End of Year Blog Post- 2015 GPP Wrap Up
Here we are again at the end of December and the end of another year doing what we do- turning product placement into “positive placement”.
Because this year was so jammed packed- our show count is now well over 170 productions in the US, Canada and the UK, and our brand count is over 65, we spent yet another year with our noses firmly pressed to the grindstone doing, and growing our business.
In the past, I compared a new business to a child, and its’ growing up stages. Whereas last year, we were a toddler, “running about all over the place”, this year saw us as a preschooler- building on our growing skills and capabilities as a company and preparing for the next period of growth that lies ahead of us.
In a month we’ll mark the milestone of 4 years since we incorporated in late January 2012, and officially launched in April of that year. Like any new business, we face challenges and obstacles, and like any people with over 40 years combined tv and film production experience, we find ways to solve them and overcome them.
As last year, the collection of new email addresses for our annual holiday card “send out” was just short of Herculean. Check out our holiday greeting here. We feel privileged to each year, be able to make new friends and new colleagues, working to make great content, to make great products, and to make the world a more sustainable place.
Looking back, this year, as any year, was a year of triumphs and disappointments, of letdowns and of victories.
We couldn’t talk about letdowns of this year, without mentioning the sad demise of Film Biz Recycling, the Brooklyn based creative non-profit and prop shop. that found new homes for media waste of all types- from sets to props to costumes. They had to shutter their doors due to lack of funding, but Eva and Liz continue the legacy of good works with the online based Art Cube.
This was also a year of firsts- we began working with our first accessory clients- 2 handbag companies and a wristwatch company. They are Haiku Bags, Gunas Bags , and Analog Watches . They are the first as we work to expand a brand portfolio to include more accessories, eco-fashion garments and shoes. We’re determined to make over those wardrobe trailers with fashion forward, great looking Sustainable Fashion and start a mini Fashion Revolution of our own, onscreen.
It was also the first year that our friend and colleague Emellie O’Brien, at Earth Angel held their first ever NYC celebration of Earth Hour- calling it “Earth Angel Hour”. Our pictures are here more can be found in Earth Angel NYC’s gallery, here.
Per our usual schedule, March saw us in California for Natural Products Expo West and our annual Studio Meetings. This year we added a couple more very high profile streaming studios to the agenda- ones with whom we had been working on the production level, but now we’re also connected on the studio level as well.
This year we’ve also managed a few more personal connections with celebrities in the sustainability space. We hope to grow this pool of fabulous connections in the coming years.
Late spring saw us back in our supplemental positions as production personnel whilst simultaneously managing a very busy placement season (some great exposure for our brands that will be visible very soon). We also did our round of NYC production office visits and are happy to see that production is still thriving in the Big Apple.
Late summer/early autumn brought Natural Products Expo East, and for the first time, we helped with sponsorships for the La Femme Film Festival (which we attended) and an important Animal Sanctuary Event in NYC.
And then, the biggest victory of all, for all of us that care about a sustainable future, we were in Paris during the COP 21 talks to attend a couple of high profile events adjunct to the official talks and to have a few meetings with like minded business people.
3 weeks before we were scheduled to leave, as we left our production jobs for the day, that fated Friday, we heard about the horrendous terrorist attacks that took place in the neighborhood we were to call home for 6 days, in Paris. Not once did we consider not going, however, as we knew somehow that this COP would be different. This and coming from the country that went through 9/11, we knew that to get on with the business of life and the business of making the world better goes counter to what the perpetrators wished to accomplished when they did what they did.
So off we went to Paris and our first event, The World Climate Summit and Sustainia Awards. We met and heard from many leaders and luminaries in the sustainability sector and we were pleased to meet with and consult with the Sustainia team prior to this successful event.
The next day, we were one of a select group of invited guests to attend the Earth to Paris event, live in Paris. View some of the sessions we attended here.
And their “Love Letters to Paris” Video here:
This was 5 days before the historic climate action agreement was ratified on Saturday, December 12th.
This agreement is the most aggressive and mutually agreed commitment to clean energy, clean tech, clean manufacturing and more sustainable practices overall that has been set forth thus far. We feel just as moved having been witness to history, as we were being able to participate in some small way. The momentum that pushed this forward was completely collaborative- from business leaders like Ted Turner, Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson, to indigenous leaders worldwide travelling all the way to Paris to say their peace, to hashtag campaigners online, to protesters in the street, to everyone meeting, connecting, promoting and pushing forward a strong climate agreement.
Read my takeways from our trip to Paris during the COP21 talks, here.
We also met with EcoProd France, a consultancy that concentrates on making French television and film production more sustainable, mainly behind, but also in front of, the camera, along with dropping in at Place to B, for meeting with Thomas Kolster of Goodvertising, and then lastly a wonderful meeting with new friend Nick Aster and his colleagues Jen and Mary from venerable sustainability news site, Triple Pundit.
The more we connect with sustainability professionals and in particular sustainability media professionals, and great sustainable brands, products and companies worldwide, we realize even more than connectivity is indeed the key to pushing a more sustainable future forward. We realize that the reach is, and must be, global and we will continue our efforts with that as our goal.
Many seeds of good were planted in Paris this December, both from a global perspective and from the more personal perspective of our business.
We look forward to caring for those seeds and watching them grow in 2016.
We wish you and yours the happiest of holidays and best wishes for a verdant, peaceful future in the coming year.
