Have you heard about Lot112? No, it’s not a sequel to Pynchon’s ‘The Crying of Lot 49’, though it’s still a little unusual. Lot112 is a new ‘content studio’ created by the Barbarian Group
Lot112 will function independently, the Barbarian Group has said, providing project support to the shop’s existing clients in addition to working on independent projects. Their idea? Create a standalone operation that will be free to figure new ways of doing brand work. This approach, they figure, will help Lot112 create, produce and deploy content more like a network, one that uses media companies, content distribution channels, agencies, and production studios to create content.
The agency’s rationale with Lot112 is to “devise a new model” for representing brands by pulling all the different pieces together to reduce the fragmentation of said brand’s messages by testing data around content effectiveness.
Lot112 will function a bit like the newsrooms of yore, in part to figure out quicker ways to create and distribute digital content affordably, at scale and in real-time.
The studio will produce a broad range of content, including long and short form video, stop motion animation, still photography, infographics and editorial pieces.
Lot112’s anchor clients include Samsung, Pepsi, and Brisk. The new shop has new hires that include filmmaker Craig Teper, agency vet Heather Brown and media producer Eric Camins. They will be joined by seven additional dedicated staffers.
Creating a small, production company-like shop looks like another unique way The Barbarian Group is trying to make sense of today’s ad environment for its client.
The one-piece, swooping desk defining the office includes sections that become meeting areas.
The Barbarian Group must be inspired by their fun looking digs too: Based in an open, loft-like space in the Flatiron district, the creative house was open to an architect’s plans of creating one continuous swooping bit of a worktable that is some 4400 continuous square feet, taking up much of that floor space. (You can see a video of just how it turns into many different work and conversation spaces on The Barbarian Group’s website.) .
Cinder, the open source C++ library created by The Barbarian Group, enables interactive displays among its many uses.
Even more unusual: Cinder. After all, how many agencies can you name who develop a free, open source C++ library tuned to the creative arts field? The software, now used by technology companies, universities and others, won the company a first ever Cannes Lion Innovation Grand Prix.
Perhaps it’s not too surprising The Barbarian Group is so technologically adept,when you know it’s a division of Cheil Worldwide, which in turn is a a division of Samsung. As their press material elaborates – “The agency specializes in using technology to creatively solve problems, to tell nuanced stories across emerging mediums, and to make the world more interesting. “
