ChopShop Entertainment Inc. is riding the wave of the digital revolution, thanks to a growing client list that includes some big brands from its own backyard.
The Newport Beach-based ad shop and production company, a relatively new kid on the Orange County block, works directly with 15 to 20 brands. It also brings in revenue as a service provider for bigger ad agencies that need to supplement their digital and creative offerings from time to time.
Vans, Boost Mobile
ChopShop’s latest assignments come from two of the bigger OC brands: Cypress-based Vans Inc., which had more than $1.7 billion in revenue in 2013; and Boost Mobile LLC in Irvine, a subsidiary of Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint Nextel Corp. Both companies recently hired ChopShop to focus on brand-building with digital campaigns.
“There are so many platforms now for content, where years ago it was network television and cable,” said Vice President Ken Anderson, who founded ChopShop with Creative Director Zach Lyons 10 years ago. “We provide content for so many different destinations, we are essentially platform agnostic. … It’s incumbent on us to stay ahead of (the) changing industry, and there is no question that this industry is changing radically.”
The company, aside from generating content ideas, also helps companies get their messages to customers across various digital platforms, Lyons said.
For example, if there is a commercial, “(we’ll ask), ‘Is there a digital place for that content?’ ” he said. “Is that content online different from TV? Are there other ancillary spokes? TV used to be the hub, but now, at least in our world … digital has become the hub.”
That concept has really put consumers in control, Lyons said, especially among Millennials, a term typically reserved for anyone under the age of 30 or so.
“The youth market, in which we are very strong in, receives their content primarily from the Web, not TV, and they are not sold to,” he said. “They can see a 30-second spot and say, ‘Hey, c’mon.’ If you are able to provide them with genuine, authentic content that may integrate product, but the focus is the content, they are much more willing to see it, to send it; it can be viral. You’re not going to send a commercial to one of your friends, but if you have content that is compelling, you’re going to move that around the Internet.”
Doug Palladini, Vans’ general manager, was looking to address that requirement when he hired ChopShop to work on the online series “Down Days.” The show features San Clemente pro surfers and brothers Dane, Tanner and Patrick Gudauskas and documents their travels during “down days” when they aren’t competing. Product placement throughout the show is almost negligible—a Vans logo pops in every once in awhile on the Gudauskases’ shirts or their boards throughout the 10-minute episodes. The first season follows the brothers to Spain and Australia. It aired during Vans Triple Crown of Surfing on Vans’ Offthewall.tv and its YouTube channel in December.
Storytelling
“We believe that story telling about our brand is what builds affinity for Vans,” Palladini said. “You have to be able to express the ideas in a meaningful way that connects with someone who is watching, and the guys at ChopShop were able to do that for us, and that’s pretty remarkable.”
ChopShop just completed filming the second-season episodes in Japan and Germany. Those will air in May, and more episodes are in the works.
“We want to sell this concept to a cable network. That was part of our objective from the get-go,” Palladini said. “Our strategy is interactive first and then the broader media second. … The teenagers that we are talking to today, they are native in interactive. They aren’t immigrants like me. I’m 47. I emigrated from traditional media to interactive media. They were born after the Google started. … These kids are thinking about interactive first and then television and then radio and then motion picture. They want to find it online first.”
ChopShop employs 10 and relies on some 30 freelancers when working on location. Anderson declined to disclose the company’s annual revenue, but said it grew by 60% last year.
“Most of our business is in-bound—people see our work and seek us out,” Anderson said. “Occasionally we will target a company that we think they can benefit from what we are doing. But we are not out there just dialing for dollars.”
A decent chunk of billings came from long-term clients, such as Newport Beach-based ad shop O’Leary & Partners and Boost Mobile.
“Be Heard”
ChopShop just completed “Be Heard,” a 10-episode digital series for Boost Mobile, with the last installment airing this week on the company’s YouTube channel. It will feature Marlon Moraes, who competes in the World Series of Fighting. The two-minute episode will be edited to a 30-second TV ad and featured during the March 29 NBC broadcast of Moraes’ matchup against
Josh Rettinghouse for the bantamweight title at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
“We have a close working relationship,” said Nick Holt, Boost Mobile’s creative director. “They’ve really been with us since” the beginning.
The brand also has retained ChopShop to produce a mini documentary project focused on cities in which it has a major presence. The project will debut in April and have a “heavy digital focus” to “help build a
strong and passionate brand,” according to Holt.
Producing authentic work that connects with audiences can also mean saying no to some opportunities, Anderson said.
There can be times, for example, when a client comes to ChopShop and “has a less-than-robust story, and they want ‘a viral video,’ ” he said.
“Well, we can create a video, but if you don’t have an engaging message or a creative way to present that, there is no way we can force people to send it to their friends or family, and we’ll be candid about that. If you have a two-minute infomercial,” that’s probably not going to happen.
“We don’t want to take your money, it’s just not who we are.”
