Amplify has launched a dedicated innovation practice called Futures focused on helping brands embrace and navigate creative technology, entertainment and IP.
Futures will utilise the power of technology to immerse audiences, capture imaginations and co-create worlds.
The practice is part of the creative agency’s mission to help brands build worlds and break formats with a dedicated offering harnessing the power of emerging technologies to create memorable brand stories and experience.
Futures is being woven into the DNA of the agency, influencing and shifting the direction in Amplify’s brand work for clients including Activision, Converse, EPIC Games, Google, Nike, PlayStation and Samsung.
The practice will be led by innovation creative director, Ed Hallam and head of special projects, Izzy Kertland, pulling together the passions, expertise and experience across Amplify’s global offices in London, Sydney, LA, New York, and Paris – including Australian-based ECD Tim Baggott, creative Lisa Aoyama and group business director Kate Maidment.
Hallam brings a passion and proven track record for combining innovation and technology with brand storytelling, building meaningful user experiences. His background includes working as an extension to brand-side innovation teams including Google, Warner Media and Nike, the latter on patents resulting in Nike’s seminal Cryptokicks and dot.SWOOSH.
Kertland has over a decade of experience pioneering brand experiences, campaigns, content, digital interactives and exhibitions for brands and cultural institutions. As a specialist in innovation production focusing on new and emerging technologies, Izzy’s work for ASICS has been recognised by Cannes Lions and D&AD.
Futures run an experiment series – a program designed to build and test new ideas at speed, creating prototypes to drive the future of experience and campaign storytelling.
In the last 18 months Amplify has collaborated with Creative Technologists from across a variety of disciplines – Eoghan O’Keaffe, an AI specialist; Sean Malikides who creates electronic, mechanical and sonic artworks with his design practice Kai Labs; and, Tigris Li, an Artist and creative technologist whose collaborative work with Futures will be showcased in Summer 2024.
Futures will also be invite brands and audiences to be a part of this work, making it possible to download a code and access research through a series of prototypes drops.
“Amplify continues to be known for innovation, pioneering non-traditional forms of marketing and technology,” Ed Hallam, innovation creative director, said.
“Each project moves the dial forward, infusing technology demonstrating the art of possible. Whether that is for Nike harnessing the power of music and energy from a party to transform a 15-metre sneaker installation into a generative art piece through to helping Converse create a platform for emerging creative technologists to make their craft centre stage.”
Tim Baggott, executive creative director, Amplify Australia, added: “Whilst innovation has always been a central part of Amplify’s global creative culture, the insights and collaborator relationships forged with Futures have opened doors to new possibilities for the work we create with our brand partners.
“In Australia these include Samsung: Chorus of Light, which integrated AI sentiment analysis to deliver an interactive installation at VIVID that responded to the meaning of spoken messages and Sonos Frisson Trigger, which saw us bring neuroscience research to spatial audio hardware to engineer a ground-breaking track that gives every listener goosebumps.”
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Top image, left to right: Izzy Kertland, Lisa Aoyama, Ed Hallam, Tim Baggott and Kate Maidment