Washington Filmworks (WF), in partnership with the Seattle Office of Film + Music, is pleased to have launched Commercialize Seattle, a new business development campaign designed to drive local film production and advertising business. More than 350 people joined us at the August FMI Happy Hour to learn more about the new initiative and see elements of the marketing campaign; that’s a record attendance for the monthly event!
Seattle Mayor, Mike McGinn kicked off the presentation to a packed house of industry veterans, representing agencies, production companies, cast, and crew. Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, prime sponsor of the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program, was also there to support the launch of the initiative.
Would you like to be a part of Commercialize Seattle? Interested production companies should register here.
About Commercialize Seattle – As a registered production company, WF will include your contact information in our Commercial Production Resource Guide, which is circulated to advertising agencies, directors and producers interested in working in Washington State.
Another benefit of registering is that your business is now eligible to participate in the production incentive program as part of our recently launched Commercial Business Development Plan (CBDP). The CBDP is an innovative new approach to how WF allocates funding assistance for commercial productions. The program offers lucrative financial incentives to advertising agencies that choose to use Washington based production companies that are registered with WF.
WF is currently holding in reserve 15% of its annual allocation to support this new initiative. Under the new program, advertising agencies may apply for funding assistance. If an advertising agency chooses to work with an in-state production company, WF will offer a 25% return on their in-state spending (as compared to a 15% return if they choose to use a production company from out of state.) An additional 5% of the in-state spend will be given to your business to help cover the administrative costs of the application and completion package process, which is a requirement of the program.
The CBDP Fact Sheet gives an overview of the program. For a full list of the requirements of how to qualify for the CBDP, please review the Guidelines and Criteria.
Once your business is registered, you may also submit your recent production work for possible inclusion in the “Latest Work” section on CommercializeSeattle.com. As we promote Seattle and the region as a destination for commercial production, we will point potential clients to this website to show off the capabilities of our creative community. This section of the website will be updated constantly to show the best of what we have to offer. For more information about how to submit, please send an email to Info@CommercializeSeattle.com.
If you have specific questions about the Commercial Business Development Plan, please contact WF Executive Director, Amy Lillard at 206.264.0667 or email Amy@WashingtonFilmworks.org.
Our collective goal with Commercialize Seattle is to bring more commercial work to Seattle and the region. The Commercialize Seattle website and the CBDP are powerful tools that will help give our Washington-based production companies an opportunity to pitch ad agencies for business that is not currently being done in-state. We’re ready, are you?
We look forward to partnering with you on Commercializing Seattle!