Our LinkedIn Spec Ad
‘We’ve all been a ‘Daisy’ at some point in our lives—feeling the strain of job-hunting fatigue. But Daisy is determined to get back on track. With LinkedIn, no matter where you are in your job-seeking journey, you have access to a comprehensive portal of job opportunities. Download the app today and take the first step towards your new career. #FirstDay’
At the start of 2024, we were itching to flex our creative muscles, so we embarked on the journey of creating our first speculative commercial project.
Let’s Tarantino this and start where we end, by showing the finished product here:
Why Did We Film a Spec Commercial?
We loved creating our first-ever YouTube/BVOD advert back in 2022 with James Villas and wanted to create more in the future. However, we realised our showreel was missing some advertisement material. So, we decided to create a few speculative projects to showcase our creativity and the quality of work we can produce. We adore the creative process of commercials and the infinite possibilities of weaving a narrative that explains your business, service or product. Commercials are a space we want to move into, so this is just the beginning. Keep your eyes peeled for plenty more to come!
Our Brief
For our first speculative advert, we wanted to tell an intimate human story from the perspective of someone out of work, looking for a new, exciting position at their dream company. We love adverts that ooze emotion and have a happy ending. We decided on an advert for LinkedIn, showcasing plenty of ‘people in places’ shots. Since the advert revolves around an app, we also got creative with mobile phones and laptops. The aim was to show how stress-free and simple applying for a role using the LinkedIn App can be during a time of uncertainty and self-doubt, concisely showcasing the journey from start to finish.
Our Deck
When it comes to making a spec, you really want to treat it like a fully paid job. The aim here is to do everything you would normally do for a client, for example, create a deck for the project as you can see here:
Our Process
We started with some creative thinking. Oli and Wes sat down to plan the production clearly and concisely. We aimed to tell an intimate story from one person’s perspective while highlighting the LinkedIn app’s features: sign-up, ease of use, job search, easy apply option, and support for the role. In this case, our talent uses LinkedIn’s job application help videos to decide on the right outfit for the interview, getting her look just right.
We really wanted to highlight the growing confidence of our talent as she uses the application to get a job, making it a personal story that resonates with anyone in a similar position. The application is designed to work around your lifestyle.
Working Within Our Means
There’s always a cost involved with shoots of this size, so we had to be smart about funding. We proved it’s possible to film a full commercial of this scale on a small budget by reigning in the scope but maintaining a high level of quality. It’s doable, as we have just proven.
The Client Process
If this were for a client, the process would be slightly different. Firstly the client approaches us with an idea, and we pitch around three creative concepts. Once an idea is selected, we flesh it out with agreed references for colour, style, and bespoke storyboards. This gives the production team a solid shot-for-shot structure to follow.
Secondly, we refine the scope of the project, which is entirely dependent on the budget. This step is crucial in developing the core idea of the video. In this instance, our core idea was to follow someone’s journey from starting an application to their first day on the job, using LinkedIn every step of the way.
Thirdly, we determine where this advert or suite of ads will be placed. Our intended delivery platforms for this project were Broadcast On Demand, YouTube Pre-Roll, and website use. We emphasise that high-quality content can be delivered to these destinations without breaking the bank, achieving a massive effect on a reasonable budget.
Small Budget Thinking
With a small budget in mind, we wrote the idea to have a minimal cast, locations, crew, and shoot dates. We shot the project over two days in three locations: a house, the lovely Cafe Azul in Poynton, and our external shots at an industrial estate in Media City, Salford Quays.
We adhered to our standard practice of location scouting before the shoot, which helped us eliminate any locations that didn’t work on camera, lacked proper access, or simply weren’t right for the time of day. We have to give a shout-out to one of our favourite scouting apps, Sun Seeker. This app has been invaluable on every shoot we’ve been on!
Once we had the locations in mind, we translated the storyboard into pre-visualisation. Wes and Oli went out, test-shot the ad they envisioned, and created a rough edit. This was immensely helpful for the project’s timing and flow, as some scenes only needed a couple of shots instead of the many initially envisioned. We paid close attention to the video’s flow and came up with some nice transitions to keep viewers engaged throughout.
The crew was then selected from our talented pool of freelancers, and the actors were sourced using Mandy.com. The final step before the shoot involved handling logistics: relaying the locations to the crew, sharing the brief, gathering equipment, and finally sending out the call sheets.
Production
Before we dive into our daily breakdowns, we want to give some shout-outs to the people who significantly enhanced the production value of this project.
First up, our DOP Alex Coleburn and the fantastic team at Mediadog Manchester. Alex brought his skills to the table, and with Mediadog’s help, we secured an Arri 35 rental with some Arri signature primes. We hope you’ll agree that these really made our spec advert pop.
Secondly, a huge thanks to CoffeeKev and the Cafe Azul team in Poynton. We had the idea of filming a scene at a coffee shop, but with our limited budget, we thought it was a pipe dream. That was until we chatted with our mate and favourite YouTube client, Kev Lewis. Kevin pointed us to the amazing Cafe Azul in Poynton, who graciously let us film there. As certified coffee botherers, we can vouch that the coffee is premium and the food is fantastic. If you’re in the area, definitely pay them a visit!
Day 1
We filmed at the house location (thanks to Wes’s Mum and Dad). With four scenes to shoot, we had to keep a tight schedule. As soon as we got the Alexa 35 feed up on the monitor, we knew we were onto something special.
Thanks to the location scout, storyboards, and the pre-vis Wes and Oli created, we had a clear vision of what we wanted. This pre-production work proved to be a massive time saver, giving us the breathing room to experiment with shots and even allowing us to shoot an extra scene, which was nice but didn’t make the final cut (boohoo).
Day 1 flowed without a hitch. Every crew member was in their zone, and the actors were knocking it out of the park. We were even blessed with the sun coming out at the end of the day, flooding the scene with its wonderful orange rays just as the couple embraced after receiving the fantastic news. These kinds of natural and unplanned touches make filmmaking worth all the effort.
Day 2
Production kicked off at Cafe Azul. The staff there were amazing and super accommodating, even making multiple fresh coffees for each take we shot. We can’t thank them enough. The crew was powered by Poynton’s finest flat whites and devilish cookies on a wet and windy day. We truly captured a cinematic look of the cafe; it was the perfect choice for those scenes, ending up looking like something straight out of a movie.
After lunch, we moved to an industrial estate in Salford Quays to shoot the scenes of Maddie in the car and her power walk on the first day. We had originally planned this elsewhere, but the location fell through, so we improvised quickly. Once again, the setting sun came out to help with our hero end shot, making it pop even more. You can see our behind-the-scenes video of the shoot here:
Post Production
Due to paid work taking precedence, this took longer than we expected, hence the February shoot and November release. We profusely apologise to all involved who wanted the footage sooner, but we had to balance this project with running the business!
When we finally got into the edit, it came together much like the pre-vis. Maddie and Alex’s performances were brilliant and really brought the ad to life. If you’re as wild about Maddie and Alex as we are and want to book them for a shoot, click on their profile pics.
Initially, we weren’t feeling the rough cut. We took a break for a couple of days, and trimmed it down further from internal review, but felt it was still lacking something. That’s when we decided to change up the soundtrack and swap out our pre-vis mo-graph for the real thing. Wow, what a difference that made! This was the moment we knew we had it. Wes finalised his audio pass, and Motion by Bec re-tooled some of the graphics to add extra slickness, and it was complete.
The bonus of having a VFX professional on set is that they can also supervise VFX. Luckily, we had Oli to direct these shots, ensuring the angles were spot on for adding graphics/VFX in post.
For the first scene, we loaded up the LinkedIn website on the laptop for lighting and colour reference. This made it much easier to track in post when it came to a VFX pass. We did the same with the laptop in the bedroom and the phone in the car. In the bedroom, we tracked the same content on the laptop but simplified the page to make the content more visible by increasing brightness and clarity. For the phone shot, we kept the video but added a simple faux LinkedIn graphic to the lower half of the phone screen.
All of these additional VFX and motion graphics shots were added to really push the use of the LinkedIn job app. Our shots feature the app designed in a more simplistic way to make it more legible to the audience given its short time on screen. We feel it really works and is as much of a hero figure in the advert as Maddie.
You might be wondering why we didn’t have these assets created ready for the shoot. As this is a spec shoot, we could have done this, but we wanted to showcase our in-house ability with Oli’s VFX artist/supervisor background. So, we thought, why not take this opportunity to enhance the VFX in-house and also save costs in the production budget?
Secondly, this is a very common practice, as the shoot may happen before the assets are finalised. We’ve had instances where companies updated their branding or assets during production, or they may see them in the finished product and want them to pop a little more than they did in real life, or they may want to change the assets after seeing them in the product.
One of the things that sets Brickoven apart from many other video production companies is our extensive experience in VFX creation, supervision, and implementation. With over fifteen years of VFX experience, working on projects for Disney, The BBC, ITV and many more, we have a leg up when it comes to providing additional services for your projects.
Delivery
We always envisioned this advert in a longer format, so we didn’t create any cutdowns. The ideal use for this would be a BVOD or YouTube 5-second skip advert (these are called bumper ads), with the idea that the premise intrigues people enough to relate to the lead and want to see how their journey ends.
It’s always beneficial to create content that can be repurposed in various media formats. For this advert, we ensured we had enough striking stills to provide strong Out Of Home (OOH) options for various placements. These could include bus stops, billboards, transport, shopping centres, and so on. By targeting people on the move, we deliver alternative options to online video.
We mocked one up here:
The campaign we envisaged would be titled ‘Getting You To Your First Day’ and as you can see, would look incredibly placed in a static or digital scenario.
Thoughts and Feelings on the Project
We are thrilled with what we achieved with this speculative ad and believe it showcases our capabilities beautifully. BRICKOVEN love crafting engaging narratives and scroll-stopping adverts for your audiences. From storyboard to finished product, the project came to life in an amazing way. As you can see from the video, it stayed true to the original idea, but great planning and timekeeping allowed us to improvise and capture shots that elevated the advert to the next level.
Would we do anything different?
Nope! That’s not to say we didn’t learn anything along the way—every shoot is a learning opportunity. We’ve honed our skills further and picked up a few workflow hacks that we’ll roll into the next project to continually up our game and make the next one even better.
This production was self-funded and made on a shoestring budget, and we hope it shows that a BVOD commercial or web advert is within reach for any company with a smaller budget.
Real World Cost
This project would cost approximately £15,000 – £20,000 if we were to make it for a company, mainly dependent on talent and locations.
As an SME, you might look at this cost and gasp a little, but consider the ROI from what you get out of one shoot. As we’ve explained, this isn’t just one video—it can be a full campaign’s worth of content if you break it down. From this one video, you could create many shorter pieces for socials, 2-3 different length versions (a great way to A/B/C test content), and also billboard or OOH campaigns. The exposure you get from this one ad could lead to plentiful sales. It’s a fantastic and affordable way to advertise, as these days you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands to achieve this level of quality.
We loved making this and can’t wait to start the next one. We want to thank all the crew who came out to make this happen—we couldn’t have done it without you.
If you want to create a stunning and heartwarming commercial video for your business or brand, contact Brickoven today, and let’s bring your vision to life! Want a quick chat on the phone? Call us on 0161 327 3799.