People may not recognize the name Matt Hornburg or the company Marblemedia, but if they have a television, they have likely seen one of the programs that have brought the company and its co-creator international acclaim.
Think of television programs like the hit pre-school series This is Daniel Cook (which was sold to 90 countries around the world) and This is Emily Yeung; Splat-a-lot, a medieval-themed television game show geared to eight- to 12-year-olds (sold to 120 countries); and Taste Buds, the Gemini award-winning kids cooking and food adventure series.
Marblemedia is a content creation company at the forefront of television and new media production.
Created 12 years ago by Hornburg, a Fergus native, and Mark Bishop, the company creates stories to engage and entertain audiences, allowing the viewer to experience programs using multi-platform media.
“It basically means that audiences are receiving their content from multiple platforms, whether they’re on a tablet, smart phone, a desktop, laptop or television,” Hornburg explained.
“At Marblemedia, although our core business relies on the traditional broadcast model, we continue to explore new ways to tell stories for connecting with new audiences online through mobile and tablet devices.”
Recently the Marblemedia team was honoured with the Playback 2013 Outstanding Achievement Award, presented by the Playback Canadian Film and TV Hall of Fame.
“Being recognized for this award is a huge honour, as it puts Marblemedia in a camp with such a well-respected, seasoned, high caliber group,” Hornburg said.
“It further reinforces our company’s leadership to innovate new and entertaining content, which is the core nature of our business.”
The award adds to an already impressive line-up of media industry accolades that includes numerous Gemini Awards, Youth Media Alliance Awards and Canadian Screen Awards, to name a few.
For this small company, success is a team effort.
“Collaboration is such a key ingredient to our success. From the beginning, over a decade ago, Mark Bishop and I have enlisted an incredible list of creative talent along the way – from talented writers, production staff to developers of our websites and mobile games,” Hornburg said.
“Now, with a staff of nearly 50 employees and with content received by audiences in over 120 countries worldwide, we definitely couldn’t have done it all if it weren’t for an orchestrated and organized collective effort by all.”
While never abandoning his Canadian roots, Hornburg knows the U.S. prime time television market is an important step for marblemedia’s future.
“We really see content as very much a global production, as we work with our Canadian partners to manufacture for the Canadian market, but always with an eye to sell to the U.S. and globally,” Hornburg said.
“It’s a trend more and more as everyone has a little less money but everyone expects to have that much higher production value – we need to find ways to partner together to achieve this.”
Focused on an audience-first model for the company’s multi-platform creations, Hornburg and Bishop are growing their vision.
“As a content company, it’s our job to build IP [intellectual property] that has a massive audience,” Hornburg said, noting Marblemedia’s Splatalot web game has earned 150 million game plays worldwide.
“We really feel the content will find the audience, and technology will probably find the business model,” he adds.
With offices in Toronto and Los Angeles, Hornburg is a busy executive who has not lost his creative edge.
In the last year alone, the company has worked with Zodiak Kids and Surprise Bag! in the U.S. to develop new unscripted and animated projects and acquired full control of Distribution360 (it previously shared ownership with Calgary-based Seven24 Films).
The November television release of a new program Japanizi Going Going Gong!, of which Hornburg has executive producer credit, has been picked up by Disney XD and pre-sold to 120 countries.
“2014 will be an exciting year of new projects for Marblemedia and our distribution division Distribution360,” Hornburg said.
“We are expanding our slate in unscripted and kids content, in addition to scripted drama and comedy series. We will continue to release content on all platforms and engage with our audiences.”
For more information visit www.marblemedia.com.
