Five years ago, with a $20,000 inheritance from a relative, Brian Briskman took a leap he has never regretted. Briskman gave up a steady job as the creative director for a West Los Angeles advertising and promotion agency to start his own entertainment advertising, marketing and production company, B2 Creative Studios. Since then, the North Hollywood firm has produced award-winning work for television networks and major consumer brands such as Verizon Mobile, AT&T, Honda and Kmart. “I have built a place I was excited to come to,” said Briskman, a film school graduate. “It’s a new job every day to me.” Briskman and his team of 15 designers, writers and visual artists conceive, shoot and assemble promotional material, webisodes, interview segments, and brand integration content for major broadcast and cable networks such as ABC, Fox Broadcasting, The Disney Channel and the Hallmark Channel. In January, a team from B2-Studios will attend the Sundance Film Festival to put together celebrity interview packages to air on the Sundance Channel. These networks turn to an outside vendor for many reasons — they don’t have the resources in-house, for instance, or the work is so complex that outside expertise is necessary. Fox Broadcasting, for example, uses three of its own producers and three contracted production companies, including B2-Creative, for an ongoing “American Idol” campaign. There are hours and hours of tape to go through, so asking a single producer to put the campaign together would not have been fair, said Brian Dollenmayer, Fox’s senior vice president of drama. Plus, soliciting outside assistance brings a fresh perspective to the programming. “Internal management believes in doing things in one way,” Dollenmayer said. “Someone from the outside can say, ‘Let’s try this.’ It is eye opening sometimes.” The high level of work for those and other network clients wouldn’t be possible without Briskman pushing his staff to manage projects efficiently and without conflict. At B2, projects are distilled into five steps: doing homework on the client; assigning a dedicated team to the project; making a commitment to stand by the budget and timeline; listening to the client; and delivering the commissioned work product on-time every time. “The creative product could be the best ever done,” Briskman said. “It’s not worth much if the process (for executing it) isn’t any good.” Not listening to a client leads to starting projects over with less time and a lower budget, said Bill Hagelstein, CEO of Santa Monica advertising firm, RPA and who serves as a mentor to Briskman. Briskman has successfully developed a process that is appealing for a large number of studios and networks, Hagelstein said. Life Lessons Briskman said he’s learned several valuable lessons about running a business from former employers’ missteps. Some of those lessons: the importance of establishing firm project management standards, exhibiting strong communication skills, pacing growth, attracting sufficient financing streams and building a support system. Before Briskman came to the attention of Disney, Sundance and Fox, he was a film student at New York University. He worked briefly at Miramax before getting into promotion and marketing “by accident,” Briskman said. Briskman considers 2009 to be a turning point for B2-Creative. With a support system in place, the company began producing its own content and working more strategically with clients. One of the first projects B2-Studios created content for was the “My Family Tree” series for The Disney Channel, which featured children discussing their family histories. Briskman understands his own brand so well that he knows how to best project the brands of his clients, said Ron Pomerantz, vice president and creative director at The Disney Channel. “He is a natural born storyteller,” Pomerantz said. Another Disney-related project — the “What If?” webisodes streaming on ABC.com and SOAPnet.com — brought B2 a Daytime Emmy Award this year. The short-form videos were filmed in Pacoima and featured stars from ABC soap operas interacting with each other on an airplane or in an elevator. The webisodes were new for the network and involved working with a director, writer and multiple actors, so there was a need for a production company with a strong track record, said Adam Rockmore, senior vice president of marketing for ABC Daytime and SOAPnet. FOUNDED: 2006 HEADQUARTERS: North Hollywood NUmber of Employees 2010: 15 NUmber of Employees 2011: 16 Revenues (2008): $3.56 million Revenues (2010): $4.54 million “They were integral in putting the shoot together, but it was collaborative because there were so many moving parts,” Rockmore said. “Everything had to be choreographed perfectly. We had no cushion each day.” Briskman recognizes that producing high-quality video content is an opportunity, Hagelstein said. “He sees it as a sweet spot to broaden out to a larger client base and work as the production arm for advertising agencies,” Hagelstein said. Not all projects, however, are suited for the company. In early 2011, a reality TV producer pitched B2 on an opportunity that Briskman turned down. He said while it’s hard to turn down offers like that, it’s better to stick to what you know. “The production of long-form (content) is not what we are built for,” Briskman said. “It would sink the company.” Having a staff that’s too large also can hamper a creative company. With more than 10 people working together on any given project, conflicts can arise. Briskman said he has cultivated a staff that pulls for one another. The company’s solid teamwork also is reflected on the recreational playing field. B2’s softball team — the B2 Bombers – this year won the H Division of the Corporate Co-Ed Summer Softball league sponsored by the Burbank Parks and Recreation Department. “Inside these brick walls there is something magnificent going on,” Briskman said. “That is gratifying.”
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