COMPANY PROFILE: FREEFORM.LONDON Free thinkers
Creative agency Freeform.London is making a real name for itself in games. Christopher Dring speaks to the firm’s director Tony Roberts and head of digital John Downie to learn more about their plans for 2011
FREEFORM.LONDON wants to talk about its future.
It wants to discuss its growing team of creative experts and its plans to expand across the globe. But it isn’t until you ask them about what they’re working on that they truly get excited.
During our visit to its London offices, the firm’s head of digital John Downie was eager to pull out his laptop and reveal to us what he’s been working on – such as tube takeovers and outdoor print campaign for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, 3D experiences in shopping centres, images projected on landmarks, and even augmented reality concepts for bus stops. “The spend on marketing is being constricted, publishers want more exposure and more PR-generating ideas,” Downie says.
“If you approach digital in a new way you can really get people talking. And some of the work we are doing
“
The number of employees
70 at Freeform.London
Tony Roberts (above) and John Downie (left) have invested heavily in their games team
We have a global reach and we are now discussing the possibility of setting up Freeform LA.
Tony Roberts, Freeform
is indicative of that. Augmented reality, 3D projection and other experiential ideas can be relatively inexpensive to implement and are more involving consumer experiences.”
GLOBAL EXPANSION Freeform consists of multiple departments (see The Many Faces of Freeform) – with each one specialising in specific areas, be it audio visual, digital or production. The thinking is that clients can speak to these individual teams separately, or use all the departments to form one integrated campaign.
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“This helps us talk to our clients on a one-to-one sense, be it in terms of digital, in an overall creative sense or on an audio visual level,” explains Freeform.London director Tony Roberts. “Some might want to do a purely digital campaign, and we want to have a specialist digital department.” Freeform was traditionally a film specialist, but decided to enter games three years ago. It now boasts expert staff – including creative art director of games Jodie Brock, who joined from Eidos – and an in-house production suite, so it’s easy to see why the likes of Square Enix, EA and Ubisoft have been eager to get involved. “This year we have put a lot of investment in staff and kit and procedures to really ramp up our games side,” adds Roberts. Looking ahead to 2011, and
Freeform.London has big plans. Roberts says the firm wants to add even more names to its games team, potentially launch a mobile division, and even open global offices.
“We travel to LA six times a year, so we have that global reach,” adds Roberts. “We are discussing the possibility of setting up Freeform LA. It is not going to happen this year, but in order to grow our business then Freeform LA will be a big focus for next year. And from a digital point-of-view I think there’s opportunities in Abu Dhabi as well.”
As a creative agency, Freeform is always buzzing with ideas, from developing iPhone apps to launching new divisions. But Freeform’s strong point is its campaigns. And if some of the concepts MCVwas shown last week are anything to go by, you can expect Freeform to be at forefront in transforming how publishers promote their games.
THE MANY FACES OF FREEFORM
FREEFORM is split into four divisions, each one boasting its own specialist staff. Freeform.London handles the
marketing strategy for companies, Freeform.Digital looks after websites, banner ads, and even digital experiences outside of the web. Freeform.Production is the localisation side of the business which alters and localises package designs, while Freeform.Motion deals with the audio
visual side, including radio ads, trailers, promo reels and DVD features. On top of this, the agency’s reach extends out to manufacture with its packaging group, Shorewood.blueprint. This company handles design and production of entertainment packaging and print products, spanning the whole of Europe and the US.
All of these departments and companies can be utilised by publishers separately or together.
November 12th 2010 29
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