Adam Stephenson. Grand Visual Digital OOH Producer.
Ever wanted to see behind the scenes at Grand Visual? Producer, Adam Stephenson gives us a rare peek into the life of digital OOH production.

I think it takes a certain type of person to be a producer in digital OOH. Much like a good coffee, you have to be a subtle blend of calm, collected, smart and completely insane all at the same time. My past year working at Grand Visual has been all of these things, and damn it’s a good coffee.

There is no real ‘typical day’ in the GV office. Sure, there are daily tasks and structures in place, but the journey from initial conception through to when a project goes live is unique to each producer, and each campaign. 

During my time at GV, I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a plethora of campaigns, each with their own idiosyncrasies, and I may have even given each their own celebration dance once everything is live. Whilst no project is the same, like Liam Neeson in Taken, as producers we’ve managed to acquire a specific set of skills to help us deliver any type of DOOH campaign. In my time I have helped shape the messages of various campaigns, such as the screens of Heathrow Terminals, and created a completely unique AR experience in Times Square – it’s been a wild ride pushing great work out into the world.

Into The Spider-Verse: Combined a technically complex and visually engaging campaign with actual user engagement from the streets of Times Square, a personal favourite of mine.

Unlike Liam Neeson, as producers, we can’t tackle the whole campaign single-handedly. We need a carefully crafted team of intelligent, experienced, intuitive and often maniacal people to carry a campaign from concept to delivery. My role as producer, means I manage the assigning of tasks, client expectations, status calls, quality control, delivery documents, timeline reviews, internal stakeholder catch-ups and stand-ups (…to name a few). I told you that I had to be somewhat insane for this. 

At GV I have the privilege of working with really great people who are very good at what they do, and in turn, this only makes me better at what I do. Everyone is keen to push boundaries, make better systems, win awards and exceed expectations every time. The energy is infectious and really helps when new tasks are added to the list as quickly as I’m ticking them off. Within a week, I can see a project evolve from a simple idea to an award-winning campaign.

Pepsi Max: A super cool campaign which really shows just how far we can push DOOH, on both a technical and social scale. Interesting, creative, impactful.

When we have some downtime, you’ll often find us around the pool table or chatting on the breakout bench. There’s a really nice family vibe to GV, generating enough content to give Modern Family a run for its money. It’s great for the rare times a project isn’t going smoothly, we can always take a breather and get a game of pool in.

Overall, the life of a producer at GV is intense yet rewarding. I’ve found myself placed in scenarios I had never even thought of, working on campaigns that continually amaze me, and growing faster than I would at most other agencies. So I’m going to go ahead and drink the perfectly blended coffee, I might just need it.

Digital OOH production and creative technology company, Grand Visual, has hired David Bowry, who joins as production director, and Ben Clissen, who starts as senior producer, both will be working out of the London office.

Bowry started his career in the gaming-industry, lead producing original content for Sony Playstation. From there he went to Guerrilla Games and then on to Disney Interactive, before he co-founded games studio Noodlfoot, pioneering motion-based gaming and mobile content for Nintendo and Sony PlayStation. Most recently Bowry was with The Marketing Store managing digital content production for companies such as McDonald’s, Adidas and Carlsberg.

Bowry reports in to Ben Putland, COO of Grand Visual. He takes over the day to day running of the production studio following Putland’s dual appointment as managing director to Grand Visual’s off-shoot ad-tech business QDOT, earlier this year. Bowry will oversee all production output from the UK and US offices and manage the international production team.

Also bolstering the production team is senior producer Ben Clissen, who will be scoping and managing projects and continuing to maintain Grand Visual’s reputation for delivering scalable and ground-breaking digital OOH work. Originally from Belgium, Clissen spent over 8 years as a program manager at Microsoft, with stints in Belgium and London, before joining Mode Media in London, and most recently worked at Initial Rewards where he was responsible for the creation, development, and launch of custom advertising campaigns.

Neil Morris, founder and CEO at Grand Visual, commented:

“I’m delighted to have Bowry and Clissen onboard. With their strong technical and gaming backgrounds they are ideally placed to reinforce Grand Visual’s already broad-based skill set, and help us to steer clients and partners through the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. This is about creating depth and breadth of quality across a diverse digital landscape so that we can continue to innovate in this space.”

David Bowry, added:

“I am thrilled to be joining the Grand Visual team. Digital OOH is at an exciting juncture. It’s a medium that cannot be pigeon holed. It’s experiential, ambient, responsive, interactive, social, and integrated across digital and mobile channels. I look forward to continuing to push the creative boundaries as the medium evolves from static branding canvas to responsive, connected, interactive, power-house.”

To promote Chromecast, Google’s media streaming device which enables you to watch online video on your TV, a new outdoor campaign was launched on large-format iconic screens in London and Berlin.

The campaign features popular Youtube clips playing on a mobile handset which expand to the full screen once the Google Chromecast App is activated. The creative then scrolls through the logos of popular online content channels Youtube, Google Play, Netflix, BBC iPlayer and announces “Everything you love now on your TV”.

Grand Visual worked with 72andSunny Amsterdam to produce the campaign which is currently playing as a campaign domination on Piccadilly One in London and on the Digital MegaPoster on Humboldt-Box in Berlin. The campaign was planned and booked by OMD and Talon and runs until 4th May.