2019 has been an incredibly busy and successful year for Giggle so we thought we’d reflect over the year and remind you of what we got up to! If you would prefer you can watch this short video containing just some of our highlights of the year.
The year kicked off with a pretty mental January with a big project at the World Economic Forum in Davos (we’re already looking forward to January 2020 to do it all again). We then turned our attention to growing our team with the hire of Amy, our new marketing assistant in February. We also got the opportunity to celebrate in February after finding out that we were finalists for the Bristol Life Awards creative category.
March and April were a busy couple of months for shoots. In March we headed to the ever so glamorous Portishead for several days to shoot a video for the NHS. In April we completely transformed Giggle’s office into the incredibly dysfunctional ‘Orange Bucket Company’ for a case study shoot for Ecophon Saint Gobain/That Sounds Better. April then took a slightly strange twist as we welcomed over 30 culture and media students from Utrecht University. We gave them a tour of our studio and then did a Q&A session about all things animation, filming and of course the B-Word… Brexit!
May was all about Game of Thrones! Giggle worked alongside our long-standing partner Sharon Kersley from the amazing Bam Bam Productions and Sky on the premier of the final episode of Game of Thrones. Team Giggle split up and travelled the length and breadth of the UK to run 7 events in one night. This was the fourth time that Giggle had worked alongside Bam Bam and Sky on Game of Thrones premieres.
We hit the ground running in June making content for EY World Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Monaco. As June drew to an end our focus was again on the South of France thanks to the Google Cannes Beach Hut. Giggle worked alongside our friends at Set Creative to create something special for Google’s summer retreat. We then opened our doors to this years work experience student, Raven, who got the opportunity to come on set for an interesting mixed media live-action and animation shoot.
Giggle’s globe-trotting summer kicked off in July. Steve first hopped on the Eurostar for a shoot in Belgium with Continental foods, before nipping back to Leeds to shoot something for Sky Bet, and then heading over to Dusseldorf for a green screen shoot. In August Steve flew out to Asia for a mammoth 1-week adventure to get a series of green screen shoots done. In the week he was out there Steve managed to film in Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. All of this as the protests in Hong Kong began to kick off so there was a serious threat of Steve not being able to get to Hong Kong, or getting trapped there. It’s safe to say when he landed back in London he was fairly exhausted and ready for a bit of a rest.
Unfortunately for Steve he then headed straight back into meetings and shoots as our biggest event of the year took place in early September. September has to be Giggle’s busiest month of the year as we worked alongside Netflix, OVO Energy, and Google to name just 3 projects.
Thankfully October provided everyone with some much-needed rest-bite. But also gave us a chance to spend both Iina and Ed on a course so that they could improve their skills and try something new. Towards the end of the month, we were pleased to work on content for the One Young World opening ceremony, the event was attended by numerous dignitaries and celebrities, including Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who even shared some of our content on her Instagram!
In November Giggle got to film at Bristol Old Vic. Working alongside independent newspaper, Bristol 24/7, and homeless charity Cardboard Citizens. Cardboard Citizens are a charity that helps people who have experienced homelessness into theatre and offering them a professional qualification as a result. This year they ran a series of different workshops in the city that homeless people could attend, and then they offered these participants a chance to put on a piece of forum theatre at Bristol Old Vic. We were lucky enough to go along and interview 3 of the participants about their experience of homelessness, what it was like to be homeless in Bristol and how being part of Cardboard Citizens helped.
To nicely round up our November we won a number of awards for some of our work earlier in the year. The highlight of this was winning 1 gold and 1 silver at the EVCOM Awards and 1 C&IT Award for our work on the World Economic Forum in January.
After a rather crazy rest of the year, Studio Giggle had a bit of a quieter December as we began work on some really exciting projects that are all kicking off in 2020 (stay tuned to hear all about these projects). This did allow us a lot of time to try new skills and to celebrate our successful year. This year’s Christmas party involved axe throwing and then a lot of booze!
We’d like to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank to everyone for your continued support and confidence in Studio Giggle over the last year, we couldn’t have done any of this without you. We’re now going to make the most of the last little bit of the festivities, but we’re ready and raring to tackle 2020! We look forward to working with many of you again this year! Happy New Year!