Bark Bark Forges Strategic Alliances with Eight Leading Content Producers

02.13.2017

Branded entertainment studio Bark Bark is embarking on a new phase, creating strategic alliances with eight production companies to create brand-funded series. The partnerships are intended to unite development, production, marketing and digital teams, with Bark Bark serving as a single point of service between brands and production companies.

"About a year ago, we decided to reach out to production company partners that we felt were experts at the genres and demographics that they served," says Brian Tolleson, head of content and CEO at Bark Bark. "It took us about three months to decide who we wanted to work with. We were very fortunate. Almost every single production company we met with out of about 40 companies was interested."

After making those pitches, Bark Bark emerged with strategic alliances with eight leading production companies. These include Cineflix Productions, which produces such series as HGTV's Property Brothers and History's American Pickers; Den of Thieves, which is behind events such as the MTV VMAs and the iHeartRadioAwards; Sean Hayes' and Todd Milliner's Hazy Mills Productions, producers of such hit shows as NBC's Celebrity Game Night and Grimm; Jane Street Entertainment, which produces Food Network's Chopped and Sweet Genius; Monami Entertainment, producers of VH1's Love & Hip Hop; North South Productions, producers of truTV's Impractical Jokers and TLC's Say Yes to the Dress Atlanta; Jennifer Lopez' Nuyorican Productions, which produces NBC's upcoming World of Dance as well as Freeform's The Fosters and NBC's Shades of Blue, starring Lopez and Ray Liotta; and Craig Piligian's Pilgrim Media Group, the company behind Verizon Go90's The Runner as well as Nat Geo's Wicked Tuna and Syfy's Ghost Hunters.

"A successful brand partnership is the holy grail for producers as we all work to attract viewers transitioning to new platforms for their entertainment," said Charles Tremayne, president, Cineflix Productions, in a statement. "At Cineflix, we are excited to be partnering with the Bark Bark team who really understand these relationships so we can use our expertise in transactional, factual and lifestyle programming to produce first-class entertainment which reflects the brand images of our clients."

Beyond wanting to create alliances with some of Hollywood's leading production companies, Bark Bark also wanted to make sure that diversity was strongly represented across these alliances.

"Among our partners, we have assembled an incredible range of genres and voices, from lifestyle to game shows, from action-packed docu-series to scripted dramas," said Tolleson, who started Bark Bark 11 years ago. "We've engaged successful creators who run women-owned and minority-owned businesses. Diversity is crucial as we work with our clients to deliver and activate global audiences."

Bark Bark will work both with its established brand partners and these content creators to produce brand-funded long-form and short-form series to be distributed across linear and non-linear platforms, although Bark Bark will focus on the concept and the production and leave the distribution to others.

"The majority of brands, agencies, media agencies and distributors are wise experts at targeting their consumers, their audiences, even as those audiences are constantly in motion," said Tolleson. "We're not competing in media placement, distribution or buying. To get that right is its own full-time job. Where we excel is partnering with media, marketing, agency and creative teams to activate their consumer insight and delivering the effective, entertaining content needed to move targeted audiences to action."