Posts by: toast

Featured, TV Advertising /

A TV Advertising Campaign – is it time?

Marketing budgets in the UK have increased at the strongest rate since Q2 of 2014… But what’s driving that increase? In our latest blog we review the latest TV advertising statistics, data and trends that have shaped the TV advertising market over the past year.

For most, a brand’s advertising journey starts with press, digital, door drops, radio and OOH advertising. But that only works for so long. Sooner or later, most hit a ceiling and once that happens, a television advertising campaign is often a crucial next phase in their marketing-driven growth.

tv-advertising-campaign
Featured, News /

On the road to sustainable video production

Toast is looking at ways to reduce the impact of our video productions on the climate. We’re looking at a selection of previous projects to gauge the carbon footprint of each. We plan to benchmark these projects and work on ways to become a more sustainable video production company.

video-production-sustainability2

Is Outsourcing Advertising the best way?

Brands are looking for more control over their advertising output. Is bringing creative in-house better than outsourcing advertising? Or is there a third way?

In-house Advertising Team

We all still remember the PR car-crash, which piled up around the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad. The campaign was supposed to be an example of edgy advertising crafted by an in-house team.

In the driving seat that fateful day was Kristin Patrick, senior VP-global brand development. Mr Jakeman, President of PepsiCo Global Beverage Group, praised the ad on Twitter shortly after it was released. Saying he was “super proud of the @PepsiCo #CreatorsLeague for producing this.” The tweet got deleted swiftly afterwards.

Featured, News /

Will this Facebook Boycott make a difference?

Is the social media giant’s myth starting to unravel? The idea behind Facebook is great – anything posted to their network is pretty much the responsibility of the poster. They do have checks, but they’re sometimes automated or often in reaction to another user’s complaint.

This freedom to post to has made Facebook the perfect location for anyone looking to promote hate or a hateful message. Some see the unfettered ability to broadcast a message with the likelihood that those messages will go unaltered as freedom of speech.

Featured, News, Video Production /

4 Ways to Make Your Video Budget Go Further

Video production is complicated by nature.

You’ve got pre-production, shooting, and post-production — each stage with its interlocking series of tasks that need to be planned and executed.

So when you’re embarking on a new video shoot, it’s easy, perhaps even natural, to feel overwhelmed and get anxious about the video budget.

video budget

Fear not, because there are tried and true ways to ensure your video budget goes the distance. Here’s a list of four really good ones:

Featured, News, TV Advertising /

Does lockdown mean cheap TV advertising?

A healthcare emergency

Coronavirus is a healthcare emergency that has changed the world and will affect the future of individuals and businesses for years to come. Sadly Coronavirus has already taken the lives of friends and relatives. There will be few among us that aren’t personally affected by loss once the virus has been either contained or has run its course.

We take a brief look at how the lockdown has affected the advertising market.

Animation Styles and Animation Process

With live-action production all but impossible in these tumultuous times, we here at Toast thought it might be useful to talk about other options for promoting your product, brand or company.

Animation for advertising

We turn our attention to animation. Some dos and don’ts, the process, the cost, the advantages and the disadvantages. And finally, some animation packages that we can offer here at Toast should you be interested in going down this route.

The crucial moment during the process of developing an animation is in the initial stages where you’re considering what animation styles you’re going to adopt. Budget can be a deciding factor; character and 3D animation cost more than say 2D animation.

Featured, TV Advertising /

Addressable TV & Advanced TV in the UK

The Americans are coming

Sometimes a new platform or craze lands and everyone scrambles around for information on how to monetize it or just how to jump on the band-wagon. It happened a few years ago with AR & VR, London was a buzz with startups looking to exploit the new tech. Now it’s happening again with advanced TV.

One of the first stages in a new phenomenon are the calls from our American cousins looking to partner with local London businesses to get their feet under the table early. At Toast, we’ve now had two such calls, from American startups looking to expand into the UK market with platforms that are already up and running in the US. We’ve been doing our research into addressable TV in the UK, read on to see what we’ve found.

Featured, TV Advertising /

Advertising Rules and Regulations

A big part of our job in TV advertising is clearing adverts to go on air. Mostly this is a straight-forward process of proving legal claims and making sure adverts are appropriate for the viewing public. Advertising rules and regulations in the UK are run by an organisation called Clearcast.

Clearing an ad full of orgasms

Sometimes things are a little more tricky. Below is the response we received to a rough-cut submitted to Clearcast -the UK TV Advertising clearing organisation. The advert was to be shown once on late-night Channel 4 and was used to promote the Aids awareness charity – Frontline Aids (Formerly – International HIV/AIDS Alliance)