Kentucky Ale Marketing Campaign
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SWEETER SIDE OF BOURBON COUNTRY
Brand Management, Commercial Production, Photography, Graphic Design, Print
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Alltech reached out to Oculus Studios to develop a campaign for their brand new Kentucky Vanilla Barrel Cream Ale beer release. Oculus jumped at the chance, and quickly set off to develop an entire campaign. Crafting a slogan, conceptualizing tone and message, to professional photography and radio/TV commercials. Additionally, we tackled multiple social media campaigns, print ads and hundreds of variations for a total digital ad blitzkrieg...
First and foremost, we set out to dismiss the idea that vanilla was boring, and instead branded it with a new identity using edgier imagery and vocabulary. Thus was born the 'Delicious' campaign. With extensive photography shoots in both Kentucky and Florida, we covered all of our primary target audiences in both mood and message.
In creating this campaign for Kentucky Ale, Oculus had to craft unique messages for each target audience across seven states. Touching on many different demographics and locations, each campaign had to work across print, video, and digital. The campaign lasted 3 months and reached tens of millions of people across the United States, pushing Kentucky Vanilla Barrel Cream Ale into their number one product by far – within its first quarter on the market.
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We thrive on these types of projects, allowing each division of our in-house team to shine through their respective expertise. Our copywriters furiously scribbled down possible taglines for print and radio, our video production team took off to the brewery for interviews, and our photographer began dressing the product with fake water droplets and mood lighting for the most dramatic shots imaginable. The end result was a local brewery competing creatively on a national scale. We challenge ourselves constantly to put as much effort into each product as this client put into the nuanced flavors in theirs.
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With A Sincere Thank You To Kentucky Ale’s Parent Company, Alltech.
Commonwealth Credit Union
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FINANCIAL 'MARKETING' INVESTMENTS
Brand Management, Website Design, TV, Radio, Print, Asset Creation
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Since 2012, Oculus Studios has been partnering with Commonwealth CU to make powerful marketing content that will help them reach new members, as well as inform their existing member base. Commonwealth CU now stands proud at over 90,000+ members. Since working with Oculus, 'CCU' has grown by over 25% and crossed over into the billion dollar mark in total assets.
Since creating the slogan 'We CU Differently™, Oculus has continued to empower Commonwealth as they seek to better the lives of their communities.
The Lexington Philharmonic Marketing
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STORIES THAT STRIKE A CHORD
Commercial Production
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The Lexington Philharmonic has been a leader in having multiple organizations work together in order to showcase the immense talent found within the group, and the only perpetual orchestra found within the city. They make an incredible effort to reach out into the community to local universities and colleges to ensure that the creation of local, mature art includes live performances. The Lexington Philharmonic depends greatly on contributions, and we were honored to have helped have a hand in telling their story. Their vision is creating a vibrant, living performing arts organization, being innovative in what they do, how they do it, and touching the hearts and lives of as many people as possible through music and relationships.
One of the other ways the Philharmonic reaches out in a tangible way, is sending member to local elementary schools to perform, interact and answer any questions the children might have. They are an innovative, evolving orchestra that strives to create a vibrant, living performing arts organization that will continue to benefit the city of Lexington for years to come.
Lexington Fire Department
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KICKIN' ASH WITH LEXINGTON'S BRAVEST
Video Production
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We're gonna go ahead and state the obvious right up front...we have the utmost respect and gratitude for what our local fire department does to help protect and save the lives of our community. But did you know there are a lot of crucial things the LFD is involved in that most people aren't even aware of? For instance, not only do they put out fires, but they have their own hazardous materials unit, ice rescues, their own dive team...the list goes on and on. So when they reached out to us to help them create a recruitment video we jumped at the opportunity.
We spent a few weeks with the department, getting to know them as people, the rigorous training they go through, and familiarizing ourselves with some of the challenges they overcome as a group. It was genuinely inspiring, and our admiration for them only grew. The message was clear: the Lexington Fire Department is passionate about people from all walks of life who are willing and eager to start training to join their family. We had a blast crafting this video to show just a small slice of all the amazing things the LFD does. They truly are some of the bravest men and women of the Bluegrass.
MedMyne Digital Animation
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MYNE-ING CREATIVITY
Illustration, Animation, Sound Design, Asset Design
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What if there was a world where we could cut lung-cancer deaths in half by preemptively screening those who were pre-dispositioned to it; whether by genetics, lifestyle, or merely environmental factors? With today's healthcare records transitioning from filing cabinets in hospital basements to cloud-based digital databases, one company saw an opportunity to create a machine-learning system to explore the information for previously unrecognized correlations.
MedMyne came to us with an excitement and vigor we just couldn't ignore, and together we set off to create an informative animation that eloquently encapsulates their complex business solutions into a playful and fun video that anyone could easily understand. We began with writing a script and settled on a colorful, soft design language for our protagonist to live in. We had a blast dreaming up such endearing little characters and in the end, the final animation was just what the doctor ordered.
In creating this campaign, Oculus had to craft over 100 unique objects in order to populate the world of each scene. Each one was drawn individually and animated with care to help tell the story. Our goal is to draw your eye to something new you hadn’t noticed before every time you watch it. MedMyne really let us have fun with this project, and as a result, we feel the charm shines through.
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When working with animations, one thing that is of utmost importance is creating a sense of emotion, even if that means through inanimate objects. For instance, in a live-action commercial, the audience can easily relate to the protagonist through his or her body language, facial expression, and eyes. When working with illustrations, it’s always important to exaggerate for clarity. In addition, just like set dressing on a practical shoot adds context and mood, giving those objects their own supportive emotions in animation helps drive the story forward. We end up becoming quite fond of these little characters, even if it is in our own little anthropomorphic way.
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It’s important to us that we create characters we feel most of our target demographic can identify with. In this instance we chose a female who works in a hospital – she’s overworked and stressed about having to input, manage, or search through clinical records. In the video, we can see this is a common thing that is required of her year round, and sometimes requires overtime or burning the midnight oil to complete. In the end, we successfully introduce a problem, identify a fix, and finally show her and the audience exactly how to acquire that fix.
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We live to tell stories that connect us all as individuals, and love to flex those creative muscles in new directions with each project. But it’s ultimately even more empowering and fulfilling to flex those muscles to help expand awareness of an important, and possibly life-saving, breakthrough. We were honored to be a part of this movement, and hope our part helps spread new awareness about these amazing new machine-learning, and ultimately life-saving advances.
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.
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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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.
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.
Kenney Orthopedics
[su_workflank client=”Kenney Orthopedics” disciplines=”Video Production Composed Music” creationdate=”October 2014″]Kenney Orthopedics[/su_workflank]Oculus Studios was asked to create an ad in honor of The Wounded Warrior Project for Kenney Orthopedics to help celebrate and bring awareness to their dedication in helping our vets. It was a tremendous honor and pleasure for Oculus to spearhead this project to show what Kenney Orthopedics does to empower people to lead normal and productive lives after great loss.