Posts categorised: Featured

Oxford Tech Hub

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.

explainerWide

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.

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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? Are 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.

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Clutch Identifies Toast as a Leading Advertising & Video Production Agency in the UK

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.

we deliver on clutch badge

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.

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Featured, News, Video Production /

Video Production – State of the Art 2018

Video Production gear comes in all shapes and sizes. This infographic 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 it’s 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 infographic covers many other bits of Video Production tech, take a look.

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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.

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Featured, News, Video Production /

Mayon Volcano – Video Fact File

We’re starting a new initiative at Toast. Video Fact Files, these are short video clips which give the viewer all the headline information they about a news event in a quick and mobile friendly clip. Our first clip is about the recent eruption of the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines. We believe animation is the perfect medium to deliver quick information bursts. We’ve used an explainer video style which allows us to pepper the videos with stats and headlines. These videos are well suited to social media where the viewer is scrolling and has limited time to view each clip.

The Mayon volcano threatens to cause massive damage to the Philippines, the volcano is spewing rocks, smoke and ash over a large area. Ash when mixed with rain water has the ability to cause dangerous mud slides. Mayon has also had a serious affect on global transport with planes having to be rerouted around the ash clouds. If planes fly through an ash cloud the ash can fuse together inside their jet engines making a dangerous glass coating on engine parts.


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Brand Safety – Is your brand safe?

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.

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Is it good advertising practice to bring talent in-house?

The dangers of bringing your agencies in-house.

I suppose there was a sense of schadenfreude amongst a lot of agencies when they watched the PR car car-crash that piled up around the Pepsi Kendall Jenner ad campaign. It was supposed to be an example of good advertising crafted by an in-house creative powerhouse.

In the driving seat that fateful day was Kristin Patrick, senior VP-global brand development. Mr Jakeman, President of PepsiCo Global Beverage Group had praised the ad on Twitter on Tuesday morning shortly after it was released, saying he was “super proud of the @PepsiCo #CreatorsLeague for producing this,” but the tweet has since been deleted. Another danger of deleting your soon-regretted statements of support is that news of your deletion also goes viral! Only adding to the sense of incompetence.

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Drone Delivery the Future of Toast

London is bewildering in it’s 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 and 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 delivered 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, but 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 for ever, our drone delivery idea was to be revolutionary.

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Featured, TV Advertising /

Planning a brand video production

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.

Video Production gear
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