Posts categorised: News

Featured, News, TV Advertising /

Brand Response Vs Direct Response Advertising

How to create a successful Brand Response Campaign.

What’s the right balance between brand awareness and direct response advertising? A question we’re regularly asked over here at Toast and an interesting one to explore and answer…

The rise of Brand Response Advertising

Brand response marketing provides a seamless blend of Direct Response and Brand Advertising delivered through a single campaign, attracting people with a compelling narrative (brand marketing) and securing their attention with a call to action (direct response advertising).

still from a BVOD 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.

Featured, News, TV Advertising /

Amazon has the power to dominate Addressable TV

We look to the future of Addressable TV and ask the question. “Are all the cards falling into place for Amazon?”

Back in the summer, TechCrunch ran an article about an Amazon job posting which was initially titled: “Head of Free to Air TV & Advertising.” After a bit of tweaking by Amazon, the job listing became: “Head of Prime Video Channels Free To Air TV & Advertising TV Partner Channels.” This job title clearly wasn’t going to fit on a business card so was changed to: “Head of Prime Video Partner Channels”.

Notice the omission of “free to air” in the final title? Is Amazon planning to launch a free ad-funded version of Prime Video?

Addressable TV, the new Amazon store front?

Running ads on a free streaming version of Prime Video and knowing who is viewing the adverts. Plus having access to years of their most intimate buying habits could be Amazon’s winning hand.

Featured, News, Video Production /

Video Production – State of the Art 2018

Toast is a branded content agency based in London, we’ve put together this infographic that looks at the cameras, computers, drones and storage all used in the production of video and animations. We’ve compared some of the gear used now to the kit used way back.

video production infographic preview

The GoPro is a staple of any video kit bag and with its quality-improving every year GoPro footage can be seamlessly edited into any production. Cameras have also got smaller and lighter, using a DigiBeta Cam years ago would give you toned arms and a strong back, now a DSLR can be thrown about all day.

Drones have also been a great leap in video production values, if you need a quick aerial shot just throw up a drone, no more waiting around for an expensive helicopter to turn up. Computers have probably changed the most with a desktop computer able to edit 4K footage and render stunning 3D visuals, the technology really is empowering the creatives.

The advances in production gear is also having great benefits in filming. DRTV adverts with smaller budgets than traditional brand adverts can now leverage some of the best new lightweight cameras to increase production values.

The infographic covers many other bits of Video Production tech, take a look.

Featured, News, TV Advertising /

GDPR and Digital Advertising

GDPR and Digital Advertising, is GDPR the big shakeup that will change the world of targeted advertising?

A recent survey by W8 concluded that GDPR will make 75% of UK marketing data obsolete.

“Data” is a dirty word. We have all been probably, shocked and surprised by just how many companies have our information on their databases, as the flurry of “Don’t Leave Us” emails hit our inboxes. Many customers have a nagging feeling that there is something sinister about all this data mining that routinely takes place when we shop online. Companies have shared and made money from our data for years. GDPR if anything has forced business to look at the key relationship factor with their customers – TRUST.