Dentsu London Talks To PSFK About Making Future Magic

The 3D light-writing work created by BERG for the agency Dentsu London caused a terrific amount of buzz on the Internet last week. PSFK spoke to their executive planning director Beeker Northam to ask her about the work and how it fit in with their strategy.

We saw the fantastic ‘Making Future Magic’ work last week. I think the whole of the Internet saw it. Can you describe the piece?

Thank you! We’re glad you liked it. Conceptually the piece is one of series of experiments with partners, to explore our creative strategy for Dentsu London. Making Future Magic is an internal ambition, but since collaboration is so fundamental to the heart of it we want to play with the idea itself with other people we admire.

I wanted to work with Berg and was keen to work in online film, which is in a fascinating place right now. Dentsu London has a clear agenda with Making Future Magic as a philosophy: it’s about striving to put the best work into the world we can; being open and exploratory in terms of new ways of working (collaborations, business models, media); and prizing cultural sensitivity as highly as commercial effectiveness. This film is the first of two looking at some these themes. The development of this particular technique and the way we worked with Berg to make the film is an example of what we’d call future magic. Aesthetically and conceptually the video tries to communicate the priorities behind Making Future Magic which is why we’ve treated each word the way we have.

The work looks fantastic, but what has it got to do with Dentsu London? Why are you doing this?

It’s partly for us, as any good collaboration adds richness and dimensions to our own thinking, and partly (we hoped) for other people to enjoy and understand what we’re about. We’re new in London and are saying hello! Russell describes it nicely.

What is the relationship with Berg?

Berg are one in a series of creative partners that we were keen to work with. Given the scope of what we want to achieve creatively at Dentsu London and our unconfined approach to media, it’s a necessary and brilliant thing to reach out to creative specialists and craftsmen outside our agency. It’s something agencies have always done I guess, but usually in a bit of a sneaky, taking-all-the-credit white label way. Or of course there’s a lot of outright nicking. Berg are one of the most exciting, inventive companies in the world at the moment so we’re proud to work with them. For us the collaboration was a true one: strategically, conceptually and executionally.”

What can we expect next?

We have a second Making Future Magic film coming out in a couple of weeks and we’re working on a related product.

We can’t wait to see it – thank you!

Dentsu London