South Africa: Velocity

There’s more than one way to skin a cat… and to get a concept through to finished product. Creative Adrian Miller explains how he and Velocity’s Barry Munchick have brought something new to South Africa – V+, a fast and funky hybrid outfit

Challenging the norm can be a tricky business. By definition everyone is used to the norm, it’s an understood and accepted factor in life and in business and, generally, it works. But sometimes it needs to be shaken up a little and that’s exactly what Adrian Miller is attempting to do with his new venture, V+. Miller, an agency veteran who headed up Saatchi & Saatchi in Malaysia for five years before a stint at JWT in Delhi, has joined forces with Barry Munchick, managing director of South African production company Velocity Films, to create what they are calling a ‘project-based idea factory’ which will ‘provide alternate and integrated communication solutions for clients and agencies alike’.

A shape-shifting industry

You only have to look to this issue’s feature on direct-to-client working practices [page 30] to see that the way in which the industry works is altering. The usual creative route of client/agency/production/post is still very much the accepted method of bringing an advertising concept to life, but it is not the only method. Lines are being blurred, skill-sets are moving across boundaries and with the proliferation of platforms and explosion of content it means that the game is constantly changing.

“Barry and I had worked together a lot before,” explains Miller, “and about two years ago we spoke about the difficulties he was having on the production scene and the difficulties I was having on the agency scene and how hard it was to get good work to the next level… so we talked about doing something that was a little different.” Miller had been out of South Africa for some years; in Delhi, Malaysia and in Kuala Lumpur with Lowe before that, so thought that it was a good time to reconnect with his native country. What V+ is, agrees Miller, is a hybrid; it’s not a pure production company and it’s not an agency but it will have the capacity to entertain both elements of those disciplines. “We’ll take on briefs,” he states, “and the idea generation will take place with the people we choose to bring onboard who will suit that particular thing. We’ll take care of it from inception to completion.”

Boundary-blurring bravado

Miller says that there’s nothing like V+ in South Africa at the moment and he concedes that it’s a brave move to take; being the first at something usually is. But is there a chance that agencies – Velocity’s bread-and-butter clients – might frown upon their bold, agency-skirting nature? Miller thinks not and states V+ is not about specific, long-term strategic planning. “We’re totally project-based,” Miller says, “so we’re certainly not after any agency’s accounts. We would be more than happy to work with an agency and a client. It could be a project that the agency want us to help them out on, or, of course, there are some clients who don’t have agencies of record, and some clients cherry-pick different partners on a project-to-project basis. We’re very collaborative.”

One of Miller’s reasons for starting V+ is that he wanted to be more nimble in the way he approached the challenges the advertising business currently faces. Working in a large agency structure seemed not the best way to proceed. “I realised there were a lot of shortcomings [in the agency scene],” he says somewhat ruefully. “It’s not necessarily the agency’s fault, it’s often because of how they’re structured, but they’re rarely quick to adapt to market changes and if you want to do something there can be a lot of bureaucracy that has to click into place and I just wanted to do something that was very creative and also very targeted, something that takes you up to the next level.”

A burgeoning market

V+ will, understandably, work solely with Velocity directors on any projects they bring in and Miller will have a team of creative individuals around him. The core team will start off pretty small but will grow as work comes in and more hands are needed on deck. This will add to the nimbleness of the company, says Miller, allowing them to pick up a project and run with it in a short period of time.  Though based in South Africa, V+ will be a global company and Miller aims to take on projects from wherever they come, with an especially keen eye on the rest of Africa – “it’s a huge, burgeoning market” – and they are already working on a few projects, the details of which Miller is currently keeping close to his chest.

Miller wants the company to be known for doing interesting and creative things, for having collaborative and two-sided conversations with consumers. He thinks it will be an exciting time for him, and especially for the directors he uses. “Right now, there’s so much more stuff for a director,” Miller enthuses. “It won’t just be about directing for TV, there are so many other avenues we want to explore and where their work can be seen. There are so many opportunities.”