Gold Creative, a movie production house based in London, is offering luxury watch brands the opportunity to reach out to the world of superyachts.
The company, founded in 2012, has invited watch companies to take part in its new marketing initiative.
The campaign aims to enable brands to build relationships and advertise their products across the world of yachts and superyachts.
Richard Gold, founder of Gold Creative, said: “The idea of combining a superyacht marketing film with a luxury watch brand’s advertising campaign began a few years ago. I was standing on the deck of a 90-metre superyacht with the talented John Mathieson, discussing his ideas on a style for filming the yacht.”
Mathieson, a cinematographer who gained his first Oscar nod for Gladiator, agreed with Richard that a backdrop such as a superyacht needed a film with a narrative to match the setting.
Gold added: “The reason for this is that budgets for taking a superyacht out for the day often require more consideration than any other shoot location; given that a day’s time on board can be valued up to €350,000. Combine that with a 150,000-litre fuel tank worth tens of thousands, and the idea to merge both commercial advertisements with the marketing campaign of the boat and location itself removes a huge amount of cost.”
With a portfolio of yacht shoots under his belt, such as the 81-metre superyacht AIR, Gold has experience on how to work both budget and brief on board.
Gold’s plan was to use a yacht for free, which otherwise might not have even been in use, while getting the luxury brand to cover the cost of the filming. The brand would have full creative sign-off on shoots while the yacht owner would get to show his boat off to the luxury market.
The next step was to find an interested brand, so for its first script Gold Creative created an empowering female character in the style of Bond, and took it to globally renowned luxury watch brand, Ulysse Nardin.
Susanne Hurni, now vice president of marketing at WatchBox, shared her thoughts on the concept, she said: “From my previous position I held at Ulysse Nardin, I quickly realised that actively working the superyacht set with a principle sponsorship would lead to success.
She added: “When I first heard of the concept of producing an advert on a superyacht and targeting our shared audience without an attached advertising cost we came very close to being the first on board.”
At present Gold Creative has three potential superyachts for a brand to come on-board, two at the end of September, a 30-metre and 50-metre motor yacht, and another 60-metre in the Caribbean early next year.
The production house is also offering creative ideas and scripts tailored to shooting on a superyacht.
