Production house Epoch has bought interactive agency Kirt Gunn & Associates to launch a new branded entertainment company, Dandelion.
This week US-based Epoch joined the growing ranks of production companies investing in branded entertainment by opening an online division. Dandelion will be an independent company dedicated to create sponsored online programming.
Noticeably, Dandelion's launching roster includes creative talent with experience in mainstream TV programming. Dandelion's executive producer Greg Schultz, for example, is an Emmy-award winning producer who has worked on shows including Mad Men and Seinfeld. There are also writers who have worked on shows like Saturday Night Live and Roseanne.
Meanwhile, Kirt Gunn and his team have previously worked on online advertising campaigns such as Volvo; Drive for Life and the internet series Meet the Lucky Ones for Mercury.
"Surprisingly, it's becoming easier to talk to brands about these projects," says Gunn. "When we started this, it was an experiment reserved for the brave and the few, but when they found out that our work produced better business results than doing ads, the phone really began to ring. Now they see us as a solution rather than a bunch of loons with bad clothes - or perhaps a solution in addition to a bunch of loons with bad clothes."
The other managing partners in Dandelion are Epoch Films' partner and exec producer Jerry Solomon, and founder Mindy Goldberg.
Instead of creating an online company from scratch, Epoch purchased Kirt Gunn & Associates - hoping to capitalise on existing experience and connections, as Jerry Solomon explains. "For Epoch to start a new business model it would take both a financial investment and a significant learning curve. It made more sense to make an investment in a company with a proven track record and high creative standards in an arena where our experience was limited. More importantly, we wanted to connect with a group of people who were culturally compatible and who would benefit as much from our resources as we would from theirs," he says.
This diversification strategy is also a bid to help the company navigate the current financial climate. "We have been looking to diversify our business for quite some time, as evident by our ventures in features. The major factor in diversification is we believe that the level of uncertainty in advertising and entertainment creates many opportunities. We wanted to try and capitalise on this unique moment. The economic downturn played very little role in our decision. However, the current climate forces marketers to find more effective, resourceful and affordable solutions to reach the ever more elusive consumer," adds Solomon.
