Hollywood marketing agency BLT launches ad division, Translation adds two more top creatives
Half the world says the future is ‘content,’ the other half that it’s video. In reality the two seem to mean the same thing. And it’s opening the doors of adland to some new-style agencies.
One such is LA-based BLT+, a new division of long-established Hollywood entertainment marketing agency BLT Communications.
BLT+ is a new advertising division aimed at consumer goods and services clients. BLT CEO Clive Baillie says: “BLT+ leverages our formidable Hollywood expertise to focus on entertainment-based solutions for consumer packaged goods, gaming, electronics, retail, QSR, spirits, and other product categories.
“We can now offer all brands, as well as our existing clients, a full menu of marketing options. This is a big step forward in the the evolution of our company.”
BLT+ is currently working on a global campaign for Dolby Laboratories, project work for Marvel, Amazon, EA, Netflix, HBO, Activision, and a breaking national campaign for Zynga’s FarmVille 2 Country Escape.
Another interesting US contender is self-styled ‘scrappy underdog’ Translation. Translation has recruited creative director duo Nick Sonderup (left, below) and Andy Grant to join CCO John Norman and ECDs Jay Sonderup and Andy Grant in what looks like a pretty heavyweight creative line-up.
Sonderup joins Translation following three years at BBDO and nearly five years at Wieden + Kennedy. He began his career as a writer at MTV Networks.
Grant joins from Crispin Porter + Bogusky where he helped to create one of the most-viewed commercials to date, ‘The Selfie Shootout,’ starring Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi, which achieved over 138m YouTube views. He has also worked at BBH Singapore and WCRS in London.
Translation founder and CEO Steve Stoute says:“Andy and Nick are two creatives who know how to deliver on big ideas. Translation has spent a decade as the scrappy underdog, proving time and again that it can go head to head with the biggest agencies out there. Now we’re investing in the sort of talent that will take this agency to a whole new level.”