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Once again, limitations of time, budget, and market conditions yielded a beautiful strategic opportunity. Blending authentic personal footage with unscripted testimonials we delivered a commercial and online companion 5-minute video just in time to run during the playoffs prior to Valentine’s Day. The spot was fresh and powerful on it’s own merits, but when juxtaposed against the competition’s bigger budget commercial campaign, they really exceeded the conditions under which they were produced by being more memorable and unique!

This is the first spot in what will be a campaign of commercials that employ real people and their home video in combination with testimonials that describe their reasons for making such a discretionary purchase as diamonds and fine jewelry to mark an important occasion in their life.

In this spot, entitled “Robert and Emily’s Maharaja Moment” Robert and Emily explain how a young couple getting engaged, and with limited financial resources, chose to buy their engagement rings from Bay County’s Premiere Jeweler.

This is the online video that tells the whole story in greater detail than the :30 commercial.

This is the first spot in what will be a campaign of commercials that promote featured designers.

Using our creativity and design abilities, we have been able to compete with less creative production companies while still using Standard Definition Cameras purchased back in 1997. But let’s face it, great source is crucial and you can only dance around that fact for so long, we are proud to be able to march, not dance, into the new year with the awesome Canon 7D slr (HD) for our awesome clients!

This is the first spot shot on our new Canon 7D SLR. Shot at 1080p, 24fps and transcoded using the Avid DNxHD Codec at 29.97fps, audio synced with Dual Eyes Singular Software and edited in After Effects and exported as H.264 mp4 at a data rate of 5000 bps, square pixels.
The uncompressed .mov from After Effects was unbelievable! The Uploaded mpeg is slightly reduced for smaller upload and playback, but still blows me away. I have been using equipment purchased in 1997 for SD and I am stoked to be finally producing work in full HD with this new technology!

While shooting the spot above, Patient and Pitcher for the Atlanta Braves Organization, Jaye Chapman, was providing encouragement during a physical therapy treatment. Then he showed Dr Wade Rinehart how it’s done, by submitting his own testimonial to promote the kind of care he receives as an endorsement to others, to experience the care and professionalism that the 1st Choice Physical Therapy Staff and Administrators provide to their patients.

In addition to the commercials, Dr Wade Rinehart includes the full interview online. Specializing in video for online delivery as well as broadcast, it is exciting to start delivering video in HD over the internet too!

This an awesome Japanese Restaurant with fashion-forward food presentation and employees that look as good as the food tastes!

This spot is inspired by the edgy presentation of the sushi, and a cool Japanese TV Show called the Vermillion Pleasure Dome!




The look and feel of the site will have a retro Auto Garage feel, which is upscale and relates to well to performance enthusiasts, classic car collectors, and has a warm and friendly consumer feel for the general public: Male, Female, Young, Old, etc.

Branding and Image

The Home Page will feature Post Links to each Service Department illustrated with it’s own graphic and accompanied by a brief description of each.

Logo

In keeping with the general theme, I refreshed the facility name with a new (retro-style) look that could be used for a re-introduction of the look of the online look in signage, business cards, forms, etc. If continuity of branding were desired.

Sample Advertising

Capitalizing on the relationship the facility has with Law Enforcement, Advertising in print, outdoor, and even TV, should allude to this as a general qualifier of competence and excellence.

Sample TV Spots

Capitalizing on the relationship the facility has with Law Enforcement, TV, could allude to this as a general qualifier of competence and excellence.

Also more general service based videos could be used for broadcast and online.

When Doctor’s Express called with an emergency of their own, Little Pictures was willing to stay open late to accommodate their limited time frame and limited budget. As with most corporate franchises, they had the option to use provided materials to advertise their Grand Opening that were produced in different market by an agency that new little about the local demographic they wished to appeal to. Furthermore, approval to produce anything locally came within days of their Soft Opening to the public and weeks of their Grand Opening with full staff and overhead to match.

We came up with a quick, memorable tv commercial that met their deadline and matched their budget, and complemented with the franchise materials that they would be handing out to patients, running in the newspaper, and outdoor as well.

OK, so maybe the image is a little gross, but it got everyone’s attention, which is what they needed, and fast! Plus, it was a pretty big ad, in color, and value-added by the Little Pictures design team to help them out at the last minute!

Hit hard by the economic downturn? Imagine if you woke up and the price of your product was cut from 10,000.00 to “Whatever The Client Can Afford” for a spot. That’s what happened to me, (well, it actually happened over the course of several years) and instead of finding another line of work, I kept doing what I love, making tv commercials. And they turn out pretty good! With creative After Effects techniques,

Pros- I get a message out that looks good, cuts through the clutter, and takes a day to make, with coffee and travel time factored in. All I need are some stills, a voice-over (usually the client’s voice), some music and “Whala!” Just another example of creative overcoming obstacles,

and I made a few bucks! I guess it beats being on unemployment, or working in the hospitality industry.
Cons- Once you start doing cheap commercials, it is very hard to get client’s to pay what you are worth ever again. And furthermore, is it fair to client’s who do pay what you are worth? I have decided it isn’t. In fact, it makes more sense to provide quality services for free, in the end, to Public Service Institutions than retail client’s. At least they appreciate the work and promote you to Commercial Client’s who can afford your services.

In 1997 I had a unique opportunity to handle the advertising creative development for an entire hospital. There situation was at present best described as poor, possibly bleak. Although they were the only “for profit” healthcare institution in the market, and they enjoyed the patronage of the most affluent demographic, they were being beat by the local public hospital in every awareness indicator they could analyze.

Featured here are some of the first spots we created for the Women’s and Children’s Center. A Center of Excellence for the institution. Focusing on Women’s Reproductive and ongoing Health Services throughout a Women’s life!

I had just entered the market and was looking for client’s with whom I could establish relationships, and I had been a creative director and an art director at some of the larger advertising agencies in Tamp, Florida, where I had amongst other categories, worked on healthcare accounts.

Shown here are two of the large budget “Branding” spots we shot on 16mm film to run concurrently with the service specific ads. These unified the overall branding throughout the year with the separate centers of excellence that we would run strategically when the services were most in need of support.

 

Furthermore, I had previously done some print collateral for Gulf Coast Medical Center when it was known as Gulf Coast Hospital in the late ’80’s so I had an awareness of their “Brand” and the issues they faced in the marketplace as well as an instinct for their potential for dominance in the Bay County Market and their reach into surrounding markets.
The result was a plan to create two branding commercials and several service-specific commercials with matching print, outdoor, in-house posters, and brochures under a consistent strategic umbrella, or mission statement that would unify all their consumer and in-house communication. Within a year, they had climbed through a competitive position to a place of market dominance in Bay County and surrounding areas of service delivery.

More service specific spots that promoted separate services to appropriate demographically targeted consumers.

These included Diagnostics, Rehab, Wound care, Emergency, Express Care just to name a few…

We stayed comfortably in that position until termination due to corporate restructuring. For me, it was an end to an era where I enjoyed an unprecedented amount of control over the branding of a large institution, and a small circle of trust within the organization I worked with. In short, it was a micro advertisers dream-come-true, come to an end.
Since the regionalization of their marketing by HCA corporate advertising managers, Gulf Coast Medical Center slid back into their former position, while, in response to the competitive environment we created, the competition has increased their budget and increased their awareness and enjoys, in the absence of any challenge, market dominance once again.
This happened quickly, and has remained throughout the decade. The lesson, is simple, progress needs to be maintained! Once a favorable position is won through (hard fought) progress and effort, “resting on one’s laurels” is is a formula for failure, and typical of short-cited budget driven marketing that exploits honest effort and ultimately results in a waste of resources, not savings.
I will remain forever proud of the work we produced, it’s longevity (it is still being syndicated to this day) and the validation of advertising science and strategic creative branding.

Additional Spots created to augment the total branding of the facility. Range of services, community involvement, etc. All filled in the corners to establish “top-of-mind awareness of the institution as the area’s preferred supplier of health care services.

 
 
 
The animated commercial at the bottom was meant to be the first spot designed to establish a new look for the institution and a precursor to the next year’s visual image.

Unfortunately, times were changing, and we were never able to fully realize the new look, or it’s ultimate potential.

-fini-