Israeli media is reporting that OG Hafakot — better known as the OG Group — has won the tender for the production of the 42 postcards for Eurovision 2019.
The tender for the postcards was launched around two and half months ago with an overall budget of around NIS 3,200,000 — that converts to around €750,000 or $850,000. Higher figures had originally been reported.
While the news has not been officially confirmed by KAN or the EBU, Ice.co.il, a media and digital marketing specialist website, is reporting that OG Hafakot has been selected from five candidates who originally applied for the tender.
In contrast to the production of the stage, which will be headed by the German designer Florian Wieder, OG Hafakot is an Israeli company. The decision to award the production to an Israeli company is not coincidental: a few months ago we checked the requirements for the tender and saw that one of them was to have “an Israeli” establishment. Hopefully, this will bring more creativity to the entire production.
OG Hafakot is a leading production company in Israel which was founded in 2002. They have been responsible for major campaigns both in Israel and abroad and they have also — for several years — produced Fesigal, an annual children’s song festival. According to their Facebook page, they have taken part in the production of Celine Dion’s children’s fashion brand – Celinununu.
We’ve looked at their Facebook thoroughly and checked some of their work and it’s very diverse. One of their campaigns is about the LGBT community in Israel which has been fighting for equality for a long time. Curiously, Doron Medale, who wrote Netta’s “Toy”, is their leading performer.
Eurovision 2019 postcard production
Keren Chochma — who also forms part of KAN’s creative team — will oversee the production of the postcards. The shoot will take place between January and early March 2019.
Prior to the shoot, OG Hafakot will submit two pilots for the EBU’s consideration. As we all know, the importance of the postcards cannot be underestimated as they play a crucial part of the show.
In recent years, the focus of the postcards has been on the artists while they visit different locations in the host country. We will have to wait if the same concept will be used in this year’s production.
I really appreciated the postcards in 2018, they were classy with beautiful landscapes
I loved the postcards in 2014 and I also enjoyed in 2015
In the last decade my favorite postcards were from 2011 and 2015, both were original, diverse and beautifully shot and edited. The 2011 postcards were really touching. The 2015 postcards were entertaining and colorful, and I liked how they featured some shots from the performing country in addition to Austria.
I really don’t care if the artists appear in the postcard or not, as long as the postcards have a solid concept (like in 2011) it doesn’t matter to me.
Hope they’ll go for something fun and fresh for the Tel Aviv postcards.
Unrelated but will the brand identity be done by KAN itself? We haven’t had any news about that.
Is that outsourced too?
According to the BrandNew Blog, 2017 was done by local design firms banda.agency and Republique, while 2018 was done by RTP themselves, so I will wait if 2019 is done by KAN or outsourced to a local firm.
I hope KAN won’t do this themselves, as even their own identity is way too basic and sort of undercooked. I don’t think their designers are enough for such project. I will be extremely pleased to be proven wrong.
It turns out that KAN’s identity was done by a local firm (called Firma) and I’m positive that they’ll do the identity design for this year, it’ll be interesting to see!
I’m glad it’s an Israeli company. I still don’t quite understand why the postcards have to be outsourced…can’t the host broadcaster just produce them themselves? I understand that the EBU insist on glossy, slick high-value productions, but surely any broadcaster worth their salt can rise to the occasion. That’s how it used to be. The host broadcaster don’t control the stage design, the postcards…what exactly do they actually do to make them the “host ” broadcaster? It’s basically an EBU production these days, the host city/broadcaster has less and less control. I also hope that they have a new and… Read more »
The broadcaster works on its own shows. Do you really think that their stuff has nothing to do but prepare to the Eurovision? Those are just 3 shows, that’s it. They can’t just throw everytging away and focus on just those 3 shows.
Yes, thanks, I am aware of that. Not for a moment was I suggesting that KAN should put its sole focus on the upcoming contest. Are they not capable of running normal operations and also producing a song contest? What do you mean by “its own shows”? Are they the host broadcaster or not? It is now a co-production, I realize that, but they are in the business of producing television shows, so why the need to outsource? The EBU is a union of broadcasters, it seems bizarre that they should outsource their main show to independent companies.
This show is way bigger than any production that almost any local broadcaster is usually producing (this year the show is about 20% of the total annual budget of KAN). It requires teams and skills that the hosting broadcaster simply doesn’t have. KAN is not built to produce a 32m euros international live broadcast. It is designed to produce a variety of much much smaller local productions. When Eurovision wasn’t as huge and demanding as today, the broadcasters could probably deal with it alone. But we are not in the 90s anymore.
This leads us to the next question: will small countries like Cyprus, Slovenia, Malta, for example, ever be allowed to win & organise the contest? Since it is such a big production…
From what I’ve checked, Cyprus doesn’t have a large indoor venue. The cost of the contest would be heavy for their economy as well. I think they would have to give up on hosting.
They said if the won this year, they would use the Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center as it’s the best they have got
Nah, they would not give up on hosting. The EBU would make it happen. If it can happen in chaotic Ukraine, it can happen anywhere.
This is sort a standard operation procedure because a broadcaster cannot always be hands on in all aspects of a large-scale production such as Eurovision.
In most cases, broadcasters do outsourcing when there’s a need to develop and create concepts for updated onscreen graphics, music for public affairs programs, among other things.
For example: The branding for KAN was done by an outside company called Firma: https://www.firmabrands.com/Work/work%7Cfwsa%7C294/Branding_a_New_Public_Broadcaster
My favourite postcards were from 2013, I’d love something connecting the artists more with their own countries than with the host country, like has been the recent trend.
2014 had hands down the best postcards. Very creative. 2016 was also pretty nice.
2014 postcards is similar like postcards from 1998,2000,2008 . I like postrcards from 1985 ( they show us authors of song ) , 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008, 2014, 2015