Month: November 2024

In partnership with one of our parent company sites, Motorcycle.com, we worked with the folks at Destination Ontario to develop an entertaining ‘touring’ video featuring the Motorcycle.com (MO.com) editors. This was a break from our typical style of content as the piece would prove a lot more fluid and creative. It essentially turned into a pseudo-documentary / travelogue about the editors’ adventure across Northern Ontario, featuring 3 motorcycles they brought with them to review.

Since we are based in Toronto, we’re well-versed in filming on Ontario’s roads and highways and felt right at home showing them off. Since the editors were flying in from California, there was a lot of fun to be had in introducing them to Canadian iconography and having them interact with the locals. Of course, it also helped that we were filming this in the Fall, where Canada is arguably at its most scenic thanks to the changing colours in the trees.

The deviation from our typical style of video paid off, as it was well-received by the Destination Ontario marketing team and by our MO.com audience. Not to mention, it was an absolute blast to shoot. Hopefully we can follow up this video with more like it for Ontario and perhaps other tourism boards in future.

This Fall, we worked with both the Product Training and Marketing teams at VW Canada to develop high-quality dealer training and marketing assets for the 2025 Jetta and Jetta GLI models. This presented the unique challenge of creating footage that would work for both the more practical product training side and the dynamic, eye-catching marketing side. To do this, we scouted out a uniquely rustic studio location to provide a great backdrop for the static B-Roll, then took the vehicles out on location to some great country roads to capture exciting running footage.

It then came down to the editing. For product training, we focused primarily on the static footage and kept the videos more practical and toned-down to suit the dealer training side. Then, we cut the same footage into far more fast-paced promotional content for YouTube and social media marketing campaigns, delivering full-length, 30sec and 15sec cuts.

Working with a client for the first time always presents new creative challenges as we work to understand the client’s unique style and needs, and this was no different. But we feel that we took those challenges in our stride and rose to the occasion, delivering content that VW are extremely pleased with and hopefully cementing a great new partnership for next year.

Product Training

Marketing

To help Toyota tap into the market of off-road enthusiasts, we partnered with them to produce an epic and informative “How-To” video for the AutoGuide YouTube channel. Using expert overlander and YouTuber Nathan Mueller as our host, and filming in the wilderness of Idaho, we set out to make comprehensive beginner’s guide to one of America’s most popular off-road activities: overlanding.

And Toyota provided us with the perfect vehicle for this project, the 2025 4Runner Trail Hunter edition, a turn-key overlanding vehicle already kitted out with a number of accessory parts and mounting racks for additional supplies to be added on. We started in Nathan’s workshop in Boise, covering the basics of what you need to bring, then headed to the incredibly remote “town” of Atlanta, ID up in the Sawtooth mountains to shoot the rest of our scenes.

It was an epic adventure making the video, and thanks to the expertise of Nathan, we think we crafted an authentic beginner’s guide for people interested in getting into overlanding, all while promoting the new 4Runner as the ideal starter vehicle to do so.

When Toyota approached us to promote the 2025 Crown Signia model on AutoGuide.com, we did some research on the Crown nameplate and discovered a long and storied history going all the way back to the 1950s. The development of the Crown actually had a hand in developing some of the most popular nameplates in the brand’s history, from the Camry to the Corolla. So, we took this history and formed a narrative framework for our video.

To help set the stage, we travelled to Plano, TX and film in the Toyota Experience Center at Toyota HQ, where we could shoot with some of the old models on display. We brought on Toyota spokesman Rutledge Wood – former Top Gear USA host and TV presenter – as our host, and even managed to get a vintage Crown model to drive on Toyota’s test track!

It all culminated in an educational and entertaining content piece that was well-received by our viewers on the AutoGuide.com YouTube channel, while providing great context for the Toyota brand and why the Crown model is so important.