Mofilm crowdsources its way into Forbes Magazine

At last month's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Hiroki Ono of Japan walked away a winner. But he didn't take home a Grand Prix or Golden Lion. Ono, a 23-year-old aspiring filmmaker, placed first for "Feel the Globe." In the one-minute spot, a young couple struggles to stay connected while on opposite sides of the Earth; the young man uses his cell phone to take an upside-down picture of the sun. His girlfriend receives it instantly, along with his voice-over, "I know we share the same horizon. My sunset is your sunrise." Ono created the mini-movie for Nokia in a contest sponsored by Mofilm, a new mobile entertainment company. Mofilm aims to put amateur but talented videographers to work for brand advertisers like Doritos and Visa, producing short and catchy ads suitable for airing on mobile devices and the Internet. "Historically, with TV and captive audiences, you'd make a half-dozen videos and pay an agency, but now we're getting in a situation where you need dozens and dozens of videos," says Jeffrey Merrihue, Mofilm's 49-year-old chairman, who is also chief executive of Accenture Marketing Sciences. "If you did that through traditional agencies, production budgets would go through the roof." To Learn More Click Here