than the next bidder because we’ve done the research and have the data.”

Toby continues, “It’s all just a wrapper. The core idea (the sweet) is the script. Production companies essentially just wrap that script up with a nice little bow. We’re doing the same thing, but we’re using data to inform what that wrapper looks like. And we’re only using data and strategic thinking to inform visual storytelling, we’re not taking data and going, ‘You need to change the entire script’ - because the agencies have done their six, seven months of research. We’re not trying to upset the applecart… but rather than simply executing visuals -  basically directing a short film - we’re working for our clients.”

And that’s what FAMILIA’s repositioning has been centred around - making amazing visuals that perform better and work harder for its clients than other people’s visuals. 

While believing this is “the next evolutionary step” for production companies, Toby admits that there has been some initial difficulty in convincing directors to adopt this philosophy. Naturally protective of their visual storytelling and creative freedom, he shares that one recent signing to the roster was, at first, surprised by - and even pushed back against - this novel approach upon receiving a data-informed document of information about the brand, market and audience. 

“Frankly, the ad would still be excellent if we hadn't done this research, but I would argue that it performs better with the audience if they feel represented within it. And this isn't groundbreaking stuff… it's just sometimes these things are forgotten, and the data helps confirm the correct creative decision-making.”



Bringing this approach with more emphasis than ever on the US market, Toby highlights the directors that FAMILIA has recently signed to its US roster, including David Mellor, “emotive storyteller” Zwelethu Radebe and Will Innes Smith, who specialises in American-style sports and travel commercials. “He's a very smart creative. I've never worked with someone that works so hard,” adds Toby. 

Providing the outstanding human creativity to this data-informed approach, FAMILIA’s roster on both sides of the pond is home to talented directors with a variety of niches and styles that are competing - and winning against - the industry’s great production companies and talents. It’s this combination of next-generation tools with elite creative innovation that is propelling the company’s success across all its projects. “So far, it’s been incredible. On a Hyundai project, we had a 300% increase in brand awareness… trending on Twitter… all because of good prep and rationale.”

After initial plans were disrupted by covid, the production house is finally taking the steps in 2024 to put its flag in the ground of America, in a more physical way. Looking ahead to this territorial expansion, Toby says that the target is to shift the balance of projects that the company does from 15% US-based projects to 50%. And now with 14 directors represented in the US, with headquarters soon to follow, this aspiration is gradually becoming a reality.

Noting that the first major challenge in this transition is building up FAMILIA’s brand awareness in the US, the MD explains that FAMILIA needs to become - excuse the pun - “familiar” to agencies and clients in the US market, which he says generally cast a wider net and form longer shortlists when looking for production partners. “FAMILIA may not be the first choice if you have your go-tos. But we have a new way of working and people are getting really excited by it.”  

“There's definitely room in the market for a business that's doing it differently,” he says, “We're not just a production service business, we are data-driven creative development. FAMILIA is the next evolution of the production model. More will follow suit, but right now, we are the only people doing it [like this] - that I'm aware of.”



Contact FAMILIA’s commercial reps in the US below:

East Coast – Meredyth Mann

meredyth@bespoke360.com

+1 917 691 1104

West Coast – Deirdre Rymer Rivard

dee@blushla.tv

+1 310-795-8173

West Coast – Lisa Gimenez

lisag@lisagandcoreps.tv

+1 619-838-8868


Credits
Work from FAMILIA
Beeline
Bumble
31/01/2024
9
0
Advanced Features
Bumble
31/01/2024
14
0
The Taste of a Job Well Done
Ballantine’s France
29/11/2023
19
0
ALL THEIR WORK