The Bridge, the commercial division of publisher News UK, has announced the creation of a full-service digital creative team that will specialise in creating, editing and publishing vertical mobile formats. v-Studio will help brands and advertisers create shareable and creative mobile-first campaigns designed to maximise video engagement across News UK’s brand portfolio.

Leveraging Bridge Studio’s digital, creative and data-driven expertise, v-Studio will initially offer brands seven vertical formats, repurposing pre-existing video assets into short-form interactive vertical formats, edits and 360-degree experiences.

The studio will also shoot new vertically-framed video content in-house or source it via Storyful user-generated content, optimising it for auto-play environments to eliminate black spaces above and below in portrait mode, and provide more tailored experiences for mobile audiences.

“Recently, the industry has witnessed a fundamental shift in the way that people consume media, especially via mobile channels,” said Milton Elias, head of mobile and video at News UK. “Whilst this has offered innovative ways for brands to reach audiences via their most personal devices, it also presents various creative challenges in a world where video content is still primarily produced for much larger horizontal screens.

“Given that virtually everyone uses their smartphones in portrait mode most of the time, it’s imperative that brand messages are tailored to maximise impact and engagement. We know that the vast majority of online visits across The Sun and The Times happen on mobile, and v-Studio provides a great canvas for brands to better engage their target audiences on our platforms and beyond.”

The vertical videos produced by v-Studio will distributed across all of News UK’s digital and social platforms, including The Sun Online, Unruly, The Times and The Sunday Times, in addition to off-platform environments.

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