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End of the Year Post- GPP’s 2012

  As the year draws to a close, we see that either the Mayans were wrong, or somehow the modern interpretation was a bit off, but since you’re reading this, we’re going to assume that we’re all still here.

Looking back on this year, 2012, Green Product Placement’s first full year of business, we’re pretty   proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. Before we start looking back to the beginning of the year to now, we’re going to bring you up to date on what we’ve been up to since we last posted in the GPP blog.

We did our drawing for the free tickets to the Film Biz Recycling “Lights, Camera, Auction” event.  Congrats to the winner, Ben!

Just before the event, Hurricane Sandy blew onto the east coast, flooding coastal towns, lower Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn like Red Hook and the Far Rockaways, and left many without power, including Beth of GPP. Days before their annual fundraising event, our friends at Film Biz Recycling became first responders, redistributing needed supplies donated by citizens and productions. Beth and Lisa did their own collection of donated goods from various departments on Netflix’s “House of Cards” (season 1 was just wrapping at the time) and from Lisa’s neighborhood of Mayfield, in Baltimore.

We managed to cram 2 hampers full of supplies in Beth’s Prius and drove it all up to Brooklyn, for FBR to redistribute, where needed. Check out this video we made of our trip up “the turnpike”:

Then, the next evening it was off to the big party! Check out Lisa and Beth looking tres glamorous in these photos (courtesy FBR ) and video (courtesy FBR and Canal Creatures) :

 

After that, it was back to Baltimore, where we wrapped up work on Season 1 of Netflix’s “House of Cards” and started work (and placements!) on Season 2 of HBO’s “Veep”. We also got some additional placement opportunities for a specific episode of “Blue Bloods”, “Walk of Shame”, a new comedy feature for Lakeshore Entertainment, starring Elizabeth Banks, along with placements for a specific episode of the very popular tv show, “Parenthood”.

We also are happy to announce that in addition to our office in New York at Green Spaces, we also now have a local office to work from in Baltimore. We’re in the vibrant and hip neighborhood of Hampden, full of restaurants, shops and small businesses. In fact, we’ve been told that the small businesses are close to 80% women owned! Add GPP to that list. :-)

To kick off our new office, we held a holiday open house the day of the Mayor’s Christmas parade, which marches right down “The Avenue” (aka 36th Street.) 36th Street featured prominently in John Waters’ cult classic “Pecker”.

View pictures from our open house here: Open House Holiday Office-Warming Party

 

The best thing, well one of the best things from that day was seeing a dog, in a fez, riding a magic carpet go-cart. In our minds, there’s not much cooler than that!

So, then, one more trip up to NYC to visit a few more production offices- new ones to bring sample swag bags to, and ones we’ve working with already, to spread a bit of Holiday Cheer, and now we’re wrapping up all of the end of year things any company needs to do, including sending out our Holiday E-Card.  

 

With that, we look back on all we’ve been able to accomplish this past year- from placing our brands in over 23 studio and independent films and network television programs, to meeting with and becoming connected with studio branded entertainment execs, to meeting so many new, cool, production people, getting some fabulous international press, speaking at FBR’s first annual production Eco-Expo, at Portland, Oregon’s Better Living Home Show, at Green Spaces, meeting uber cool green celebs Ed Begley, Jr. and Darryl Hannah, and bringing all of our wonderful brands into the Green Product Placement family.

We can’t wait for all of the placements to come in 2013, and to bring even more wonderful natural, green, sustainable, socially enterprising, and local entrepreneurial companies into our Green Product Placement family of brands and in front of the camera, building “good” brand awareness, where they belong!

Best wishes to all for a Happy, Joyous Holiday Season and for a Healthy, Prosperous New Year!

All our best,

Beth and Lisa
Green Product Placement

 

Looking Ahead to a Year Full of Promise- 2012

Beth and Lisa hat one on.

Beth and Lisa celebrate life by wearing hats!

As 2011 draws to a close, we look reflectively back on all we have accomplished and endured in the past year and look hopefully towards next year- 2012. Although scholars are divided as to what the world has in store for 2012- the main concern being the end of the Mayan calendar, many other theories abound as well– among astronomers, alien watchers, New Agers, Native Americans, Christians, etc. as to what will really happen at the close of next year.

One recurring theme is that it’s not the “end” at all, but really a new beginning, a turning point in the history of the mankind and the world when things begin to change for the better. Here at GPP, we prefer to lean our beliefs towards this hopeful outlook on the future. So that said, here’s what’s been going on with us:

After some initial pilot placements in an upcoming new tv series for HBO, “Veep”, starring Julia Louis Dreyfus, we look forward to placing our clients in several tv shows at the start of the new year. Beth and Lisa did a trip to the NYC studios in Long Island City, Manhattan and Brooklyn to deliver some seasonal cheer in the form of gift baskets highlighting some of the products we had just had the pleasure of placing in “Veep”.

GPP gift baskets

Baskets of green and local product goodness for NYC productions.

Basket of green goodness for "The Good Wife"

Basket of green goodness for "The Good Wife"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Beth knew the decorator for “The Good Wife” from many moons ago (coincidentally also named Beth!) , when GPP Beth was a dresser and shop’s keeper on the movie “For Richer or Poorer”- TGW Beth was the decorator, both Beths had been in touch and TGW Beth was very excited about and supportive of our company. “The Good Wife” shoots at Broadway Stages , which is the world’s first solar paneled sound stage, and the day we arrived, “The Good Wife” told us they had won an EPA award for green production. Yay for “The Good Wife” and we’re so glad you like our products! TGW Beth also has gained international attention for the decoration of their lovely sets. You can follow her on twitter @goodwifesetdec.

Over two days, Beth and Lisa delivered our baskets of cheer to multiple productions.

 

Beth at Silvercup

Beth at Silvercup Studios

Lisa at SVU

Lisa at SVU

We were very happy to be able to meet the decorator for “Gossip Girl”- a very nice woman named Christina who was also the decorator on “Sex in the City”! She also loved our stuff and was immediately thinking of a place to dress in the Damn Good Doormat that was part of her basket.

We also paid a visit to our friends at the eco-media pioneering Film Biz Recycling and Prop Shop. We finally got a chance to meet founder and president Eva Radke in person and found her to be a soul sister of the first order! She’s someone who spent years as a film and commercial art department worker bee just like us and decided it was time someone did something to reduce the waste created by such a usually wasteful business.
What Film Biz has done over the past 4 years is phenomenal. There should be an organization like theirs in every production city. GPP and Film Biz fully support each other’s efforts and hopefully have forged what will be a long and mutually beneficial friendship.
We also paid a visit to Sustainable NYC which won Green America’s People’s Choice Best Eco Business Award this year. Some fun and interesting stuff in there- and you bet we’ll be contacting some of those companies represented in the store! And of course- off to the Christmas Market at Union Square where more local, green, entrepreneurial products were seen- and some holiday shopping done as well!

Then- we were to get our own holiday gift in the form of a wonderful interview with Beth of GPP published on New Hope Media 360’s website. This is the organization that publishes “Natural Food Merchandiser” and organizes both ExpoEast and ExpoWest, the two largest natural products expos in North America.
The next day our friend Jeff calls us- he’s decorating VH1’s “Single Ladies” in Atlanta and wants to know what we can get him for the show! So- we’re starting 2012 with the promise of placements in 4+ major network shows and more coming our way as well once all of the holiday season dust settles.
Lastly, we send out best of holiday wishes to you all- thank you for your interest in our company.