The Institute is a multi platform media company that integrates exceptional creativity with brand marketing discipline to produce the best in entertainment.

Our unique model employs consumer engagement, marketing, production, financing, and distribution, resulting in marketing and entertainment products that correspond with consumer demand. No matter the length, medium, or format, The Institute generates innovative content to connect with consumers and audiences, create efficiencies, and, ultimately, drive profits.
 
Founded in 2001 by Partners Scott Gardenhour and Michael Bay, The Institute boasts an interdisciplinary team of creative thinkers who develop engaging and entertaining content for film, television, commercials, the web, apps, games, and beyond. Gardenhour and Bay’s extensive and award-winning experience has guided The Institute's creation of effective marketing & multi-media productions for brand leaders such as Audi, Nike, Hallmark, Burger King, Wal-Mart, Toshiba, Chase Bank, LG, AT&T. Our creative teams have produced and/or directed big screen blockbusters such as  "Pearl Harbor,"  "Armageddon, "  "Coyote Ugly, "  "Jumper, "  "Transformers," and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." The Institute earned the coveted Emmy Award for  "Required Reading, " a groundbreaking long-format commercial produced for Hallmark.

close x Jehoshua Eliashberg

Jehoshua Eliashberg is the Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing and Professor of Operations and Information Management, at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has also held visiting scholar positions at numerous schools around the world. Professor Eliashberg's research interests are in developing models and methodologies to solve business problems. His research has focused on various issues including new product development and feasibility analysis, marketing/ manufacturing/ R&D interface and competitive strategies. He has particular interest in the media and entertainment, and has authored numerous articles appearing in major journals. Aside from the numerous books he has authored and companies he has consulted, Eliashberg has also served on the advisory boards of the National Science Foundation, the American Councils for International Education, and the academic liaison committee of the CMO Council.

close x Riley Crane

Riley Crane is currently the Society in Science (Branco Weiss) senior researcher in the Human Dynamics Group, at the Media Lab at M.I.T. His research is focused on understanding the hidden patterns behind collective social behavior. A physicist by training, he has spent the last several years quantifying human behavior and social interactions, and has applied his models to diverse systems such as YouTube and the humanitarian response to the Asian Tsunami. Riley is the winner of the 2009 DARPA Network Challenge, a Pentagon sponsored competition aimed at exploring the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems. In addition to his scientific work he has started several companies, which harness the power of social networks and social media and has built viral media campaigns for books and the United Nations.

Riley talks about the DARPA challenge on The Colbert Report.