What is a National Ad Campaign?

Here are a couple questions I got asked, enjoy.


Question 1: What is the difference between a national spot and a local spot?
Answer:  That’s a hard question to answer.  When you produce a television spot or commercial there are so many elements that go into it normally.  It just seems like with a national spot you have to really care about the details.   There are clearance things you don’t normally think about, as well as compliance and due-diligence issues you don’t really see at the local / regional level.  Creatively speaking, it’s nice to have the ability to shoot in a proper studio, to have a decent crew, to not skimp on the items you normally have to which makes the entire production go much smoother.  Plus your able to deliver a quality product the client is happy with.

Question 2 Why do people choose to do a video based commercial vs audio or print?
Answer:  The majority of our country can both see and hear, statistically speaking people who both see something visually and hear it aurally are going to do what they are told to do.  If you just use one of the senses like, radio (hear), or print (see), you don’t have the reinforcement of both.  Plus the emotions you can convey with moving pictures can motivate the audience in ways print and radio have a very hard time doing today.

Question 3 What style of camera did you use and why?
Answer:  We used the Sony F:3 camera with a Cooke 50-200 lens.  We choose the F3 for two reasons.  1) We wanted a camera that could put out a broadcast look without paying the cost to rent a Alexia or Red or other expensive digital camera.  2) We wanted a camera that would shoot film lenses and have a shallow depth of field.  The F3 has a super 35 sensor which allow us to achieve both.

Question 4 What did you use for post production and why?
Answer:  We used Adobe Premiere 5.5 plus After Effects 5.5.  For our post process.  The reason why is that we have learned over the years that the programs are all similar in function but the driver/editor is truly the key in creating a product that is polished and professional.  If the editor doesn’t know how to think like an editor they are just a button pusher.

Question 5 What does the final pieces look like?
Answer:  Well, click on the links below and you can see.  I think we created exactly what the client was looking for.  They wanted a direct response piece that would drive people to purchase the products they are selling.  I think they have a high quality product, (we are using them ourselves) and support what they stand for.  Take a look and shoot me a note on your thoughts.