Sunday Herald 5/10/03

The futures bright for DA Group as its virtual characters continue to break new-media limits. Valerie Darroch meets the man behind the faces



WHOSE velvet-toned voice turns you on? Stroll through DA Groups futuristic creative lab in Glasgows Lighthouse and you can take your pick from a range of smooth-talking characters.
At the touch of a keystroke, DA chief executive Mike Antliff commands DAs latest collection of avatar characters to give a personal greeting. First up is hip Latino bad boy Eduardo J Pussai followed by the classy seductive tones of a James Bond-style secret agent, and finally the voluptuous vowel sounds of leather-clad Ms Dominatrix.

They are just a few of a stable of mobile messengers and avatar marketeers recently launched by DA Group, which provides multi-media intelligent solutions .

Eduardo J Pussai was created by DA for drinks company Jim Beam Brands (JBB) which was seeking a character to front a new marketing campaign for After Shock, its shooter drink aimed at a trendy youth market.

DA worked with JBB to create a Latino loudmouth with a collection of cool phrases designed to appeal to After Shock drinkers, and Eduardo also became the face of a sophisticated text-to-video system. Eduardo was developed as an independent personality that embodied the core values of the brand and JBB is now working on incorporating Eduardo into its other marketing activities.

For Antliff e, Eduardos success demonstrates just one of the potentially lucrative applications for DAs characters that can be used either in mobile messaging, marketing campaigns, as customer-service agents, receptionists, government information agents or as e-learning mentors.

The Scottish Executive is about to embark on a new trial to use Seonaid (its cyber information assistant created by DA ) for mobile phone messaging and DA is now in talks with other parties which the firm expects will lead to new deals.

Strip away the brilliance of the animation software, the lip- synching and the facial expressions and you get to the heart of the characters value to DAs clients a novel means of selling their brand or message to a targeted audience.

DAs prime focus is on mobile phone network operators, however it is also targeting big brand owners and new-media agencies. The company is making its virtual character engine (Charisma) available to third parties to stimulate demand.

In June, DA launched Stereotypes, a collection of characters including an action hero, football star and supermodel. It can make limitless adaptations, changing skin colour, language and accent as required. DA will also launch a new product next year that will allow people to create cyber versions of themselves, mimicking their voice.

The company has demonstrated its own chameleon-like skills as it has battled to survived through changing markets. When Antliff first set up the company (formerly known as Digital Animations) with Colin McNab in 1990, the firm specialised in architectural engineering and visualisation.

Antliff e, who set up DA after completing a degree in architecture at Glasgows Mackintosh School of Architecture, was a pioneer in the use of computer-aided design (CAD). When I drew the first line on a PC screen I was blown away with the possibilities, he said.

The company invested in programming skills and switched its focus to computer games ahead of flotation in 1996. Its first title Steel Legions was not a major success and DA attracted more attention for its clever animation and full-motion video capabilities.




DA later shot to fame in 2000 as the technical wizards behind Ananova, the worlds first cyber newsreader. Ananova, created for the Press Association, was launched at the height of the dotcom frenzy and sold to Orange for 95 million, a development that shot DA shares to a high of 3.90.

It was a far cry from the miserable winter of 1999 when DA was on the brink of collapse and only survived after an injection of new funds from fresh investors .

Antliff has weathered a succession of stormy times at DA, from that near-fatal cash crunch to a public spat with former chief executive Mike Hambly who departed acrimoniously in July 2002. My experience has made me what I am The lesson is to have the right people around you, Antliff said.

An innately upbeat character, Antliff is reluctant to dwell on the past. I had a new baby son in 1999, going home to see his face gave me the fortitude to go on, he said.

There was never much debate about the companys technical and design skills but critics accused it of lacking commercial focus in the past. Several months after completing a radical strategic review, Antliff acknowledges that there was some truth in this analysis but is adamant that DA now has a very clear purpose.

Antliff has overseen a major programme of change including a financial restructuring that involved a share buy-back offer to investors, a shake-up in staffing and the launch of the first of a series of new products. DA used to employ 55 people, but only was one in sales: it now has 47, and nine of those are sales people.

Our technical skills are still vastly superior but we know that technology for technologys sake is pointless in the long term, Antliff added.

DAs focus is now firmly on the new-media marketing industry where its skills and characters can be integrated into marketing campaigns, especially campaigns launched via e-mail or mobile messaging.

Mobile is the artillery for new media, Antliff said. DA also aims to set up re-seller channels for its services.

One of the critical changes the company has made has been the formation of an experienced advisory board that includes new-media enthusiast Bob Downes, director of BT Scotland .

DAs own board has seen a batch of high-calibre appointments in the last 12 months, including Cyril Scott, sales and marketing director, former vice-president of sales for NCR; non-executive chairman Rob Walker, former general manager of Compaqs global operations; deputy chairman Sir Adrian Shinwell, a leading legal brain; and non-executive director John Ward, former chairman of 3is US operations.

Antliff says this formidable array of talent is worth a great deal to DA. Im tapping into a goldmine with advice from the likes of John Ward and Sir Adrian Shinwell. His advice is incredibly insightful and astute.

This business has a real opportunity to succeed now the plans are in place. It feels absolutely right, Antliff said.




His optimism is underpinned by a continuation in the rapid growth of mobile phone messaging. DAs business model is to structure deals to get a revenue share of messaging traffic.

Take a population of 40 million. If 10% of people adopt our solutions and send one message a week, then you add market growth you are looking at a potentially huge market, Antliff said.

The plan is to go global, first launching products in the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific and targeting the US in 2004.

Antliff knows he is under pressure to show that this time DA has the right product at the right time for the right markets. He is also under pressure to restore the company to profitability.

The man whom some dubbed Lazarus for his ability to bounce back, knows he carries a weight of expectations on his shoulder, but is relentlessly optimistic.

He chose the name Charisma for DAs new product. He said: Id rather be remembered as Mr Charisma than Lazarus.