Superconnector Studios Brings Together Brands, Entertainment and Consumers
Jae, Board Chair of Effie WW, seen here at last week’s Effie U.S. Gala with fellow Board member Coca Cola President Selman Careaga
The days of streamers and their subscribers eschewing advertisers, and advertisers eschewing “upper funnel” brand building in favour of performance media, are over. That’s why brand entertainment pioneers Jae Goodman and John Kaplan are launching Superconnector Studios, which sits at the intersection of brands and entertainment to help both find new ways to reach consumers and drive revenue in a world where ads have never been less popular.
The new venture is the logical extension of Goodman’s career, whose last venture, the agency Observatory, garnered three Fast Company “World’s Most Innovative Companies” nods in a row in 2020, 2021, and 2022, a slew of Emmy- and Cannes-winning brand content such as Chipotle’s “Back to the Start,” Netflix and Doritos’ “Live From The Upside Down,” and gravity-defying initiatives such as Nike’s Waffle Iron Entertainment, which Goodman conceived and launched. His goal has been to move away from interruptive advertising and toward brand content that stands on its own as entertainment.
Goodman will pair up with his longtime collaborator at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Marketing, entertainment producer and brand entertainment innovator, John Kaplan. While the two build on their time in agencies, Superconnector Studios will take a different approach.
“As creative agencies, we were too downstream from our clients’ business and content strategies, we were too competitive with advertising and media agencies for brand resources, and we were too far removed from the value we were creating for our brand clients,” Goodman says. “Our aim now as Superconnector Studios is to help brands, agencies and entertainment entities reinvent their relationships with each other.”
Superconnector Studios’ Management Consultancy services brands, agencies and entertainment companies simultaneously. Its Brand Entertainment Productions and Studios generates direct revenue and value for brands, tapping into first-tier talent. And its Consumer Products Accelerator creates mutually beneficial partnerships between consumer brands and entertainment talent and properties.
The new company taps into the expertise of Goodman and Kaplan. Together they’ve developed entertainment-based marketing solutions for the world’s leading brands, including Nike, Netflix, Diageo, AB/InBev, General Motors, Microsoft, Chipotle, Coca-Cola, Revlon, Unilever and dozens more with Kaplan often serving as the lead producer and creative executive on the most ambitious global initiatives.
Beyond applying their unique experience and expertise at the nexus of brands and entertainment, Kaplan says that the Superconnector Studios name expresses the key: “We occupy a unique space in two worlds. In the C-Suites of the brand world, we’ve always been the entertainment guys. And in the corner offices of the entertainment world, we were the brand guys. I don’t know anyone else who is equally comfortable in both worlds.”
Maverick Carter, sports-marketing business leader and media personality, adds, “When Jae pitched us Superconnector Studios, my response was: ‘You’ve built a business that perfectly leverages everything you’ve been working toward your entire career.’ SpringHill and Uninterrupted are already pursuing several initiatives with the brands they represent.”
While Goodman and Kaplan are just now announcing Superconnector Studios, they’ve been hard at work for most of 2023, with significant clients and initiatives in all three divisions.
The Management Consulting division worked with Sony Pictures Television to draft a brand partnership strategy applicable to its hundreds of productions, developed the framework for Major League Baseball’s premium content strategy, and helped Chipotle find new creative agency partners.
The division is currently working with financial services giant TIAA and its lead agency, Martin, to build out premium content and partnerships that transcend advertising. “Superconnector brings insights around entertainment-like content creation and high-level entertainment partnerships, as well as unparalleled Hollywood relationships,” says Kristen Cavallo, CEO of The Martin Agency and Global CEO of MullenLowe Group. “It’s a complementary relationship, and I suspect you’ll see us collaborating on more brand clients soon.”
The Brand Entertainment Production Studios division is developing similar entities to that of Nike’s Waffle Iron Studios for other major brands including AB/InBev and Gibson Guitars. It will also develop one-off projects such as brand-produced documentaries, films, podcasts and television series — but rather than operating on an agency fee, Superconnector Studios will operate as a producer and participate in production revenue and sales to distributors.
The Talent-Accelerated Consumer Products division creates business partnerships between talent and entertainment, something Goodman knows well, having developed campaigns for the juggernaut partnership between 19Crimes Wine and Snoop Dogg at Observatory. Superconnector Studios has a range of innovative business approaches that align the interests of brands and talent. It currently has several well-known brands entering into business partnerships with mega-star talent, as well as several new-to-world brands developed in partnership between major global CPG players and top-tier entertainment talent.
Superconnector will defer most of the up-front service fees an agency would require, and instead participate in revenue alongside the brand and talent once the products are on shelves. “There’s an imbalance in the business dynamic between brands and talent, with established brands paying more than ever for commercial endorsements while getting fewer commitments from talent,” Goodman says. “Talent increasingly prefers to take ownership in brands they represent or create – and we’re here to help that happen.”
