Allsports Marketing
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STEPPING UP OUR GAME
Brand Management, Video Production, Photography, Graphic Design
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For over 45 years Allsports has been a staple of the Lexington, Kentucky sporting goods landscape, and in 2017 they partnered with Oculus Studios to bring their heavily-traditional branding into the modern, digital era. We set out to elevate their creative to closely match the quality of their product lines. We started off with completely new vision for their in-store signage. Utilizing custom photography along with bold, powerful fonts, the message is clear: Allsports is a pillar of Lexington Athletic Apparel just as much as UK sports itself.
It's been a whirlwind of work so far and there is much more to be done to ensure another 45 years of strong branding, but the bold new look and feel are just baby steps to a larger more unified cultural vision. From broadcast TV & radio commercials, in-store signage and window clings, giant Rupp Arena LED boards, YouTube pre-roll ads, Google Retargeting, Facebook and Instagram, we are pushing Allsports into the digital age while not leaving behind traditional avenues of customer acquisition.
Much of the first year Oculus began representing Allsports was spent re-envisioning the store itself. With a massive renovation and expansion, our team set out to utilize the existing walls and windows as areas we could utilize to promote seasonal apparel changes, upcoming sales, and general brand awareness. One particular area of success was found in large window clings, which allowed customers to be made aware of specials from the sidewalk or even their vehicle out front. Window clings are a great use of existing space, giving potential customers a way to see beyond the cling and into the store itself, while simultaneously still allowing natural light in.
One of the biggest and busiest times of the year are the Holidays, and with that, Oculus was tasked with creating an ad that would work across all mediums. With text-heavy animations, kinetic, bold text and holidays-themed music, this simple 15 second ad worked perfectly to bring Allsports to the forefront of athletic apparel stores across all mediums. Produced in only 72 hours, the commercial required expertise across the entire team, but came together flawlessly.
Asbury University Advertising
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Asbury
Illustration, Animation, Sound Design
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Asbury University is a curious combination of small town school with big university standards. Students are nationally recognized, participate in the production of NBC's Olympic broadcast, and their equestrian program is training police mounts for departments across the country. For years, Asbury has been utilizing Oculus Studios to help take 125+ years of history and translate it to a young, modern audience.
On top of the idea of reaching potential students, the University also called us up and asked us to help them raise $62 million...no pressure. With $50 million+ already raised, they are well on their way to hitting their goal early which will allow for some pretty cool new buildings on campus, as well as provide scholarships for a lot of new students.
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Asbury Ignited - Scholarships
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Asbury Ignited - CLC
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Asbury Ignited - Stuce
No space ship? No problem.
It’s not every day a University is willing to allow you to market to students by shooting an action, sci-fi adventure piece, but that’s exactly what we did for Asbury’s new Media Communications MFA program. To showcase the production knowledge students would gain and the skills they would take into making big budget movies, Oculus created an intro that certainly wouldn’t get skipped on YouTube. In creating the futuristic world in the opening, we had to combine video that was shot on set on Asbury’s massive green screen with high end computer graphics. The gun was simply an off-the-shelf NERF gun that we aged with various paint techniques, and the protagonist’s outfit was a combination of paintball, motocross and Halloween outfits.
While we love fighting robots as much as the next company, there is a time and a place to dig deeper. While the sci-fi short gave us a way to grab people’s attention, especially in an online medium, we also needed a place to showcase everything people might want to know. So Asbury, once again, tapped us to create an informative ad to let potential students really dive into the experience they would have at Asbury.
Ethereal Brewing Brand Management
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DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOP
Print, Design, Brand Management, Social Media Management
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As the old adage says, 'Beer is proof that God loves us,' and we live by those words. Seriously, at times we wish we could just replace our water intake with it...but that's probably not healthy. So, when the boys at Ethereal Brewing moved in down the street, we couldn't help but find ourselves meandering to their doorsteps to find out more about the magic behind the beer. We were enthralled and captivated by their passion for the craft, and set out to help them define the brand.
Working with their love for hand-drawn art, we let the inspiration drive us into full-blown design binges for all of their beers, coasters, apparel, and more. Just like crafting beer is a hands-on process, we drove to ensure that we had a hands-on approach in design, always drawing each item on paper first before transferring it to pixels, and ultimately to print.
We jumped into the deep end by tackling one of the biggest client concerns first: with 3 businesses all within a stone’s throw away, they wanted to stand out above the rest to potential customers. We put together a design that wrapped the old building in black with bold, unique, hand drawn fonts spelling out their tagline of, “Blurring The Line Between Science And Magic.” This allows them stand out as unique from half a mile away when entering the Distillery District.
“Each beer has its own personality, so name and label it accordingly.” That was the goal with each and every beer label. We started with a clean slate each and every time, allowing new ideas to not be hindered by existing label structures. The approach resulted in a completely unique label for each type of equally unique beer, and one is different even within their own family.
Why stop at label design when it comes to your brewery of choice? C’mon, nothing says “I love this place!” like being able to clothe yourself in something truly Ethereal. Our designs all start by hand, and are reviewed and edited as needed every step of the way. Sketches and inspiration fuse with beer education, a splash of magic, and a touch of alchemy to create a design worth wearing around town.
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Nothing says, “You like us, you really like us!” quite as well as Facebook ‘likes’ do. It’s right there in the name. Over the course of our social media management with Ethereal, they’ve steadily grown, which often proves difficult in a saturated market such as craft beer & breweries.
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One of the most interesting aspects of being a brewer is experimentation. At Ethereal, we saw a great opportunity to capitalize on their journey to discover new beers, but branding and selling it, rather than discarding it like most brewery’s end up doing. What was born was a day coined “Craft Wednesday.” Each Wednesday all the crazy ideas that those alcoholic alchemists come up with are sold at discount while taking into account their customer’s feedback.
We imported and printed custom labels on special beaker glasses that were sold that single night which came with a discount on the experimental beer of the week. It was a massive success with hundreds of glasses being sold, and giving an opportunity for their customers to give feedback, ultimately contributing to what is offered permanently on their taps.
Justice Dental Branding & Marketing
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BRUSHING UP ON THE BASICS
Brand Management, Commercial Production, Graphic Design, Print
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How do you create a brand to live up to one of the top 25 female dentists in the world? We set off to find out, and ultimately settled upon going against the grain of industry peers and paving our own way, just as Dr. Laura Justice did for herself.
With a massive renovation just being completed, new locations planned, and a partner retiring, Dr. Justice approached Oculus to help formulate a completely new look. We wanted to help push the brand into a high-end, quality feel, very much in the vein of a luxury clothing or handbag company. The staff were ecstatic and jumped right into researching clothing and accessory brands for inspiration, and there might have been a little shopping involved as well...but we won't tell if you don't.
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Leaning into a strong name, we set off into what we call “intrinsic ideation,” where we internally incubate countless concepts and variations on what we feel the new logo should be, and what it should say about the client. The result was a logo that encapsulates the strong name, as well as the opulent feel of Dr. Justice’s work and the spa-like environment they provide to their patients…in combination with a bold color that plays against the cool blue trends of most dentists.
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Jumping off from a locked identity, we continued into what we lovingly call a ‘Brand Bible,’ which consists of establishing photo styles, fonts, colors and lockups that can be disseminated to their staff and all their partners. This process is critical for all businesses, and we take great care to ensure a client’s brand is represented well in every scenario. Brand consistency is all that potential customers have to go off of when evaluating decisions for themselves and their families. Being top-of-mind means consistency in brand placement, and consistency in design language.
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One of the things we really enjoy doing are seasonal appropriate ads. A fun one for example is this carved pumpkin we created for Halloween in which we designed a logo jack-o-lantern of sorts. Ensuring a brand is fresh while piggy-backing on cultural or current-events keeps a company relevant in the minds of consumers, and shows a tenacious and created attitude, ultimately humanizing the company into a relatable entity.
Kellogg – Life In The Soil
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GETTING OUR HANDS DIRTY
Illustration, Animation, Sound Design, Asset Design
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'Make learning about dirt interesting.' That's what our friends over at Anaheim Studios tasked us to do for one of their clients, Kellogg Garden Products. We set off to get down to the nitty-gritty and do the impossible...while hopefully having a little fun along the way. What was supposed to be a 90-second animation blossomed into a full-blown 3 minute animation and resulted in a very useful way to convey a complex idea in a simple, fun project; ultimately winning us multiple Emmy awards in both audio design and graphic arts.
We created a familiar yet friendly design language while also conveying the idea everything in nature has a structure, and organic, non-genetically modified soil is the best approach. To do this, we structured the trees in nature to be built with hinges, gently unfolding as they grow.
Why is it that trees in the forest grow so quickly, completely unhindered with no outside assistance, while our own gardens seem to struggle when given personal attention? This question rang true to us, and was a jumping-off point in the animation that springboards the following scenes into a visual roller coaster we’d like to think Ms. Frizzle would be proud of.
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There was an enormous amount of time spent ensuring that each leaf, vegetable, and branch animate on in a pleasing manner, gently swaying in the wind with ease. The final render required 8 computers working simultaneously in order to compute the amount of on-screen objects in a couple of the scenes. Similarly, the final audio mix resulted in hundreds of tracks of sound effects, all contributing to a sense of fun that hopefully just feels right to the viewer.’
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Ultimately the project was a massive success, with Home Depot approving the request to show it inside their stores next to the product itself. We really enjoyed the challenge of making a dirt product as interesting and educational as possible. And while honored to be recognized by the Television Academy, we are even more thrilled to help our client and their customers live better lives all the while helping the environment through organic, sustainable resources.
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Marketing #likeaboss
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#Hey Karen
Branding, Video, Print, & Social Media
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During the cold winter of 2013, Oculus came together as a company to create the year long marketing campaign for Commonwealth CU with the underlying theme “We CU Differently.” We branded Commonwealth with this slogan because they truly see their members differently and run their business different than most other company we’ve come across. They are true to the core idea that members come first and no one is more of a champion of this attitude than Karen Harbin. If you have the opportunity to meet Karen, we highly recommend it. Beaming with positivity and confidence, she is continually leading her team at Commonwealth CU to new heights.
Doing marketing and advertising for credit unions is a learning experience. It’s not “just a bank with a funny name” as we said in one of our commercials. These differences are sometimes only explained with really long paragraphs that have to be approved by compliance through six rounds of revisions. So each time we try to figure out the core of a new program or service, we end up asking a really basic question and getting a really basic answer in return. At a round table discussion in the office, the statement was made “I wish we could just ask questions like this as a commercial. It would make life so easy.” Eureka!
We realized that nothing would be more valuable to people than to be able to ask their questions directly and simply. And who better to answer them than the president of the credit union? Thus, #heykaren was born. We pitched the #heykaren marketing campaign to Commonwealth CU and, to their credit, they immediately saw the allure. The only thing left was to see if people would have questions… cue the floodgates. Questions started pouring in through the website, Twitter, Facebook, phone calls, people walking into branches, the list goes on and on. We had hit a nerve that we think everyone can identify with: Why can’t we just get answers? Suddenly Karen was on 48’ billboards, radio, tv commercials, and social media like never before.
#heykaren has been a runaway advertising success for Commonwealth CU. It instantly struck a chord with members, the public, news outlets and more. In the first two months of the marketing campaign, Commonwealth CU was invited to speak at four different conferences to talk through the promotion. The Herald Leader wrote a piece about it as well. It’s amazing how the simplest idea can speak so loudly to people.
Of course the press is nice, but we’ve heard story after story of members contacting them in honest need and getting exactly the help they needed. Our favorite story was about a woman coming into a branch in tears saying, “Karen is my last option. If she can’t help me I’ll have to file for bankruptcy.” The wonderful conclusion of that was that they were able to help her and THAT is what they wanted. It wasn’t just to increase revenue or get new members, it was to show members that they “C” them differently… as people in need.
The longtime slogan for Oculus Studios has been “Your Business. Out Loud.” Which means there is nothing more rewarding as advertisers and marketing teams than to help a company send their purest message out to the masses. The wonderful thing about this campaign is that it’s true. If you don’t think they’re different, if you don’t think Karen will respond, hit her up. Texts, emails, tweets, or phone calls have gone out to everyone who’s shouted #heykaren.
Life In The Soil
[su_workflank creationdate=”March 2015″ disciplines=”Custom Illustration Motion Graphics Sound Design” client=”Kellogg Garden Products”]Kellogg Garden Products[/su_workflank]Oculus Studios was contacted by our good friends over at Anaheim to illustrate and animate a massive 3 minute animation for Kellogg Garden Products. This project was a beast to undertake and Oculus tackled everything from custom illustrations, hand animation and a custom sound effects mix for final delivery.
Marketing Possibilities
We all have those people in our lives who shape the decisions we make. Your loved ones make the sweat and toil it takes to achieve your dreams worth it. It occurred to us one day that sometimes, no matter how hard you try, certain dreams can’t be achieved without a little help. That’s when it struck us, They Make It Worth it, We Make It Possible.
The campaign was born out of the simple idea that a home loan, a credit card, a line of credit, are all ways that financial institutions allow us to make our dreams a reality. We crafted a campaign for Commonwealth CU that would showcase that reality and it was amazing how emotional “dream making” can be.
Asbury University Masters Program
[su_workflank client=”Asbury University” disciplines=”Video Production Motion Graphics Sound Design” creationdate=”May 2014″]Oculus Studios was hired by Asbury University to create a showcase commercial to jumpstart the school’s brand new grad program.[/su_workflank]Oculus Studios was hired by Asbury University to create a showpiece commercial that encompasses the various class emphases themselves within the production itself. The approach of a student starring, editing and showcasing her own project was a fun way to accomplish this. The production was carefully planned ahead of time in order to execute the complex transitions that create a seamless feel throughout the piece.
The entire first scene was done against a green screen with lots of motion tracking and compositing taking place. Shot at 5k RAW at 120 frames per second gave us lots of latitude in post to finesse the image just the way we wanted, giving the feel of freezing time. The gun was simply an off-the-shelf NERF that we aged with various paint techniques, and the protagonist’s outfit was a combination of paintball, motocross and Halloween outfits.
