French Production Company Wanda Goes Digital

French Production Company Wanda Goes Digital


For the past 22 years Wanda has established itself as one of France's most dynamic and well-regarded production companies. Outputting exceptional commercial and music video content for a worldwide audience, the house has seen the careers of numerous directors soar under their guidance, as well as producing well-regarded work for brands such as Evian, Orange, Axe and Amnesty International.


It is fitting, therefore, that the company saw in 2013 with the launch of a new challenge – their own digital division Wanda Digital. Comprising of familiar names Romain Altain Aldéa (Managing Director), Patrick Barbier (Advising Director), Hélène Ségol (Executive Producer), Jean-Frédéric Passot (Creative Director) and Yoann Guény (Creative Technologist), the company also sees a team of more than 20 dedicated staff, including Creatives, Designers and Digital Animators, Web Engineers and Developers, Digital Producers, Film Producers, Production Directors, Post-production Directors and a full technical post-production studio.

We spoke to Patrick Barbier about the challenge and purpose of entering the digital realm.

What encouraged you to make this leap and embrace the digital?

Today, almost every major advertising campaign in the traditional media (TV, press, billboard...) is delivered with a digital side. These interactive experiences on the social networks or on the dedicated websites aim to create a participative relationship with the customers and have become an environment which is totally essential to all the advertising campaigns.

For the last few years, we have been involved in many campaigns where we had to deliver numerous contents that were designed for interactive experiences and whose "web development" part was then given to digital production studios.

It has seemed important to us to set up a Global Offer (films production, events + digital production) which offers us the opportunity to provide a global service throughout the whole chain of production: films, TVC, events, dedicated websites, video games, interactive movies, web series etc… Our position on the market, our reputation and the fact that the concept of "Global offer" is scarcely developed in France put us in a good position.

How different is the digital model from the production one? Do you think that your expertise production-wise will be an asset?

The digital model is different from the production one in the sense that it is necessary to include a "web development" service and to have the directors and the digital teams (web designers, web developers...) work together.

Our directors' list, the security and the regularity of our production processes allow us to propose a legitimate and attractive offer.
 

Are you going to transfer your list or are you going to create a new one? Was it something that your current directors have been eager to do?

Some of our TVC film directors have already had the opportunity to participate in some digital experiences for major brands: Akama for Orange 'Noel', KitKat 'The Ultimate Break' and Wilkinson 'Fight For Kisses'; LEGS for Evian 'Babies Inside'; Wilfred Brimo for "Amnesty" etc... Some other directors with different profiles will be added to this "ideal" list.

How did you find the staff to create the new company?

The creation of WANDA DIGITAL was born from the partnership of WANDA and the studio of digital creation and production GROUEK, which has been one of the leading players of the craft for more than 10 years.
 

Are you thinking of working directly with clients on projects or do you think that the agencies will necessarily have to be involved?

Yes, but it will depend on the requests. We are able to meet the demands of the agencies as well as the clients who would like to call upon us for some operations that they manage on their own.

Is there one of your previous projects that you'd like to transfer to the digital / or treat in an interactive way?

Nope.

Posted on 25th January 2013