How It’s Made: An Ad for The Investec SA Open

There I am, at the Boxing Day party, having a good time, and a family friend asks - “so, how do you actually make the ads you guys do?” Before I know it, I’m like Ted Stryker in Airplane, telling them a needlessly long story while they contemplate various methods of self-immolation so that they don’t need to hear me go on anymore. But this isn’t Boxing Day; this is LinkedIn! So buckle up; this is how we make ads -?

It all starts with a brief. How and why the brief comes in is a story for another article and, depending on who you ask, more important than the brief itself. But in any case, you’ll have a guy like Shawn Jaards from S-Factor come up to you and say, ‘It’s Investec SA Open time!’ S-Factor briefs us in for the ads they need on The Sunshine Tour. So here’s the translation of this statement: it’s time to make an ad that’s as epic as the biggest event on the calendar.?

Brainstorm next. The Investec SA Open is the second longest-running open tournament in the world. Second only to The Open. Legends have been made by this event, want proof? Take a look at this trophy. Does any name there look familiar to you?

Our idea was to make this trophy as desirable as possible, showing just how much it means to win this event. If it means that much to people, I should watch it, right? So we had our plan: a powerful ad along with supporting social content about the players interacting with the trophy. Cool, but now for the hard part.

Treatment approval. In my opinion, this is the most important part of the entire creative process. This is about getting things out of your head and onto the page in a way your client understands. It’s our responsibility to create a picture at this early stage that is as close to the final product as possible. We’re not looking at the final thing here. But the understanding is crucial. When these meetings go well, 9 times out of 10, you’ll have a happy project. And, of course, an early visual goes a long way in getting an idea across.

So you have approval; it's time to plan. At Stratia , we’ve become proficient at planning. We have templated call sheets, checklists, and a systematic approach to planning productions. Some say OCD, I say producer. Then shooting. Here’s where you have fun. That pre-shoot anxiety gives way when you see the talented crew swing into gear and you start scratching blocks off your schedule, and before you know it, you’ve got drives loaded with fantastic footage,and? you’re feeling proud. Then you realize your work has just started.

Post. Welcome to the end of the line. This is where any little shortcuts you took earlier flare up into giant issues; post is where the meat is separated from the potatoes. You’ve got one job: deliver above and beyond the vision that you sold. We are true experts at post. We understand what it takes to tell an amazing story, from edit to grade to mix - delivered with a bow.?

So I’m back at Boxing Day, and I turn around and realize I’ve been talking to myself for the last five minutes. That family friend left the party and bought a one-way ticket to Palau. But here’s the thing: a lot of agencies throw around the term ‘end-to-end’ production. But when you actually get into what that means, it gets super complicated, super fast. So, if you want actual end-to-end production - you know where to go.