When someone watches a good commercial, they usually don’t think about everything that went into making it. They see the finished product: the characters, the visuals, the music, the jokes, the message, and hopefully, the name of the company sticks with them after the video ends. What they don’t see is all of the work that happens before the first frame of finished animation ever exists.
At Luck Dragon Media, we approach a commercial as more than just a video production. We’re trying to solve a communication problem. You have a business, a product, or a service that you need people to understand and remember, and our job is to figure out the most interesting way to get that message across.
Our recent animated commercial for Roadrunner Lock & Safe is a good example of how that process works. A locksmith and security company might not seem like an obvious candidate for an animated, character-driven commercial, but that’s exactly what made the project interesting. Rather than making another straightforward commercial explaining what a locksmith does (we all know at this point), we had an opportunity to create something with its own personality and visual identity.
The result was “Puma Protection.”
It Starts With an Idea
Before we worry about animation, editing, or sound, we have to figure out what the commercial is actually going to be about. That’s often the hardest part of the entire process.
Most businesses have plenty to say about themselves. They’ve got a list of services, years of experience, customer testimonials, products, qualifications, awards, locations, and a dozen other things they would like potential customers to know. The problem is that a 60-second commercial doesn’t have room for all of it.
More importantly, people aren’t necessarily interested in watching a commercial that’s simply a list of facts – they’re interested in a story. That’s where our job begins. We look at what makes a business different and start looking for the idea that can carry the entire commercial. Sometimes that idea is funny, sometimes it’s dramatic, sometimes it’s built around a character or a visual gag… Sometimes the best approach is much simpler.
For Roadrunner Lock & Safe, we wanted to create something that communicated protection and security while giving the audience a reason to keep watching. The Puma character gave us a way to turn an otherwise straightforward message into a little story: a reason for the viewer to care.
Why Animation?
Animation gives us a lot of freedom that traditional video production doesn’t always provide.
If you’re filming a conventional commercial, you’re working with the physical world. You need locations, actors, props, costumes, lighting, equipment, and everything else that comes with a live-action shoot. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does put some limits on what you can create.
With animation, we can build the world around the idea.
We can create a character specifically for your company. We can exaggerate a situation, create a visual that would be difficult or expensive to film, move from one environment to another instantly, or turn an abstract concept into something the audience can actually see.
That’s particularly useful for businesses that don’t necessarily have an inherently visual product. A security company doesn’t have to spend thirty seconds showing someone lock and unlock a door. We can turn the idea of security itself into a character, a situation, or a visual story.
And that’s really what we’re trying to accomplish with animation. We aren’t using it simply because it looks cool. We’re using it because it gives us another way to communicate.
From Concept to Storyboard
Once we have the basic concept, we start figuring out how the commercial is actually going to work.
This is where storyboarding becomes important. A storyboard is essentially the blueprint for the finished video. We can work out the shots, character positions, camera movements, transitions, visual jokes, and timing before we start building the final animation.
It also gives us an opportunity to ask some uncomfortable but necessary questions. Does the story make sense? Is the message clear? Does the commercial get interesting quickly enough? Are we spending too much time on something that doesn’t matter? Is the brand actually part of the story, or have we simply attached a logo at the end?
Those questions are much easier to answer when we’re looking at a rough storyboard than they are after we’ve spent days producing finished animation.
A good commercial needs to work before it looks good.
Once the underlying story is solid, we can start making it look good.
Designing the World
From there, we begin developing the visual style. Characters, environments, colors, props, typography, transitions, and all of the other visual elements have to work together.
This is another area where we try to avoid making something that feels generic. Your commercial should look like it belongs to your company. It shouldn’t feel like a template that could have been made for five other businesses.
For a project like Roadrunner, that means developing a visual world that supports the personality of the company while still giving us room to have some fun. The Puma character isn’t just decoration. The character becomes part of the way the company communicates its promise of protection.
That’s the goal with any branded animation: create something entertaining enough to hold someone’s attention while making the brand itself part of the experience.
Animation Is More Than Moving Pictures
Once the artwork and story are established, we can start animating.
This is where all of the planning begins to pay off. Characters need to move naturally. Expressions need to happen at the right time. Camera movements need to guide the viewer’s attention. Visual elements need to appear when they’re relevant instead of simply filling the screen.
Timing is particularly important in advertising. A joke that happens half a second too early or too late can completely change how it lands. A logo that appears too quickly might be missed. A scene that lasts too long can cause the viewer to lose interest.
That’s why animation is much closer to directing than simply moving objects around on a computer.
We’re thinking about what the audience should notice, when they should notice it, and how they should feel about what they’re seeing.
Then We Add Sound
A finished animation can look great and still feel strangely empty without good sound.
Music, voiceover, sound effects, and the timing between them all contribute to how the commercial feels. A simple movement can become much more impactful with the right sound effect. Music can establish the tone of an entire scene before the audience even understands what’s happening.
Sound also gives us another opportunity to reinforce the brand and the message.
By the time we’re in the final stages of production, we’re bringing together all of these individual pieces—story, design, animation, voice, music, and sound effects—into one coherent advertisement.
That’s when the project finally starts to feel like the idea we had at the beginning.
The Commercial Still Has a Job to Do
It’s easy for a production company to get caught up in the creative side of a project. We like making interesting things, after all.
But at the end of the day, a commercial is advertising. It has a job.
People need to understand who you’re talking about, what the company does, why it matters to them, and what they should do next. If we create a beautiful video that nobody remembers or that doesn’t communicate the client’s message, we haven’t done our job.
That’s why we think about the marketing side of production from the beginning.
The video has to work creatively, but it also needs to have a purpose. Where is it going to be shown? Is it going on television, YouTube, social media, a website, or all of the above? Who is the audience? What action do we want them to take after watching it?
Those questions can influence how we write, shoot, animate, edit, and ultimately deliver the commercial.
Your Next Commercial Doesn’t Have to Look Like Everyone Else’s
One of the things we like about projects such as Puma Protection is that they demonstrate what’s possible when you don’t start with the assumption that every business needs the same kind of commercial.
You don’t have to put a business owner in front of a camera and have them explain what the company does. You don’t have to show a series of products while a voiceover reads a list of features. You don’t have to make the same commercial your competitor made last year.
Maybe your business needs animation. Maybe it needs live action. Maybe it needs a combination of the two. Maybe the idea calls for something funny, strange, dramatic, cinematic, or completely unexpected.
We’ll figure that out with you.
That’s why our process starts with the business and the message rather than a predetermined production format. Once we understand what you’re trying to accomplish, we can decide what kind of video will give you the best chance of getting there.
Let’s Make Your Next Video Ad
The best place to start isn’t necessarily with a finished script or a detailed production plan. Start by telling us what you’re trying to accomplish.
Maybe you have a new product that needs attention. Maybe your current advertising isn’t getting the response you want. Maybe your company has grown and your old marketing no longer represents who you are. Or maybe you simply have an idea you’ve been kicking around and need someone to figure out how to turn it into a real commercial.
That’s where we come in.
At Luck Dragon Media, we can help take an idea from the initial concept through writing, design, production, animation, editing, sound, and ultimately getting the finished advertisement in front of the people you want to reach. We can help you determine what the commercial should look like, where it should run, and how to make the most of the finished video once it’s done.
The Roadrunner Lock & Safe commercial started with a business that needed to communicate an important idea: security and protection. Instead of simply telling people that Roadrunner could protect them, we found a way to turn that idea into a memorable character and story.
Your business has its own version of that story.
Maybe it’s hiding in the thing you do better than everyone else. Maybe it’s in the problem you solve for your customers. Maybe it’s in the personality of your company or the reason you started it in the first place. Sometimes it just takes an outside perspective to recognize the idea that’s been sitting there all along.
That’s what we’re here for.
So if you’re thinking about your next commercial, don’t worry about having everything figured out before you call us. You don’t need a finished script. You don’t need a storyboard. You don’t even necessarily need to know whether you want animation or live action.
Bring us the business. Bring us the problem. Bring us the idea. We’ll help you turn it into something people want to watch.
Give us a call at (520) 869-9659 and let’s make your next video ad.
