Nico Cabuche, MD/EP de LANDIA
LANDIA is a global award-winning production company. Touring Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Mexico City, Montevideo, Bogota, Santiago and Lisbon, the production company works and creates content for all media and digital platforms, whether advertising or not.
Powerful art, content, and creativity are at the core of everything they do. They define themselves as mentors of new film talents, with a commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and sustainability as a beacon in each of their projects. The production company also has The Movement an artistic division and platform focused on the development of new talent and the need of the market to create less commercial content and formats.
Last Christmas, LANDIA produced the Christmas commercial for Campofrío with the creative agency This is Libre. Through the teaser, they received criticism towards the use of artificial intelligence. However, when the full spot was released, the importance of humanizing technology was shown with a nod to AI, which was used to recreate great figures of Spanish humor who are no longer with us, such as Eugenio, Chiquito de la Calzada or Quique San Francisco.
We spoke with Nico Cabuche, Managing Director and EP of LANDIA.
How do you express your artistic and creative approach in each audiovisual production?
I think there is a style that encompasses Landia which is aesthetics, storytelling and working with actors, I think that is the basis of our DNA and what is reflected in our work, but I think that the biggest key beyond what has been said, is teamwork with Creatives and Clients. Today, good ideas alone cannot sustain you, which is why bonding is essential.
What peculiarities have you observed throughout your professional career when it comes to working internationally?
Each country, each market, has its own peculiarity, but I think that what predominates in the world is the desire and the wish to want to do good, creative, good quality things that, above all, generate impact and memorability.
What do you think has been the key to being an award-winning production company worldwide?
The quality, I think that beyond the pieces that win in festivals, everything is always developed thinking about a great performance and final quality of the product, I think that beyond the directors and the styles of each one, the quality was always above, if there is something that I can attest to our internal input at a global level, it’s always the quality of the craft.
What projects do you highlight or consider successful throughout your professional career in Spain?
There are several, from Schweppes with “Iggy Pop”, Coca Cola encounters, IKEA “Allen Key”, ECI Christmas with “The Reindeer” or “Trapped in the 90’s” Burger King “Stevenage”, Beer 1906 with “The Staircase” or even the last Campofrío Christmas.
In relation to the use of AI, what impact do you think artificial intelligence has on the authenticity and creativity of advertising messages? How do you make sure it’s used ethically and responsibly?
It’s difficult to say from my place, I think it hasn’t fully impacted the audiovisual industry yet, AI hasn’t gotten involved in the active development of an audiovisual piece yet, although it’s true that little by little we’re beginning to see certain technological developments that emulate what was done with a camera and actors. We’ll see what happens in the next few years. As for the impact of creative development, you would have to ask Creativos, but I don’t think that today it replaces the creative sensibility of a human being, surely it helps development and supports to be able to better explain an idea.
I believe that today the ethics and responsibility in this issue is in the conscience and professionalism of each one, unfortunately we still do not have a regulation, so I think it is very much up to each one how it is used.
What is LANDIA’s long-term vision as an advertising film production company? How do you see the future of the relationship between humans and technology in audiovisual production in the context of artificial intelligence?
Like all companies, we are looking at and studying AI a lot, learning and working to see how it enhances our business. I think we have to look at it with optimism and understand how this tool helps in the development of content, creativity, quality and how technology helps us, once again, to improve ourselves.
Interview by Carla Lara
