• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 7, 2016

BBDO Worldwide has launched a new crowdsourced video content studio that will be managed by the Omnicom agency’s London shop AMV BBDO. Confectioner giant Mars is the studio’s inaugural client partner, according to the agency. Plans call for the new studio to be rolled out across the BBDO network in 2017. 

The platform, dubbed Flare Studio, provides clients with access to a global talent pool of creatives, filmmakers, production companies and influencers that can create video content customized for the growing array of digital and social channels. 

“There is an insatiable demand for video content,” stated Ian Pearman, CEO, AMV BBDO. “Flare Studio has been created to help our clients meet this exploding demand, and to demonstrate” how the agency can handle growing volume, “quickly, efficiently and with the highest level of creativity on a global scale.”

Flare Studio builds on the digital and social content work that AMV BBDO has been doing for the last two years via its in-house content arm “Flare,” which has been extended to 12 BBDO offices, delivering hundreds of pieces of content annually to its clients. 

The new platform provides a mechanism that allows the pool of talent aligned with it to compete for briefs posted on behalf of BBDO agencies and their clients. The model is built on a system of tiers (Open Studio, Studio Plus and Studio Pro) which can deliver content to fit different solutions and budgets. 

Commenting on Mars’ involvement, Leonid Sudakov, global chief marketing officer for Mars Petcare, said that the studio “will give Mars unprecedented access to a global pool of creative talent, and we are excited about the unique ideas that this crowdsourcing collaboration will generate.”  

Mars and AMV BBDO will also be partnering with the UK’s National Film and Television School (NFTS) to create The Flare Foundation which will offer scholarships to the school. The foundation will also provide grants for equipment, training courses and work placements that talent working with the Flare Studio can apply for.