The United Kingdom has no doubt made its impact on the world stage, being the birthplace of highly regarded men and women in the creative arts. Though we tout the nation’s influence on stage, film, and television, we just as often neglect its influence on the world of advertising. Some of the biggest advertisers in the world rely on British production companies to create and shoot their adverts, often creating the best the advertising world as ever seen in the process. Today at right.video, we wanted to shift focus for a moment and highlight the best advert production companies currently based in the UK. This article will be slightly different from what you’re no doubt use to reading, wherein we’ll be ranking the individual company while highlighting their most recently recognized work in the process.
Director: Megaforce
Client: Nike
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
We begin our list with Riff Raff Films, a production company renowned for its off-kilter sensibilities. For a grand display of its ethos, look no further than 2018’s “Nothing Beats a Londoner”, an advert that celebrates the UK’s capital city and its people. Created for Nike to celebrate London athletes, we’re given the broad strokes of London, with an ever-growing amount of people trying to prove how hard they have to be to get through a day in the city. It captures the vibrant, diverse heart of the city in ways most adverts, and most media in general, rarely convey and the increasingly outlandishness makes London’s citizens pop.
Director: Sam Brown
Client: Guinness
Agency: AMV BBDO
Rogue Films has been a British ad production house institution since its founding in 1974 and has gone on to make highly acclaimed adverts and music videos in its near-fifty year existence. It’s this unique sensibility between music and advertising that we wanted to highlight its “Made of Black” campaign for Guinness. The advert is a bright, colorful burst of creative energy, showcasing the untapped potential in the Black label mixed with Kanye West’s Black Skinhead. It is nothing sort of beautiful chaos and impeccably shows off Rogue’s vision.
Director: Layzell Bros
Client: Harvey Nichols
Agency: adam&eveDDB
This is the first of two Harvey Nichols adverts on this list, but we wanted to highlight the differences a production company can take for the same agency and client. Take Blink’s subsidiary Blinkink’s advert for example. With its focus on animation over live-action, we’re treated to a uniquely cartoony look at
the classic department store shoplifter. It’s an off-kilter take on what one might see in true-crime shows on television and the expressions of the cartoon faces show off the vibrancy and terror that can come from attempting to rob a department store.
Director: Hector Mediavilla
Client: Guinness
Agency: AMV BBDO
Stillking Films has had a robust history, shifting between advertising and filmmaking seamlessly having helped work on blockbusters such as Casino Royale. It’s this filmmaking touch that we wanted to highlight its “Sapeurs” advert for Guinness. Most adverts we’ve seen tend to run on the short side, running mainly for thirty seconds or a minute at most. Stillking, on the other hand, chose to make a brisk, five-minute documentary about Congolese men’s dress culture. It’s a unique look in a distinct lifestyle and an insight that would never be covered by a mainstream documentary company. The advert shows off the sense of joy that makes a Sapeur so full of life, reflecting the sort of brand that Guinness wants to exude.
Director: Dougal Wilson
Client: Channel 4
Agency: 4creative
Blink Productions proper finally joins the list and we wanted to celebrate one of its more recent success with its award-winning collaboration with Channel 4 for the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Heralded across British media for its portrayal of athletes with disabilities, Blink with Channel 4’s exclusive agency showed off the abilities of not only Paralympians, but those with disabilities that have thrived to a degree that would put even the abled bodied to shame. It was a masterstroke, all done to a performance of Sammy Davis Jr.’s Yes I Can by a band of musicians with similar disabilities.
Director: Ringan Ledwidge
Client: The Guardian
Agency: BBH
We’ve had dark, modern reimaginings of famous fairy tales from the likes of Disney and Universal, but did you ever imagine one coming from a British newspaper? This was the task The Guardian gave Rattling Stick in 2012 and the result was a Cannes Lion winner based on the story of the Three Little Pigs. Retelling the story through a modern media lens, the advert goes through the true-crime news cycle and touches on contentious topics and a few twists on a classic story. It all goes to show how even a story that everyone knows can be retold in exciting new ways.
Director: James Rouse
Client: Harvey Nichols
Agency: adam&eveDDB
While the client and the agency return from earlier in the list, the production company could not be more different. Outsider elected to for a more traditional approach to advertising, albeit one that had its tongue firmly in cheek. What begins as a normal holiday advert slowly but surely shows off the Harvey Nichols “Spent it On Myself” products, designed as gag gifts for self-indulgent shoppers. It’s a funny advert that pulls the rug out from traditional UK holiday commercials and shows off versatility of the Outsider studio.
Director: Aoife McArdle
Client: Absolut
Agency: BBH
One of the more recent ad production companies to emerge on the London scene, Somesuch is a Hoxton-based firm founded in 2010. Thought a young company, Somesuch has dramatically risen as a top-tier firm, racking up numerous advertising agency awards for its work. We wanted to show off one of its 2018 adverts, designed for Absolut to show off the company’s commitment to a more open world and the love that it promises. It’s a collage of races, creeds, and religions and shows off the immense potential that Somesuch is capable of for their clientele.
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Client: Rekorderlig
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Biscuit Filmworks London is the UK-subsidiary of the Los Angeles-based production firm, but it has quickly carved a unique identity from its American cousin. Take their work for Rekorderlig on behalf of the world-renowned Saatchi & Saatchi agency: it’s a delightfully Swedish advert only fitting for a Swedish beverage company. It’s a deceptively simple-looking production, combining practical stunt work and digital sleight of hand to show off Swedish skaters atop an ice-covered lake. The goal was to create a unique-looking advert and, alongside a haunting Swedish folk song, “Silver Skaters” fittingly achieved the Silver Award at the 2015 Clio Awards.
Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen
Client: Samsung
Agency: Leo Burnett Chicago
MJZ is perhaps one of the most highly-respected production houses in the world, with its London branch among its most prolific in terms of output. For its advert, we turn to a commercial that we’ve discussed at length before, but wanted to highlight for its sheer creative direction and vision. Though it may seem odd to focus on an ostrich, Samsung’s commitment to this virtual reality ad campaign became a critical smash in the industry, especially when paired with the legendary song Rocketman. It was this creative commitment to showing off flight that the ad would sweep the 2018 ad awards season.
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We hope that you enjoyed this journey through some of the UK’s most prestigious advert production houses, from the mainstream to the underground. Whether we’ve been with shoplifters or taken flight with ostriches, we believe that these are among the best production companies that you can look forward to partnering with if you’re working in London or elsewhere in Britain. Though these are our personal favorites, there are even more production companies that you can find on the right.video search engine. We look forward to helping you find the right production house for your next project!
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