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2014 End of the Year Wrap-Up- We’re Turning 3!

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As we wrap up another year, we tend to look back at the past 12 months and tally up accomplishments (and disappointments). But I find that the disappointments fade into the background of memory and it is the accomplishments that stand out in one’s mind.

As I prepared our annual Holiday E-Card , I had to gather up all of the new contacts we’ve made in the course of doing business (and apologies to anyone we may have missed! Please click on the link for our holiday wishes to you :-)  ), and this year, it was literally hundreds of new names that got added to our recipients list.

That’s because this year, much like our 1st and 2nd years of business, was jam packed! In January of 2015, it will be 3 years since we officially incorporated as Green Product Placement (and April will mark 4 years since I was struck by the idea, following an online conversation on TED.com  with the documentarian Morgan Spurlock, to start the company).

In last year’s end of year post, I compared a new business to a child. Whereas last year, our business went from “baby” to “toddler”, this year, our “toddler” went running around, all over the place.

In April, we produced the London Sustainable Production Eco-Expo  which was modeled after the very successful NYC Production Eco Expos, produced by our friends at Film Biz Recycling.

As I posted late spring, see some pictures here  and  catch the sizzle reel here:

After that, as last year’s winners, we were off to present the “First and Foremost” Award at Film Biz Recycling’s  Golden Dumpster Awards  to the PGA Green, for their report “Going Green and Saving Green”  which was authored by our dear friend and Sustainable Production colleague Emellie O’Brien, of Earth Angel, sustainable production consultants.

Then, it was nose to the grindstone as we worked to place our brands in many more shows, including now several in the UK, and begin our supplemental production work on the Emmy winning show, House of Cards, Season 3.

September saw us at Natural Products Expo East, where we connected with our clients, friends and other great natural brands.

In October, Beth was asked to present a master class at the Netherlands Film Festival at the invitation of the Green Film Making Project, based in Amsterdam.

beth utrectpanel gff

The keynote speaker was none other than our friend Emellie O’Brien! And our friends at Casual Films  were represented by speaker Nick Francis.

Check out the sizzle reel from this fabulous day of international sustainable production promotion, here:

( Green Film Making Project @ NFF 2014 from greenfilmmaking on Vimeo. )

Lisa at school

impact hub amsterdam

 

Also that week, Lisa spoke at the Netherlands Film Academy  and Beth connected with fellow Impact Hub members in Amsterdam. We also met with numerous Dutch sustainable designers and were completely impressed by all of the forward thinking sustainable design coming from The Netherlands.

In December, we were able to host our office party for the Hampden Christmas Parade that marches right in front. It was a great way to hang with friends and colleagues and celebrate Charm City’s quirky charm.

party table set

Our desks turned into a serving table laden with yummy food for watching the parade.

As the year draws to a close, we look back on all we’ve accomplished this year, and the last three years. Our show count has grown exponentially- we’ve now placed well over 55 brands in over 105 shows in the US, Canada and the UK and we look forward towards greening the screen the way we do- and promoting great brands in front the of camera, even more in 2015!

Here’s wishing you and yours the happiest of Holidays and the brightest and loveliest of New Years!

All our best,

Beth and Lisa

b and l shout

Beth and Lisa are cheering you on for the holidays!

2013 End of Year Post- Looking Back and Moving Forward

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A new business can sometimes be compared to one’s “baby”, and building it to watching a child grow. Where in 2012 our company was still an infant, 2013 saw our business blossom into a full fledged “toddler”. The toddler stage in one’s life is when the person we’re going to be begins to show itself. The toddler starts to talk, walk, run and explore, and that’s exactly what Green Product Placement did during our second full year in business. Looking back in comparison to our first year- whereas in 2012 we began making studio connections and getting known in Hollywood with branded placement execs higher up the production food chain than our “below the line” contacts, in 2013 these connections really burst forth. This year we made it on the email list for most of the major studios who were looking for placement in their productions, in addition to several independent production resources consultants. At the end of 2012, we had placed in over 23 productions, our count to date is over 65! That means in 2013 we placed in almost twice as many shows as we did our first year. We continue to get written about by the press,  including a wonderful feature in February by the venerable Mother Nature Network gpp golden dumpster

Beth and Lisa tell the GPP story at the 2013 NYC Production Eco Expo

Beth and Lisa tell the GPP story at the 2013 NYC Production Eco Expo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beth continues to speak on the subject of the importance of sustainable brands and behavior in mainstream media and sustainability behind the camera, including internationally, and Beth and Lisa both continue to present and serve on panels with our peers, even being recognized with a coveted Golden Dumpster Award by our friends and colleagues Film Biz Recycling  (aka FBR). Check out this interview with Beth at the #Duurcomm “Meer Door Minder conference in October:

And this fabulous video from the second Annual Production Eco-Expo as organized by FBR at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

A full gallery of pictures from this event can be found here on our Facebook page,   and also some additional pictures on FBR’s page. Two of the shows we both placed products in and worked on as set dressers won Emmys! (House of Cards for Netflix and Veep for HBO.) Beth and Lisa wrapped up work on Season 2 House of Cards in November. We see the value of placing our good brands all the time. We chatted with Robin Wright, star of House of Cards, when she fell in love with our Full Circle Home “Wherever Water” bottle.  She loved it so much, she kept one of her props to take with her to use in London, where she’ll be working on Steven Frears’ new film! Speaking of London, as we endeavor to expand to include clients and placements in UK productions, we have some wonderful ideas percolating for our visit in spring of 2014! Stay tuned! We saw how wonderful it is to help “connect the sustainable production dots” when we met the Green Film Making Competition people in Amsterdam in October and then joined Pia from there in New York as presenters at the Eco Expo.

 

We still have our New York office at Green Spaces, NY. But we settled easily into our local office in Hampden, Baltimore, which Forbes lists as one of the 20 hippest neighborhoods in America. Although our holiday office party overlooking the Christmas parade got snowed out and cancelled, that did not stop Beth and Lisa from enjoying a bit of holiday cheer on “The Miracle on 34th Street”. We also paid a visit to the headquarters of our clients, Chesapeake Bay Roasting Company- which gets its power from wind, and where all of the coffee is organic, fair trade and delicious!

Lisa and Beth with the marketing team at CBRC

Lisa and Beth with the marketing team at CBRC

 

Best Holiday wishes from Beth and Lisa!

Best Holiday wishes from Beth and Lisa!

Right now, once again, we’re doing many of the end of year things most companies do this time of year, including again sending out a holiday e-card  and winding down at the end of busy year to spend time with beloved family and friends. This time of year also allows us to look back once again at all we have accomplished and look hopefully again at the coming year. We look forward to continuing to place our good brands in front of the camera, to welcome new good brands into our “family”, to promote sustainable practices in the entertainment production industry, to connect with more and more wonderful people doing positive things in the sustainable marketing sector, and watching as our “toddler” grows into a “preschooler”. We both sincerely wish you all a happy, healthy holiday and a joyous, prosperous new year! All our best,

Beth and Lisa

Green Product Placement Moving Right Along!

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The GPP “mobile” makes a brief stop in Gaffney, SC on its way to the production hub of the south, Atlanta.

Since we’ve last posted on this blog, we’ve been very busy!

We spent the latter part of the spring and so far this summer working as set dressers (as a start up, we’re keeping one foot in the production freelancers camp and the rest of us in Green Product Placement world- this keeps us connected to those that would place our products and get the word out about us AND helps us with our own personal expenses.) As our friend the leadman told us- “We’re the company that will not only place your products, we’ll literally place your products!”.  ;-)

In addition to the production work, we’ve also been growing our business, with an eager and happy heart. We’ve begun to have productions contact us on their own, including TNT’s “Leverage”,  Indies “The Go Getters” and “Goodbye World” (the latter starring uber green and hot Adrian Grenier who starred in “Entourage” and with a producer friend, started green lifetsyle site SHFT.com), a co-production for the BBC and HBO starring Oscar winner Hilary Swank and Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn, “Mary and Martha”, and a new film for 20th Century Fox starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, together for the first time since “Wedding Crashers” crashed box ofice records.

It was placement in the latter that prompted a visit to new production capitol of the south, Atlanta. Lisa and Beth rented a Prius, packed it full of sample product gift bags and hit the road!

 

GPP sample product gift bags bound for the ATL!

 

We drove 1700 miles down to Atlanta, all around Atlanta visiting production offices, and back on $125 worth of gas!

( By the way, Beth of GPP needed a new used car, and upon her return, purchased a used Prius.)

Just before our GPP road trip, Beth gave her talk “Making Green Normal: Green Product Marketing in Mainstream Entertainment Media” at our lovely New York City co-working space, Green Spaces New York.

Our wonderful intern, Stephanie, put together this great video showing more excerpts from Beth’s talk (other excerpts available on the GPP blog post preceeding this one, here ).

 

Back in May, GPP was very honored to attend and be on the panel for Film Biz Recycling’s  Production Eco-Expo.

Check out this fabulous video, produced by fellow panel members, Canal Creatures, that highlights the event:

Film Biz Recycling Eco Expo 2012 from Canal Creatures on Vimeo.

 

Beth and Lisa of GPP and the panel of Film Biz Recycling’s production Eco-Expo. (photo courtesy Film Biz Recycling)

Film Biz Recycling is a non-profit Brookyn, NY based organization that diverts media waste from commercials, tv shows, movies and live events to appropriate charities. The best of the best ends up for sale or rent at their prop shop. We were joined by representatives from other sustainable production companies and organizations like Eco-Set Consulting,  Rock and Wrap it Up , Canal Creatures,  Sip N Go, Sunbeam Rentals, LeNoble Lumber, Soda Stream, Earth Angel Catering, Vokashi, and Susty Party Supplies. The event was sponsored by Lenoble Lumber and  Brooklyn Brewery and Green Product Placement was able to provide 2 raffle prize gift baskets filled with great GPP products AND plenty of Pirate Booty for all the guests, courtesy our clients, Pirate Brands.

GPP’s awesome raffle prize sample gift baskets

We’ve added some additional great press links, including an interview with Beth on Idea Mensch.com. Be sure to keep checking out our new press coverage on our Press Page, and all of our goings on found on our Facebook Page.

We’re gearing up for the late summer/early autumn production push (many films and as well episodic television series begin pre-production and then shooting around this time), and are excited about placing our brands in many, many more great shows!