Toast Blog

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.

Why bring advertising in-house?

The way ad agencies approached creativity for brands died years ago. The “big” advert surrounded by a dribble of marketing comms is long gone. But the constant stream of output needed by social channels and digital platforms stretches the many traditional agencies to breaking point. Is that the end of outsourcing advertising? Clients want brief to completion time frames that don’t allow for the Chinese whispers of larger agencies. Brands looked for a more efficient workflow and came up with the idea of creating in-house creative departments to handle all needs.

Updated September 2020

What are the advantages of TV advertising?

• TV Advertising builds trust
• Advertising boosts sales
• TV Adverts are full screen, not fighting for screen space
• TV reaches a vast audience
• TV advertising results can be tracked
• Small brands can get into TV advertising on digital channels
• TV adverts benefit from second-screening

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.

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. 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:

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.

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.

When an advert shows up on TV, it’s often the culmination of months of work. Few people know the effort or regulation that lies behind each epic. The UK’s TV advertising market is highly regulated and designed to avoid false statements, claims or misleading adverts.

What’s in an advert?

On this page, we’ll look into the anatomy of a TV advert. We explore the specific rules that govern what’s allowed on-air and some of the technical hurdles encountered by advertisers looking to show their wears on television.

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.

Yesterday, someone offered me their seat on the tube. Ever the opportunist, my delight turned to consternation as I took in the full meaning of such an act – I am considered officially “grey”. And that made me think about how brands go about marketing to senior citizens.

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)

Toast - Video for the Oxford Tech Hub

Toast is a Video Production and TV Advertising agency with an extensive client base ranging from large organisations to smaller challenger brands. We produce videos, explainer animations and TV adverts for big businesses but also we’ve become well-known for championing smaller brands looking to get into TV advertising. We became established as a promoter of challenger brands after producing Innocent Smoothie’s first ever TV advert. Since then we have continued this effort producing scores of advertising campaigns for start-ups and smaller brands. One of our latest projects has been scripting, developing, filming and producing Abel & Cole’s first foray into TV advertising.

Investment Films

As well as our TV advertising work we have an extensive list of video production clients. We have decided to apply our expertise developed while working with challenger brands into our video production work. We are working with many companies to produce videos which they will use in funding rounds as they grow. These videos range from simple explainers which detail a new product or service to full corporate video productions featuring founder interviews and complex 3D animations.

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.

Toast is a talented team of video production and advertising specialists, dedicated to helping your business creatively stand out from your competitors. We specialise in branded content, television commercial production, television media buying, and motion graphics. We know what works to elevate your brand, and we’re not afraid to scare you a little if it will help your business succeed.

These are the reasons we decided to join Clutch, an online platform whose mission is to identify the best B2B agencies and help them to be seen by buyers who need their services. Clutch publishes validated reviews from clients who have worked with the agencies listed on their site. The reviews, along with an internal evaluation of each company’s market presence, are what form their rankings and enable some companies to be listed above others.

Toast is a commercial video production 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.

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.

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.

The Brand Safety issue is a big subject in the media right now and doesn’t look like it’s going away soon. For brands and organisations, it’s a reputational nightmare. You make some entertaining and informative video content and suddenly you get calls asking why your video is linked to or surrounded by other content that is extremist, offensive, pornographic, or at its simplest just contrary to your own brand’s ethics and values. For example, you are a family brand selling healthy cereal and you find yourself linked with a very explicit lyrics and imagery from the band Cradle Of Filth, famous for their songs that are violent, sexist, and overtly sexual. That’s a PR disaster that is none of your doing but the problem is you are now in damage limitation mode.

London is bewildering in its levels of culinary creativity. A gourmet crisp shack, pop up potato joint and grilled cheese sandwich shop all exist within the media haven of Soho. A new hire at Toast, Harry Harryman was quick to point this out. He jumped to work immediately, capitalising on this booming trend. Partly transforming our video production shop into a street food business with a difference – a drone delivery food service. Toast introduced the next step in “snack UX” – drone food delivery Toast.

The next unicorn?

Once rumours of the project leaked out we came under intense interest from various parties in venture capital land. Quotes about the project are too numerous to mention. It reminded all at Toast of the now-famous “project ginger” from a few years back. We were about the change the food delivery landscape forever, our drone delivery idea was to be revolutionary. Toast invited investors to London for secret demos a few months after starting up. Then the service ran in stealth mode for about 6 months. We experienced problems in secretly beta testing the service in a built-up area. We found a new location, Frenchman Flat Nevada after initial scouting. It seemed a good location given its secret nature and numerous abandoned building structures. We later ruled out ex-nuclear testing site Frenchman Flat as the drone rotors had a tendency to stir up ground dust which would be a health risk.

So, you have a great product or service. Maybe you’re a new-to-market challenger brand wanting to take on the big boys and win? You do your research and everyone in marketing with any intelligence is telling you to setup a brand video production. Because more people engage with brands and share video than any other form of content. If content is king, then video is God.

New to Advertising? Why Not Run A Test TV Ad?

So you have a great product or service and you want the best way to let people all about it. Then TV advertising is the best choice and will certainly outperform your online marketing in terms of trust, target audience and crucially the bottom line.

And right now making your first TV advert and getting it on air on the right channels for the right audience has never been more affordable, simple and effective in terms of ROI. In fact we have a unique offer that allows you to Test the water with your first TV Ad and measure its effectiveness.

A Case Study of Tootle.co.uk

If you're like startup Tootle, a new challenger and you want to drive traffic to your website where do you start? They aim to disrupt the £45 billion UK used car selling market. Tootle matches private car sellers to car dealers wanting to source specific cars directly from the public. By streamlining the sales process and removing middlemen, they aim to drive better prices and a smoother experience for both sellers and dealers.

With the advent of Netflix, HBO, Amazon and other VOD sites some say we are in a golden age of premium content choices. Inspired by the growing numbers of subscribers to Netflix and Amazon, brands have realised that they too must become publishers of owned, and highly original content. Not just advertising around it, or sponsoring it, but creating branded content from scratch.

Promoting Challenger Brands

The power of advertising can turn around a brand in a short timeframe, but there are some big players that have done this more obviously than others. Innocent are one brand who, with help from a 30 second clip, became a challenger brand and grew their business across the last 6 years to unimaginable heights, highlighting the power that TV advertising holds when done right.

Now iOS 9 is out in the wild, advertisers are kicking and screaming in panic about the ad blocking support and functionality it brings. Advertisements bring forth huge chunks of revenue, $27.5 billion in the US (for the first half of 2015). Blocking ads hurts an age old model of revenue, but the ad blockers aren’t going to topple the $60+ billion online advertising industry in one fell swoop. The industry is vast, too important and touches too many.

Keep an eye on this area for updates and news.