10 minute read
Company Profile - Diaframma
Lights, camera, action!
in Florence to witness how a toy commercial is brought to life.
As everyone in the toy community is aware, the kids and family media landscape continues to evolve at a frightening pace. Life was so much easier for toy companies twenty years ago, when terrestrial broadcasters ruled the roost, and a single ad placed on a leading channel during peak viewing hours for kids could reach a substantial portion of your target market in one hit. Those days are long gone, with digital channels overtaking TV as the preferred route to reach kids.
As the media world shifts and becomes increasingly complex and fragmented, so do the marketing requirements for toy companies. However, some things don’t change: a strong ad campaign can make a huge difference to sales numbers, and getting the creative approach right is the fundamental building block on which great ad campaigns are built.
Over the years, a number of specialist creative production studios have established themselves as experts in making
ads for toy companies, including leading Italian studio Diaframma. Talking to CEO Duccio Abolaffio in Hong Kong in January, I admitted that I had never witnessed a TV ad being filmed – so he invited me to the company’s studio in Florence to see the process first-hand. And a truly fascinating process it is…
Like the media world, Diaframma has evolved considerably since the business was launched in 1976 by Duccio’s father. The company chose to base itself in the beautiful Italian city of Florence, near to major Italian toy company Giochi Preziosi, whose business was instrumental in helping the fledgling studio to establish itself within toy circles.
When the company started, there was only one commercial TV channel in many countries, and the opportunities for advertising were relatively limited. Fast forward to 2024 and there are more platforms fighting for kids’ attention than ever before, giving toy companies far more opportunities to showcase their new launches.
Another major change has come in the globalization of ads: up until the early 2000s, each individual market would shoot its own domestic commercial. Nowadays, companies tend to shoot one commercial to cover the whole international market, which is not only hugely efficient, but also saves toy companies a huge amount of money.
The toy market has also become a truly global community: of course, there are still localized anomalies, but many toys comfortably transcend borders, and ad creatives have followed suit. Diaframma first entered the US market just over ten years ago, but since then it has grown to become the company’s largest market, working with many of the toy industry’s leading players such as Jazwares, Spin Master, MGA, VTech, WowWee and Pokémon.
Nevertheless, European and international customers still form the core base of the business - Diaframma works with major distributors all over the continent. As Duccio points out: “There are opportunities everywhere. Distributors across the globe need commercials.”
2022 and 2023 were record years for the company, which adopts a different approach to many other studios, especially US-based studios. For example, Diaframma has always specialized in creating content for toy companies, rather than shooting a toy commercial one day, a beer commercial the next and an advert for cereal the day after. This means that the team builds up valuable knowledge and expertise which allows them to know when a certain shot will be needed – even if it isn’t in the brief – and anticipate or solve problems.
Furthermore, it handles almost every stage of the creative process in-house, with dedicated full-time teams rather than freelancers who have been brought in for a job. In total, the company has a team of 45 full-time employees at its base in Florence, which was a hive of activity when we arrived. The advantages of this dedicated in-house approach are myriad: not only is it more cost-effective to have a permanent team on site rather than having to hire expensive freelancers, but it gives customers unrivalled levels of service and total flexibility.
The whole process starts when the Diaframma creative team - mainly local Italians, supported by a few American jingle writers and copywriters to ensure there are no linguistic foibles - receives the brief from the client, and then comes up with ideas to execute the brief within the set budget parameters. The set is designed at the studio downstairs, where the company has every possible resource to deliver the best visual impact for each individual shoot.
Occasionally, some clients send in storyboards, which are reviewed and discussed, but in most instances, customers rely on Diaframma to generate storyboards from scratch. Crucially, Diaframma knows exactly how to create a dynamic commercial which will appeal to kids right across the globe.
The experienced creative team also knows how to create different kinds of commercial for different platforms, as Duccio explains: “Currently, digital content is a huge trend – in addition to TV commercials, we are increasingly producing content for mobile, YouTube and social media use. There are many similarities, but there are also some crucial differences. For example, you have to be more effective in grabbing attention in the first couple of seconds of digital content, to stop viewers from scrolling. Visuals are more important, as content is often played with no sound on. The composition can also be different – unlike a TV commercial, it doesn’t have to be shot in a horizontal format. And as digital content is largely free from all the complex TV regulations, we have a bit more creative freedom. For dedicated TV ads, every country seems to have its own way of tying creative hands behind backs, and we need to take every individual requirement into consideration – by comparison, shooting digital content can be extremely liberating.”
Samples are received approximately three weeks before shooting starts, so they can be built in advance to make sure everything is working perfectly. The company also has a casting team which works with all of the major talent agencies, as well as a full-time crew of technicians and camera operators, plus of course extensive post-production facilities (including editing, special effects and music). Literally every base is covered internally, to ensure complete cohesion and smooth communication at every single stage of the creative process.
That forensic attention to detail includes being aware of anything which might complicate proceedings: for example, dialogue isn’t used on camera. Instead, a voiceover is dubbed on when the creative is finished, allowing it to be adapted for any global market where the product is distributed.
I ask how long an individual commercial takes to shoot, to which Duccio explains: “A simple commercial can be shot in a day. A more complicated ad can take two days. It can also depend on factors such as the age of the children involved –an ad featuring toddlers is obviously more difficult than one featuring older kids.”
The studio itself is fitted out with all of the latest technological equipment, including a robot camera, which can apparently “do amazing things that a human camera operator can’t.” There is also a mightily impressive LED wall, which utilizes state-of-the-art gaming technology to create an astonishingly realistic backdrop which is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. A cave, a beach, a bedroom… you name it, it can be created and seamlessly blended with the actors being filmed so that you can’t tell what is real and what is illusion. It makes green screen look like the antiquated technology it now is.
And yet, despite having every cutting-edge tool at their disposal, Duccio admits that every commercial still requires what he describes as a “leap of faith”. How will the child actor(s) perform? Will the ideas that look great in preproduction or on storyboards work in practice?
To make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible on set, no detail is spared. The Power Saber commercial I watched being shot featured actors sourced from a ‘Saber School’ – including both a teacher and a pupil. The fact the choreography came together so quickly and looked so authentic didn’t come about by chance. “Authenticity is key,” admits Duccio. “It is so important to get the right look and feel, and to make sure it will resonate globally, rather than feeling local or regional.” I am sure we all remember TV commercials from years gone by which may have looked fantastic in the USA, or a southern European country, but somehow felt clunky and inauthentic to a UK audience. Those days are long gone.
To create that universal appeal, Duccio believes that “details are important.” He tells me that they once spent an entire day scouring shops in Florence to find a US-style doorknob, only to end up having to buy it directly from America. But everything has to be right, down to the last detail: as Duccio admits, “Times have changed, but the commercial can still make or break a particular product. And in many cases, distributors will want to assess the commercial before agreeing to take a range on.”
As well as details, Duccio also stresses the importance of individuality, and not adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach to shooting commercials: “Everything we do is made to measure. There is great value in that. It’s not a commodity and we don’t want it to be. That’s not the area we want to play in.” And if something works for one company, Diaframma is very careful to avoid using a similar approach for a competitor’s ad, to ensure fairness.
Even within the creative process, nuance is key: I am told that different directors have different strengths, so they are allocated specific projects that suit their particular skillset.
Skill and action products require a different look and feel to nurturing or creative lines – one needs energy, the other needs precision and perfect styling. Watching a Fingerlings commercial being shot, it was amazing to see how a subtle change in lighting, or the position of a hand (or even a finger) could make all the difference to the final shot.
A single shot that can last mere seconds on screen can easily take up to 30-40 minutes to perfect – and that’s with an older child, yet alone a toddler. And once the commercial has finished shooting, a last final sprinkling of magic dust can be applied in post-production. From visuals to sound, anything can be polished to perfection. It’s also where everything finally comes together – Duccio tells me that his father used to say that “it is in editing where you make the story come to life.”
So, what did I learn on my visit to Florence? First and foremost, the incredible amount of work which goes into producing a 10, 20 or 30 second commercial. How incredibly complex and thorough the entire process is. How even the tiniest detail can make a world of difference. And, ultimately, how crucial knowledge, experience and know-how is to deliver the best possible result.
It's also an enormously enjoyable way to make a living, as Duccio points out: “It’s huge fun, and an incredibly worthwhile job – I get to be creative every day. I also have the chance to work on a wide range of different products, rather than focusing on one range for 18 months. Every day there is something new.”
