At this time, the Advert Council and Sugar23, the media firm based by Academy Award-winning producer Michael Sugar, introduced a partnership to kind Advert Council Leisure, a brand new initiative targeted on creating long-form storytelling and content material to drive social affect.
The partnership will mix the Advert Council’s experience in addressing social affect and significant points in the USA with the manufacturing prowess of Sugar23, recognized for movies and sequence like Highlight, 13 Causes Why, Dickinson, and The Knick. By means of the brand new Advert Council Leisure initiative, the 2 events will broaden their work and switch it into premium leisure by growing function movies, sequence, and documentaries that take a look at in the present day’s social points, spark public dialogue, and drive affect.
The inaugural programming slate for the collaboration is at present being developed and can embody scripted and unscripted initiatives with a concentrate on addressing the psychological well being disaster in the USA.
Lisa Sherman, Advert Council’s president and CEO, mentioned when she met Sugar a couple of 12 months in the past, they each aligned on how they view the world and the affect that robust storytelling can have.
“The fact is the problems we’re coping with are getting increasingly complicated,” Sherman informed ADWEEK. “This new platform permits us to go deeper into the story strains, construct actual relationships with our audiences in methods you can’t in a 30- or 60-second spot, and construct resonant characters. After I discovered about Michael’s background, it felt like we should always deliver these two issues collectively and construct one thing actually highly effective.”
Sugar mentioned that as his firm continues making an attempt to determine the connection between manufacturers and Hollywood, working with the Advert Council on this new initiative made sense as a subsequent step for them.
“The tradition—and what it consumes—has shifted,” Sugar mentioned. “That’s the inertia that we’re fixing for along with all the normal media by which Advert Council messages its value agendas. The patron has modified too, so it’s a possibility to create an invite from the viewers in a kind that the viewers is now paying for quite than skipping.”
Together with co-developing movies and sequence for media platforms with producers, writers, and administrators, Advert Council and Sugar 23 are tapping into their intensive community of name companions to work on choose initiatives that align with their very own social affect commitments and model goal.
Sugar mentioned that whereas he has at all times been drawn to quite a lot of content material, together with initiatives which can be entertainment-forward, worthwhile, and could be consumed by the plenty, he additionally seems to be for the type that strikes conversations forward. And he added that, for this partnership, they invite manufacturers, distributors, and artistic businesses to collaborate on storytelling.
“I need individuals to know that is an open door by means of us, and that’s the place we’re going to scale the alternatives,” Sugar mentioned.
Sherman mentioned that though the Advert Council has been round for 80 years, that is one other alternative for the group to assist the advertising ecosystem.
“This simply provides us one other vital and highly effective lane to deliver that very same ecosystem collectively in working with us, and with Michael and his group, to seek out deeper, extra resonant tales, the place we’ve got the time to discover and make these connections that I feel can be extremely highly effective,” Sherman mentioned.
Based on Sugar, the aim of the brand new initiative is to amplify the Advert Council’s mission and its companions throughout the board.
“I imagine one of the best ways to determine actual, significant connections is thru mission-driven, genuine content material,” Sugar mentioned. “That’s what we’re launching as a result of this permits us to ship extra of that in a extra significant method that individuals can join with.”
