CASE STUDIES
Leaf, Altima & Rogue
Production Company: DuckPunk Productions, Inc.
Agency: Admerasia, Inc .
Client: Nissan
Recognition: Bronze Trophy (Telly Awards)
We were brought on by Admerasia in New York to produce a 3-car campaign for Nissan, under the same concept, featuring Asian American community heroes and influencers. The challenge was not only did we have to shoot a 30-second TV commercial and two 60-second online spots for each of the cars, we also had to shoot all the still photography as well.
On any given shoot days, we had four units going on at the same time. Unit 1 and 2 for principal photography, unit 3 for running footage of the car, and unit 4 for all the stills. It was quite a production and it took a lot of detailed planning and logistics to get there.
Another challenge we had was to figure out what the stories would be with these six influencers in three different spots. We had to create a scenario for each of them, doing their daily activities in the car and with their car. Each story had to show contrast, in terms of the color of the car, daytime vs nighttime activities, car traveling parallel in split screen, and car traveling in opposite direction in split screen.
One of the highlights of the shoot was we shot at the Willow Springs Racetrack, the place where they shot the Fast and the Furious movie. Although it was exciting for both the client and crew to shoot there, it was a very hot day with temperature close to 100 degree. We had to prepare wet towels for everyone to counter the heat.
California Department of Health
Anti-smoking Campaign
Production Company: DuckPunk Productions, Inc.
Agency: A Partnership, Inc.
Client: California Department of Health
Recognition: Silver Trophy (Addy Awards)
We were hired by the advertising agency, A Partnership from New York, to produce 4 spots in 6 different languages, namely English, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese.
There were two major challenges on this job. The first one was casting child actors who understood asthma and knew how to use the inhaler; the second was shooting a multilingual campaign with a tight budget.
After the job was awarded, we started casting early on and auditioned over 100 children over a three-week period, before finding our actors. Bringing out authentic performances from shy child actors was difficult but well worth the effort.
After the casting was underway, we needed to find a house that could double as two locations for two different spots to save money. After a long search in different neighborhoods around LA, we found a house that could work in Cheviot Hills.
The strategy behind this campaign was to reach English, Hispanic and Asian consumers, with a powerful and emotional message. We had three agendas for the campaign, one – to show harmful chemical additives do exist in cigarettes; two — that secondhand smoking can harm their children; and three — that smokers could call and speak to an in-language counselor about their addiction.
The success of the campaign was evaluated based on a key criterion: cost-per-call. Based on tracking by the State, call volume to the 1-800 helpline increased 70% during airings.
The campaign won Silver Trophy at The Addy Awards (The American Advertising Federation.)
Li Ning
Real People Stories
Agency: Leo Burnett
Client: Li-Ning
Recognition: Bronze Trophy @The Addy Awards
We were asked to produce a spot for Leo Burnett and their client from China in Los Angles with their celebrity spokesperson, Shaquille O’Neal.
Although unknown to most consumers in the Sates, Li-Ning is a sports brand considered to be equivalent to Nike in China, if not more prominent. The company was founded by one of the Chinese Olympians by the name of Li Ning. Now the company has expanded internationally and opened their first US store in Portland last year.
When we first found out that we were doing a spot with Shaq, we were excited but at the same time a little concerned. We were excited of course, for the most obvious reason, a chance to work with the one of the top and most famous athletes of all time, but we were also concerned that he might have a lot of demands that were hard to meet based on our budget constrains.
During our pre-production meeting, both Shaq’s manager and agent showed up. They had a few requests in terms of food, parking, and schedule, but the thing that concerned them most was keeping the shooting location a secret, in order to avoid people showing up asking for autographs and delaying the shoot.
On our shooting day, our location was the Dodger Stadium. I remember after I parked my car, as I was walking over to the stadium, there were students scattering around outside as if they were waiting for something or someone. After I entered the stadium, one student came up to me through a hallway and asked if I knew Shaq was shooting there that day. Reluctantly, I had to lie and said I heard nothing about that.
During the shoot, Shaq was polite and professional. He even sat with us during lunch, laughing and having a good time. When we were done, he stayed behind to sign autographs. We had him autograph our prop, a basketball he used during the shoot.
The next day, we found out it was the campus police that kept all the students away from entering the stadium. But we never found out who leaked the information about him shooting there, maybe it was the paparazzi!
The campaign was aired in Asia and it was very well received. It won Bronze Trophy at The Addy Awards organized by the American Advertising Federation.
Wells Fargo
Small Business Owner Campaign
Production Company: DuckPunk Productions, Inc.
Agency: Dae Advertising
Client: Wells Fargo
Recognition: Bronze Trophy @ The Telly Awards
We were hired by Dae Advertising from San Francisco, to produce a 2-spot campaign for Wells Fargo. The campaign was to help build awareness of their Small Business Solution products among their Asian clientèle.
The challenge for this job was to find talents who could speak both Cantonese and Mandarin fluently on camera, in order to save talent costs and shooting time.
We were required by the agency to shoot the campaign in San Francisco. Who knew in a city full of Asians, there weren’t a lot of professional actors to choose from. We held six audition sessions between San Francisco and Los Angeles and ended up hiring a mix of professional and unprofessional actors.
Six months after the campaign hit the air, Wells Fargo announced that they had a 110% growth in business. At a bank survey, many customers remembered both the TV and radio commercials; even children could recite the catch phrases from the spots.
Walmart
Real People Stories
Production Company: DuckPunk Productions, Inc.
Agency: IW Group, Inc.
Client: Walmart
We were hired by IW Group to produce five spots in four different languages, namely Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Korean, for their Walmart.
Two months before pre-production, we started interviewing real shoppers at different store locations throughout southern California. The idea behind this campaign was to showcase real people and their Walmart stories.
After interviewing more than 150 candidates, we narrowed down the stories to about twenty. We then invited the shoppers back and tried to get their families involved, including grandparents and children.
In the end, we picked the five most compelling stories, one for each spot. We filmed the entire campaign in seven days throughout southern California, on location and at various Walmart stores.
The challenge here was filming while the stores were open. There were all kinds of logistics we had to figure out ahead of time, such as which aisle we had to use for which story, and how to to shoot without interfering with real shoppers. On top of that, aisles were narrow and made lighting and shooting quite difficult.
In the end, our hard work paid off when the campaign was well received in the Asian community. Many shoppers felt like Walmart appreciated their business, on a personal level.
Why not have your story told in a way that your audience can’t wait to give you their money?
NAICS CODES
512110 - Video Production
512120 - Post Production
541922 - Commercial Photography
541810 - Marketing Agency
541613 - Marketing Consulting
541430 - Graphic Design
CAGE CODE
5EHH0
DUNS NUMBER
830055062
CERTIFICATIONS
MBE
DBE
WBE