The highly contentious era of WPP's TV commercial production equivalent to Woolworths and Coles, Plush Films, is dead.
In its place, however, is another play called Bento, which like Plush, will be owned jointly by WPP's agency brands in Australia with the hope those agencies will funnel content and viral production briefs into the joint venture along with other new services such as music production.
At one time Plush was seen by WPP as a global test for a margin-boosting venture that could be replicated by its agency brands such as Ogilvy, JWT, Y&R and Grey around the world.
But from the outset in 2003 as an agency-owned TVC production company to compete with independents, Plush created a furore with the production sector. Former STW chief executive Russell Tate – the driving force behind Plush - was forced into a series of crisis meetings with the Screen Producers Association but ultimately pushed ahead with his agenda. Plush has also been a point of friction inside WPP agencies as creatives pushed hard to retain their freedom to choose TV directors and production companies against the STW-WPP commercial agenda of keeping more revenues and profits inside.
The production industry to this day claims Plush strong-armed them into deals which slashed their margins in order for WPP agencies to bolster their own financial performance. Those that didn't comply were black banned. Ogilvy creatives had a remit to direct at least one in three TVC's to Plush although this has faltered in the past two years - KFC and NSW Lotteries are said to be the mainstay of the Plush business today.
"I'm a huge fan of Plush in the most negative way I can possibly find," said the head of a leading production company. "They are courageous in their averageness. Plush decimated parts of the business but in the end they found their level. All the [agency] creatives found themselves hamstrung."
At its peak Plush was said to be generating profits of $1.5-2 million.
The reworked unit will be rebranded Bento in coming weeks with an expanded service offer designed to deliver cross platform production capabilities, mirroring the move in Hollywood towards "transmedia producers".
Plush executive producer George Saada said in a statement to AdNews: "The plush model has been an outstanding success for its shareholders and clients. It has driven incremental value for all and produced outstanding work. But Plush was modelled and became the biggest film production company in Australia at a time when the argument was between 35mm and 16mm film. The world has moved on, from offline to online, and the impact is no more evident than in the film production area. We'll be substantially investing in the new Plush, upgrading studios, putting in new edit suites that will focus on content and viral production, and expanding into music production."
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