SURVEY


COMMERCIALS 30 INTRODUCTION


CREATIVE TRENDS What have been the major creative trends of the past year?


76 LTD “UGC and filming with micro crews due to the pandemic.”


ACADEMY “TikTok has been referenced in both format and creative style and has heavily influenced a lot of scripts we’ve seen.”


ARTS & SCIENCES “Remote shooting will be more prevalent. The technology has been proven.”


BLINK PRODUCTIONS “Definitely a lean towards comedy again. Agencies seem keen to continually try (generally fruitlessly!) to recreate viral/meme culture.”


DARK ENERGY FILMS “Comedy and documentary-style projects have been in favour.”


DIRT Y FILMS “Initially, we saw most production companies turn into animation studios!”


HLA “Smartphones have been used extensively to get shots when no one else can get there!”


HUNGRY MAN “At the start of the pandemic there was quite a serious tone to the scripts, now clients are keen for more comedy and light hearted work.”


MINDS EYE “Remote shooting has been the biggest shift. Whether that’s directors dialing in remotely or, more commonly, clients and agency attending shoots remotely.”


PRESENCE “‘Necessity is the mother of all invention’ comes to mind. The creative output over the last 6 – 8 months has been really good considering the limitations.”


PRETT Y BIRD “Authenticity; highlighting and showcasing marginalised communities; nuanced comedy; use


of more diverse cast.”


RATTLING STICK “Increasing trend of humanitarian themes; climate, sustainability, connection, community, kindness.”.


RIFF RAFF “One of the most important trends of note from 2020 was the call from all sides – clients, agencies, directors, production, crew – for diversifying both the work on-screen, and those who were a part of creating it.”


STINK “Emotional films, particularly positive, happy, uplifting films have been the order of the day… again it feels like a Covid response, to help keep people positive through difficult times.”


YOU ARE HERE “A lot more accountability in the tone of voice from brands, a notable rise of social responsibility as advertisers are waking up to their diversity, inclusivity, and environmental obligations.”


and brands in this new landscape,” says Rattling Stick. “We need to encourage them to be brave and trust us. We should be making extraordinary work for extraordinary times.” Biscuit Filmworks too says, “we


have a great opportunity to continue to lead the way globally in our messaging and shooting safely to make good work and keep people employed.” Blink says that “through research and hard work and adherence to new best practice we have proved time and time again that we are capable of keeping crew safe and continuing to produce good creative work alongside changing restrictions and lockdown rules.” The more good and ambitious work


created, the greater client confidence will be, says Rogue: “Confidence is returning slowly. Examples of big, successful productions help clients be confident to commission bigger, more creative work, but that client and consumer confidence is the main obstacle to the industry returning to its former self.”


CHANGE FOR THE BETTER The strictures of lockdown shooting have involved many changes to the way ads are traditionally produced. Some, like remote directing may or may not last into a post COVID world, but there’s a feeling that others will.


Spring 2021


C03


Commercials 30


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