General Electric is known for being on the conservative side, so it must have done some serious thinking when it recently chose how best to re-brand itself. It chose Blitz Digital Studios (www.blitzDS.com) for its online re-branding, using the well-known interactive marketing agency to bring fun and clarity to staid GE product areas such as aircraft engines, resin plastics and wind power. Blitz, undaunted, came up with lively animated interactive games for these areas, which can be seen at http://geimaginationatwork.com. GE was happy with the results, and the two are continuing their partnership with new projects.
One quality that distinguishes Blitz is its dedication to the bottom line rather than create art just for the fun of it, the studio focuses on the marketing strategy and the return on investment. This has led it to become the studio of choice for some high-end clients its the sole vendor of animated development for J. Walter Thompson, and Warner Brothers trusts it with treasured brands such as SCOOBY-DOO and WILE E. COYOTE. At the same time, the creative group has been audacious enough to get Favorite Website Awards for Shiny Entertainment (www.shiny.com) and Infogrames (www.apex-game.com), and got accolades from the HBO Comedy Festival 2001 FOR GARY THE RAT, starring Kelsey Grammer. The success of Blitz (they just landed a new contract with 3DO) should be good for the animation industry at large, as interactive content is finally shown to be financially successful with risk-averse major advertising agencies.
