CMC Invest – YouTube Adverts

CMC invest recently launched a new investor platform in the UK. They commissioned us to bring to life three quirky animations for YouTube. Our in house design team worked utilising creative stock footage, animated text and the apps clean UI. We animated CMC specific brand assets such as illustrations and a moving journey line that was motion tracked to our stock footage. A bright VoiceOver brought together the piece.

SEE OUR WORK

The video works brilliantly to treat the often very corporate investing sector in a fun, light hearted way that is true to the experience of investing with CMC.

WORK WITH US

Hammonds TV Advert

Hammonds, the fitted furniture company, launches a brand new TV advert, “Manifesto” this April. Award-winning retail creative agency Brown Dog had been working with Hammonds to come up with a campaign idea that really delivers a connection to the Hammonds brand and its purpose. Brown Dog conceived the tagline, “Hammonds. In order, to live better”. From that starting point, Brown Dog created a campaign that is a manifesto for Hammonds both internally and to their potential customers.

An Advert for Hammonds

At the heart of this campaign is how bringing order and calm to everyday lives can genuinely have a positive effect on your wellbeing and the way you face the day ahead. Brown Dog chose Toast to bring this concept to life across TV, online & press.

Filming the TV Advert

Director Will Clark Smith, assisted by lighting cameraman Colin Thomson ably captured the problem/solution structure of the script and evolved it into a stylish, emotive and highly engaging TV advert and BVOD campaign for Hammonds. Shot at a real home across two days, the furniture was custom made for the house, enabling Toast to depict authentic living in all its chaos (before furniture) and its potential for calm (post furniture). Toast went as far as including an eponymous brown dog.

Behind the scenes video

Photographer Jack Terry worked alongside the film crew to deliver similarly styled and lit stills assets.

In the words of Kirsty Oates, Hammonds Head of Marketing: “The experience of making this commercial has been the best. I’m so thrilled that we are going to get a commercial at last that really does the brand justice.”

WORK WITH US

Indeed Flex TV Advert

The first Indeed Flex TV advert was launched last year, and Indeed appointed Toast to create its next phase of TV activity for 2022. Indeed utilised all the learnings from their previous campaign whilst also expressing Indeed Flex’s new brand positioning, tone-of-voice and visual identity.

Indeed Flex TV Advert Creative

The Indeed Flex advert focuses on central characters explaining to the camera how easy it is for them to find work. They have the flexibility to find work where, when and with who they want. With a single tap on the Indeed Flex app, our characters shift from one location to the next, instantly transporting them into their selected workplace.

Fun, purposeful and entirely in control, this campaign will grab people instantly, just like the app. This TV advert uses the key asset of the brand – the smartphone app – and brings it to the centre of the action. It illustrates the immediacy and speed with which you can find work that works for you.

Filming the advert

Toast filmed the campaign across three shoot days and at various locations that showcase the app in use at home, outside, and in multiple work locations. The fluid moves in the advert are possible due to using ARRI’s Trinity 2 system.

Trinity is an amazing addition to the traditional Steadicam rig. The Indeed Flex TV advert called for fluid moves between scenes. These fluid moves were complicated due to the spinning camera used in each shot. The Trinity 2 head allows the camera to rotate freely during filming. The whole system is stabilised in five-axis allowing for the silky smooth moves Steadicam is known for.

The Media

The media mix for this campaign included TV, BVOD Campaign, radio, social and podcasts. The radio edit was created from the different voices from the main commercial, and specific character cutdowns from the TV advert were used across social media. The campaign was created for the UK market and re-versioned for the US.

WORK WITH US

Planning our dream retirement can often seem like a world away. Most of us are too busy scraping together a few pounds for our next smashed avocado sandwich. Moneybox wants everyone to know how simple the world of savings, investments and pensions can be.

Toast produced this series of Moneybox videos focusing on investing, pensions and savings. The branded content videos introduce several Moneybox customers who talk about how the award-winning Moneybox app helps them. Moneybox provides a wide range of financial services, including help with investing, savings, mortgages and pensions. Their investment products cover socially responsible investing, stocks and shares, and Lifetime ISAs.

Moneybox Customer, Amit

Amit, a professional photographer, uses Moneybox to run his stocks and shares ISA. He finds Moneybox helpful in making sure his money is working its hardest. Amit likes the simplicity provided by the Moneybox app. He knows investing is a long-term process, and having Moneybox help ensures he stays on target.

Nita’s Retirement dreams

Another contributor to the Moneybox video series is Nita. She talks about how the Moneybox pension helps consolidate her disparate workplace pensions into one easy-to-manage pension pot. Nita uses the app to ensure her pensions are invested in ethical funds. She picks ESG funds that invest her money for good rather than using tracker funds.

Hobbies in retirement

Kaidi wants to pursue her hobbies in retirement. She works in tech and changes jobs quite frequently, which means she has multiple workplace pensions. Her challenge is not only to manage her collection of pensions but to see how they’re performing.

The Moneybox app allowed Kaidi to transfer all her pensions into one account. The Moneybox app and the team of helpers at Moneybox made sure that the pensions transferred seamlessly.

Moneybox Branding

Each video in the series begins with a simple headline introducing the contributor alongside the Moneybox logo. Moneybox wanted a clean look for the videos to ensure the individual stories were the hero. Each video ends with the animated Moneybox logo.

Brand films from Toast

If you’re looking for help producing films for your brand, Toast can help. We can handle the entire process from script to screen or step in at any part of the process. If you’re looking for something similar to these Moneybox videos use the button below to contact us. If you’re in need of something completely different, we’re still here to help.

Get a quote

Contact us

Behind the Masterpiece

Xiaomi 13 Pro, Co-engineered with Leica

Xiaomi Studios is a filmmaking initiative created by Xiaomi, providing creatives an opportunity to explore their creativity with the Xiaomi phone. Working with Billion Dollar Boy we produced a branded content documentary shot on the Xiaomi 13 Pro bringing to life the story behind the work of photographer Nina Davidson. The film explores her life as a photographer and captures her process in action as she photographs her four children, using the Xiaomi 13 Pro.

Photographer – Nina Davidson

For Nina, photography is intrinsically linked to her life story through her photographer mother and her grandfather before that. It’s always been Nina’s way of understanding herself and the world around her, and now as a mother of four daughters, it continues to allow her to see afresh.

Through the everyday moments in the lives of her daughters, Nina is able to explore her own childhood to reveal a new series of deeply personal, intimate and life-affirming photographs that help Nina heal and offer a window onto a lost world.

Nina grew up in the city of Bordeaux, her mother was a photographer who documented Nina’s early enthusiasm for dance, which saw her leave home at just 14 to pursue professional dance that eventually led to dancing for the world-famous choreographers Maurice Béjart across Europe. Though she treasured this experience, it left Nina feeling that her childhood was cut short by the vigorous demands of the world of dance, which require its students to sacrifice so much.

Camera’s hung around Nina’s neck from an early age as she inherited them from her mother and her grandfather and found that photography helped her understand the world and her place in it. So it was perhaps fitting that it was photography that happily led her away from a life in dance, onwards to new adventures.

The whole film was shot on the Xiaomi 13 Pro creating a blend of intimacy and beauty in the Scottish landscape.

WORK WITH US

Olivia Burton Watch Advert

You know that feeling that you have when you put something on, be it clothing or a watch or a piece of jewellery and it makes you feel that little bit more special? That’s the feeling we wanted to capture with this first ad, “Celestial Effect” for Olivia Burton, part of the Movado Group.

See Our Work

The creative features a woman who’s preparing to go out for the evening.  As she puts on her Olivia Burton watch from the Celestial collection, her physical state alters and becomes out of this world. It’s like she’s added a real-life filter to her appearance. In an instant, her entire body is shining, luminous, twinkling and glowing.

On the way to an evening out, she sees someone else “affected” and nods to her in recognition. The finale shows a birthday party where our heroine gifts a watch from the Celestial Collection to her friend only to see her experience the same luminous, joyous effect.
 

Gifting with a difference

This TV advert says Christmas and gifting but not in an obvious way. It celebrates the Olivia Burton brand and the people who wear it in a unique and playful manner. Working alongside the TVC, Olivia Burton are working on a “Celestial” filter to be used on social media.

Production Credits

The ad was written by Fiona Cole, directed by Dominic O’Riordan, produced by Aaron Aziz, cast by Eliza Burrows McGill, lit by Joe Douglas and edited by John Gradwell. Jonathan Box at Unit Post brought to life the “Celestial Effect”.

WORK WITH US

Innocent Smoothie Advert

The ultimate challenger brand

Simple, creative and beautifully made… just like their drinks… this 30sec Innocent Smoothie animated advert is still looking good today. The TV advert was Innocent’s first foray into the world of television advertising. Innocent is the classic challenger brand.

They came from nowhere with their quirky brand and fresh take on marketing. They soon realised that to break into the mainstream, they needed to get the Innocent brand noticed by a mass-market audience. TV provides a great platform to get a new brand noticed by a large audience and helps to build trust – which is much needed by a relative unknown. They needed their own Innocent Smoothie advert to help their brand quickly build sales and a loyal following.

The first of many Innocent Smoothie Adverts

Toast prides itself on working with new brands to smooth their transition into the world of TV advertising. We worked with Innocent Smoothies to translate their brand identity into a unique TV advert that would quickly convey a standout message.

TV advertising can be a daunting prospect for new companies, and we helped them navigate the process. Toast provides a script to screen service to make sure the entire project stays on track.

Toast can help build your brand

If you’re a challenger brand looking to make your mark, we can help. We have a wealth of experience working with new brands to bring their identity to life on screen. Get in touch today, and let’s start talking about your brand and how we can help you build it.

Loaf Sofa Advert

The challenge that Loaf gave Toast was to bring to life their charming, nostalgic brand values of “slow living”. The tone of voice, the look and feel of the campaign needed to work seamlessly with their existing, very distinctive press and OOH campaign.

It also needed to evolve the Loaf brand into a delightful and engaging live-action version of itself. The sofa advert features a comfy Loaf sofa and some serious lounging.

Not one of the ordinary Sofa adverts on TV

Loaf had already carved out a very original way of communicating with its audience in its press and poster campaigns. With Loaf, it’s all about shared experiences, relaxing pastimes, slow habits and simplicity.

With the voice-over delivered by Loaf founder Charlie Marshall, the resulting TV advertising campaign and BVOD campaign has a uniquely British and slightly quirky feel that feels genuine and very “Loaf”.

Filming under COVID rules

Toast filmed the Loaf advert after the COVID lockdown with a mother and daughter starring on the sofa. The filming setup made sure social distancing was possible. All crew members wore masks and hand washing the order of the day.

Loaf’s first ever TV advert

Advert Post-Production

Will Clark-Smith directed the sofa advert with Toast handling all the post-production duties including, editing, effects and colour grade. The resulting advert certainly stands apart from all the other furniture adverts on TV.

WORK WITH US

A cleaning product advert from Smol

Would you take cleaning product advice from an impossibly cute Pomeranian puppy? In the new Smol TV advert for Smol’s range of ethical cleaning products, we are introduced to straight-talking Truth Pomb. He wants you to know the truth about cleaning products and why you need to make the small switch to Smol’s cleaning products.

See Our Work

Smol TV advert

This Smol advert isn’t an advert for a magical new cleaning tool that you probably don’t even need. Smol has developed a range of home cleaning products in a condensed form. This process uses less energy in producing packaging. It also means less wasted energy in moving the products.

Smol’s range of cleaning products includes dishwasher tablets, fabric softener, laundry pods and cleaning sprays. Each product comes in reduced form, with the customer adding water to turn the magic tablets in Smol’s cleaning magic.

Smol hired Toast to handle the entire advertising process on this project. That included the casting process to ensure we had the cutest puppy available. We watch as he shows us all the different Smol cleaning products and how there is less plastic, less hassle, less cost without compromising cleaning power.

Once we had our starring puppy, we hired locations and put together the crew needed for filming the advert. With the advert footage “in the can,” we moved on to the editing process. Editing was all about getting just the right reactions from our little dog.

Hopefully, everyone will agree, we’ve managed to craft a compelling cleaning product advert for a brand doing the right thing. We can all be a bit more truthful in our lives, and Truth Pomb is here to help you.

If you’re looking for a TV advert production company or a media quote, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

WORK WITH US

Xiaomi Photography Masterclass

The Brief

Toast was briefed to produce a suite of masterclass content led by the emotive and authentic photographer Hannah Reyes Morales, inspiring and teaching our audience the core principles of photography, featuring the Xiaomi 12T Series.

Xiaomi Photography

Hannah says, “Taking note of what strikes you or what catches your attention is a good starting point for understanding the kinds of stories that you want to tell.”

Hannah focuses on the relationships between people and how those relationships bring a deeper connection to the photographs she takes. “Once I understood that I had something to offer, that the world would open up to me in a very specific way, and that I would get access to things that maybe other people weren’t able to access. I think that’s when I really started feeling that I was a photographer and not just pretending.”

In this masterclasses series, Hannah looks at how perspective, attention and editing all play an important part in storytelling through photography.

The Creative

The video series brings to life the fundamentals of photography from Hannah’s point of view to inspire our audience to explore the different ways they can use their Xiaomi 12T to become better photographers.

Hannah’s approach to her work is a sincere and personal perspective, so we emulated this with our cinematography approach to the series, using a narrow depth of field to achieve a more exclusive and personal connection with Hannah.

The Media

Digital Branded Content (3-part long-form series, plus series teaser).

WORK WITH US