When we began working with the marketing agency for CarWash USA, and were delivered the concept and storyboard for this project, we knew this could be taken in a large amount of directions. The traditional way of doing a production like this can get very expensive very quickly. And it makes a lot of sense to spend that kind of money on a marketing video, so long as you can be confident in the marketing and turnover. There were, however, two challenges we faced.
First of all, our research turned up empty! As far as we could tell, no carwash had ever run television ads of this type ever before. Second of all, the marketing agency we were working with had never run video ads for broadcast television before. With those two things in mind, we realized that the organization would be better off to spend a lower-budget on this project and, after they have some metrics and experience, slowly ease into higher-budget productions. So we began our planning to cut costs to the bare minimum.
The first cost-intensive projects were the rain, and the need for cloudy weather. Traditionally, you would mimic clouds by shooting in a large studio. Such studios charge by the hour or by the day and can get expensive, and waiting for a cloudy day doesn’t work well when you might need to schedule a whole cast and crew with no notice. The rain was also a huge challenge to fit within the budget. The nearest professional rain machine was in Salt Lake City, Utah and cost a pretty penny to have someone drive it all the way to Boise to shoot with and then drive all the way back to Utah.
Our solution came in the form of hiring one of our favorite, and one of Boise’s best, Directors of Photography, Jake Rapp. We had decided to shoot at night because then it can feel like a storm without having to fork out the cost of a studio. Our team worked alongside Jake to light these night scenes so that they were able to look professional and high quality, while being able to escape some of the high costs discussed previously. Additionally, Jake had access to a smaller rain machine that he had built himself. The combination of his skill with lighting, and his access to the rain machine, made him a clear choice as our DP and made us able to produce this commercial at a price that was appropriate and helpful for the organization while still accomplishing the images they had requested with their storyboard.
We also had encouraged the marketing organization to allow us to make two versions of the video. This way the organization could run A/B testing when they aired it to watch which ones got the most engagement, as well as providing a second video to air to viewers who weren’t convinced by a single video. After getting into the edit, we realized we had material to make a third version, and in order to give our client the best marketing package possible, we gave them the third at no extra cost.
Today, the video ad is airing all over the west coast where CarWash USA has locations on platforms such as Hulu, Peacock, and Facebook.
Love Your Car
When we began working with the marketing agency for CarWash USA, and were delivered the concept and storyboard for this project, we knew this could be taken in a large amount of directions. The traditional way of doing a production like this can get very expensive very quickly. And it makes a lot of sense to spend that kind of money on a marketing video, so long as you can be confident in the marketing and turnover. There were, however, two challenges we faced.
First of all, our research turned up empty! As far as we could tell, no carwash had ever run television ads of this type ever before. Second of all, the marketing agency we were working with had never run video ads for broadcast television before. With those two things in mind, we realized that the organization would be better off to spend a lower-budget on this project and, after they have some metrics and experience, slowly ease into higher-budget productions. So we began our planning to cut costs to the bare minimum.
The first cost-intensive projects were the rain, and the need for cloudy weather. Traditionally, you would mimic clouds by shooting in a large studio. Such studios charge by the hour or by the day and can get expensive, and waiting for a cloudy day doesn’t work well when you might need to schedule a whole cast and crew with no notice. The rain was also a huge challenge to fit within the budget. The nearest professional rain machine was in Salt Lake City, Utah and cost a pretty penny to have someone drive it all the way to Boise to shoot with and then drive all the way back to Utah.
Our solution came in the form of hiring one of our favorite, and one of Boise’s best, Directors of Photography, Jake Rapp. We had decided to shoot at night because then it can feel like a storm without having to fork out the cost of a studio. Our team worked alongside Jake to light these night scenes so that they were able to look professional and high quality, while being able to escape some of the high costs discussed previously. Additionally, Jake had access to a smaller rain machine that he had built himself. The combination of his skill with lighting, and his access to the rain machine, made him a clear choice as our DP and made us able to produce this commercial at a price that was appropriate and helpful for the organization while still accomplishing the images they had requested with their storyboard.
We also had encouraged the marketing organization to allow us to make two versions of the video. This way the organization could run A/B testing when they aired it to watch which ones got the most engagement, as well as providing a second video to air to viewers who weren’t convinced by a single video. After getting into the edit, we realized we had material to make a third version, and in order to give our client the best marketing package possible, we gave them the third at no extra cost.
Today, the video ad is airing all over the west coast where CarWash USA has locations on platforms such as Hulu, Peacock, and Facebook.