Creating a television or online commercial that evokes an emotional response and turns viewers into customers starts with a strong brief. We always start by learning about your brand, target market and campaign goals. From there, we develop initial concepts, or workshop your existing concepts, to achieve the creative you need.
Here’s what’s involved in creating advertising content with us:
1 – BRIEF
First, we want to hear all about your brand, your audience and your marketing goals. The more you can tell us here, the more informed our first call can be. Some of the initial briefing questions we ask include:
- Who is your audience? What action do you need them to take after viewing this advertisement?
- What are you hoping to achieve with this TVC, commercial or promotional video?
- Do you have a developed concept or will we be working with you to find the campaign message?
- What role does this ad play in your overall marketing strategy? Is it part of a bigger campaign where you also require stills photography or supporting video assets?
- Do you need multiple versions of your advertisement to suit different media channels?
- What are the desired production values? Can you provide examples of other ads you'd like to emulate?
- What is your budget?
Once we understand the scope, we connect with you to learn even more about your brand and what you want your audience to do after watching the video.
2 - CONCEPTS
With the brief in hand, we work up ideas for how the TV / online commercials or advertising campaign will resonate with your audience. Of course, with marketing, developing a strong call to action is critical to ensure your advertising content plays its part in achieving your goals.
3 - PITCH SIGN OFF
Once you’re happy with the concepts, we formalise the scope, budget and creative ideas into a project agreement. This gives both you, and us, a chance to confirm our working relationship and agree on the expected output.
4 - RESEARCH
Before we move into creative development/refinement, we get to know your brand and audience intimately. This phase helps us truly understand how to emotionally connect with your audience, and which calls to action will turn your viewers into customers.
We revisit the original brief and concepts, then dig deep with you in a discovery workshop and online research to better understand:
- Your brand values, key value propositions – how you want to be perceived
- The campaign and video goals – the messages you want to deliver and the outcomes you hope for
- Your audience – who they are and what’s important to them
- Your reactions – what you liked/didn’t like about our initial concepts
- Your competitors – how you want to stand out from the crowd
We also ask for copies of your brand assets, such as your logos, style guide and other approved marketing materials. This ensures we create a television commercial that complements your other marketing elements and strengthens your brand.
5 - CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
We take the brief, initial concepts and all the research, and begin to brainstorm how to bring your advertising film production to life.
We start by working up the concept we initially pitched. From there we’ll draft the script and look for the right music track that will suit the emotional needs of the promotional film or TVC. During this phase, we continue to evaluate the creative through the lens of what will most emotionally connect with your audience’s hopes, dreams, fears or desires.
We do this all internally at first, drawing on our highly experienced team of producers, scriptwriters, directors and cinematographers. This allows us to come to you with a solid creative concept for production.
Once we have honed the creative, we collaborate further with you to refine the concept and make sure it’s hitting all the right beats for your campaign and target market.
6 - PRE-PRODUCTION
Once the script is signed off, we move into pre-production mode.
Here we plan and organise the video shoot in full, taking care of all the heavy lifting for you. That includes (but isn’t limited to):
- booking the creative team including director, cinematographer, art director, editor
- contacting casting directors and booking talent
- booking all crew
- booking the logistics team including Location Manager and 1st AD (scale of production pending)
- Scheduling production
- Scouting and organising location permits or booking the studio
- Sourcing all the camera, grip and lighting gear
- Securing travel arrangements
- Sourcing catering
We keep you in the loop and responsibly bring the project in on time and on budget. During this phase, we also draft the post-production schedule so you can be clear on delivery dates once the shoot is booked in.
7 – SHOOT
Now we’re ready to roll. Join us on set and feel the energy and excitement of shifting a concept from idea into reality. On set, our producers talk you through the process and get you to sign off key shots, giving you confidence that the production aligns with the creative concept.
What is it like to be on set with us?
- Our 20+ years of experience has taught us how to get a shoot done as efficiently as possible and stay on budget.
- You work alongside experienced producers and crew who leave their egos at the door.
- We’re committed to safe, ethical and sustainable filming practices. That includes making everyone feel comfortable and getting the best from any on-screen speakers, especially if they don’t feel natural on camera.
- We’re proud to act as an extension of your brand when we work with your stakeholders, volunteers and customers. We want to make you look good and ensure our interactions improve your relationships.
- We’re agile and quickly troubleshoot unforeseen issues.
- We have a lot of fun. Our processes have evolved to mitigate risk. This allows everyone on set to enjoy their role and the process of creating advertising content.
8 - POST-PRODUCTION
We head back to the editing suite and get to work cutting the vision together. We aim to have the draft we share with you 80-90% of the way to the final video product.
You can easily share your feedback with us via online review tools. From there, we incorporate your notes, then make the changes and fine-cut the film before sending it back over for final approval.
Once you’ve signed the video off, it goes through colour grading and audio mastering to enhance its look and sound. At this point, we also create other versions of the video (if requested). There are many great ways to leverage your advertising campaign such as 60 second online spots, a 30 second TVC and 15 second cutdowns.
9 - MASTERING OUT AND DELIVERY
In this final step, we create all the various channel formats and add closed captions, or language translations if you need them.
Then we deliver the film to you digitally, so it’s easy for you to publish and share (CAD submission for broadcast distribution available on request).