On My Radar: Amy Kommatas
In our continuing On My Radar section, Mother NY's Amy Kommatas takes on our creative Q&A.
Amy Kommatas, senior producer at Mother New York, loves the sound of Honda, is constantly saved by Google Maps and thinks that advertising partnership should be more readily fostered.
What’s the best ad campaign you’ve seen recently?
Sound of Honda [directed by Kosai Sekine] is really bad ass. I think this should win a ton of awards. It is both emotional and highly data driven.
And I couldn’t miss the opportunity to not so subtlety mention the Blinkwashing project we did for Virgin Mobile. It was a really awesome project to be a part of.
It was the first ever YouTube video experience you could fully control with your eyes. This specific type of facial recognition tech was pretty innovative and the film set ups were ridiculous, which made it a lot of fun.
My favorite one to film was the gorilla doing sign language in a kitchen with the scientist interpreting it. Though the premise was absurd, we took it really seriously cast for a person proficient in sign language...and then put them in a gorilla suit.
What website(s) do you use most regularly and why?
NY Magazine. Its format has easily digestible news nuggets and houses a lot of content that doesn’t appear in their print version.
They also have this regular feature in their Grub Street section that chronicles a B-list celebrity and has them keep a food diary for the week. It makes me feel like I should be eating more cashew butter.
What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought and why?
Purchasing and returning tech is more my forte. After two failed attempts at installation, Nest now has a better home than my apartment.
Facebook or Twitter?
What’s your favourite app on your phone?
Google Maps. I get made fun of a lot on shoots for giving people directions after its way too late and we’ve passed a turn. Google Maps has been my saviour.
What’s your favourite TV show and why?
It is a toss up between the Mindy Project and the Kroll Show. I want Mindy to be my friend; we’d have so much fun together.
Kroll Show’s humor feels so now. Jonathan Krisel directs it and is one of the creators and the attention to detail takes everything to another level.
What film do you think everyone should have seen and why?
Stepbrothers. It is a poignant and emotional journey of two family members who learn to first live together and then to love.
Where were you when inspiration last struck?
At a gallery in the LES with artist Andy Cavartorta. His work sits at the intersection of robotics, music, and interactivity. This past year we’ve been working really closely together on the Stella Artois Chalice Symphony project. We commissioned him to create four bespoke musical instruments utilizing the Stella Artois Chalice. Being able to watch his genius over the course of production was incredibly inspiring.
What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed in the industry since you started working in it?
I worked as a TV journalist before coming to ad land. It was much more run-and-gun
atmosphere. Since I wasn’t around for the “good old days,” the newsroom mentality that I was raised in seems to be part of our business’ evolution. Creatives, producers, and technologists have to be more strategic and nimble with how they spend a dollar.
If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?
Partnership. With how much things have fractured and margins being so thin it has become incredibly cut-throat. Brands, leaning on agencies and then agencies pushing back on their production partners. I’d rather take an ensemble approach, find a few people that always deliver for me and make amazing work together.
What or who has most influenced your career and why?
Rob Baird, CD and founder at the newly opened Preacher, taught me how to push for the highest level of creative integrity all with a smile. Mike Aaron and Michael Rose at Mother have both been mentors in how to lead and manage people. Jake Neske, who is my husband, first production mentor, and now an agent for production companies, just makes life and work easier.
Tell us one thing about yourself that most people won’t know.
I speak Japanese less well with each passing day. I hope Mother will let me open the Tokyo office one day, so it will start getting better again. Maybe then and only then will I show my co-workers my Japanese TV debut where I played both a lady in waiting and a rioting Parisian in a Japanese reenactment of Marie Antoinette.
