New TV show on CNBC features both the car and production biz

It’s safe to say that Propulsion Media Labs is inundated with hundreds of projects each month that are courtesy of the retail automotive business:  If we’re not churning out a bunch of radio spots, we’re most definitely editing factory footage or filming a local dealer principal on our green screen.  In the midst of all of that hustle and bustle, it’s not often we have the opportunity to see either the car or the production biz as part of pop-culture (other than seeing/hearing our some of our finished work during commercial breaks of our favorite programming). That’s no longer the case thanks to a new TV show. . .

The Profit (airing Monday nights on CNBC) follows entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis as he takes over struggling businesses for a week to help get them back on their feet. It just so happens that the debut episode not only features a New York used-car operation (Car Cash), but also contains a segment in which the Car Cash Marketing Manager was given the task to record a radio spot!  See for yourself here:

 

Kudos to Doug at Ultra Sound Rehearsal Studios for being part of the action. . .Can’t beat the free pub on a national cable network.  We’ll have to track down Marcus so he calls PML next time!

Account Manager Lisa Jobs Joins the Propulsion Staff

Contact: Corey Dissin                                              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: 610-640-4040

Email: coreydissin@promedialabs.com

PROPULSION WELCOMES NEW ACCOUNT MANAGER

Account Manager Lisa Jobs Joins the Propulsion Staff

Malvern, PA – July 22, 2013 – Propulsion Media Labs is proud to announce that Lisa Jobs is joining their team as an Account Manager. Lisa brings over 20 years of professional media sales experience to the company as an Account Executive at Fox29 Philadelphia, KYW Newsradio and 100.3FM.  Most recently, she has been an adjunct professor at West Chester University’s Communications Studies Department teaching a variety of courses.  In 2005, she authored and self-published the successful cookbook Sensational Stevia Desserts. 

“I’ve known Lisa for many years, and I’m very excited to have her on the Propulsion team.  The sales experience she brings to the table is going to be a great addition to our company.” said Chris Craft, Owner and President of Propulsion.

Lisa is looking forward to getting started and very excited to be back in the media business again, but with a new twist--on the production side.  She earned a Master’s of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts (Communications) from Temple University and resides in the Main Line with her husband and two sons. 

Propulsion Media Labs is a Malvern, PA based audio and video production facility, working for a national roster of clients over the last 20 years. They provide commercial post-production, camera-crew services, and voice talent casting.

ATTENTION INTERESTED STUDENTS: Register to attend our two upcoming Intern Expo and Open House events! See the attached.

Then and Now: Spot Delivery

THEN:

Overnight delivery to stations using Beta SP tapes or via expensive 3rd party digital services that required specific equipment and added costs. 

NOW:

Similar to audio, we create high-resolution MOV or AVI files and upload them via Internet delivery.

Then and Now: Script Delivery

THEN:

Scripts were either sent to us via overnight delivery or faxed. 

NOW:

Digital files are delivered to us via email. 

Kmart “Ship My Pants” Ad: Childish Humor Brings Grown-Up Results

Some have called it childish, immature, and even vulgar.  The rest of the online world calls it over 11 million views on YouTube and one of the more successful and hilarious viral video campaigns to occur in this generation.  Kmart’s most recent ad, “Ship My Pants” is focused around a play on words where “ship” sounds like a much more inappropriate word.  It’s a quick paced ad about Kmart’s online free shipping with some childish sleight of mouth that is guaranteed to make any 12 year old boy crack up.

                

But the thing is that this ad didn't just hit the funny bone of middle school students.  It has lit up the social media world, taking off from its reveal on April 10^th to spiral into a massive viral campaign.  It has been shared over 18,000 times on Facebook and has received over 53,000 “likes” on the YouTube video (as compared to the 2,000+ “dislikes”).  Articles on the controversial ad have appeared CNN, ABC, and USA Today among many other well-read sites.  Immature humor or not, the fact is this ad got people laughing and, more importantly, got people talking.

                

Kmart took a big risk by doing such an out-of-character ad.  No matter how funny or clever, an ad that breaches the accepted image of a company can have a serious negative impact.  A 30 second dirty word joke is quite a step out of the family friendly style that Kmart has been known for, and they have certainly lost some fans from it.  However, the good greatly outweighs the bad here.  The risk certainly paid off, showing two things: that sometimes taking that leap towards edgy and controversial can be exactly the right move, and that one should never underestimate the simplicity and strength of a bathroom humor joke.

Then and Now: Video Production

THEN:

Propulsion’s first TV spots were produced using a clunky Avid digital work station.  Avid systems tended to be slow as they required constant rendering.

NOW:

Propulsion uses Final Cut Pro and After Effects.  These programs have tons of features and a simpler to use format which gets spots done much quicker. It also can process a video at considerably faster speeds and allows us to use more transitions.

Automotive Web Page Tutorial

Here's the last part of our webpage tutorial series! Corey guides you through the new promedialabs.com one last time, this time through the Automotive Database:

Then and Now: Audio Editing and Mixing

THEN:

Up until the mid 90’s, radio commercials were produced using an analog multi-track.  A typical 60 second radio spot with more than one music track and multiple SFX/Vocal effects might take several hours to finish.

NOW:

Producers use Pro Tools.  Radio spots are created digitally, much like a word processor.  This cuts the average production time to minutes instead of hours.

Video Web Page Tutorial

Corey's going to walk you through the Video Database in this week’s promedialabs.com tutorial

Then and Now: Audio Dubs

THEN:

Copies of finished radio commercials were dubbed from reel to reel.  The most we could accomplish were three at a time.  This was very time and labor intensive, especially for national spots that would require 100 copies or more.  We would then have to prepare overnight delivery shipments to get the finished spots to the client/stations.

NOW:

With just a couple mouse clicks, we can email an MP3 of the spot, or upload to our FTP site.

Audio Web Page Tutorial

Here's another tour of the new promedialabs.com, this time taking a look at the Audio web page

Then and Now: Audio File Delivery

A quick glimpse into the past and present of how we get work done at Propulsion

THEN:

ISDN

The voice talent would dial into our Telos Zephyr unit.  These calls were expensive and sessions could only be done one at a time in real time.  

NOW:

Audio is sent to us via MP3, WAV or AIFF on the web thanks to low cost high speed internet.

Talent Web Page Tutorial

Propulsion’s Vice President and General Manager Corey Dissin is your virtual tour guide through the Voice Talent web page on the new promedialabs.com 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldw2I6a8nzM

 

See how Coca-Cola's commercials have grown up over the years...

1950's

1960's

1970's

1980's

1990's

2000's

2012 Campaign

Video Editor and Shooter Michael Edwards Returns to the Propulsion Staff

Contact: Corey Dissin                                               FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: 610-640-4040

Email: coreydissin@promedialabs.com

PROPULSION MEDIA LABS ADDS VETERAN VIDEO EDITOR

Video Editor and Shooter Michael Edwards Returns to the Propulsion Staff

Malvern, PA – March 5, 2013 – Propulsion Media Labs announces a new, but familiar, member to its production team: video editor Michael Edwards.  Edwards brings with him over 10 years of experience in the video production field.  A graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Edwards helped establish Propulsion’s video production department in 2003, and worked as Senior Video Editor with them until leaving in 2008 to hone his editing skills elsewhere.

Now back after 5 years, Michael is excited to be back in the Propulsion fold.  “I feel like I never left.  We’re busier, that’s for sure, but the atmosphere, the people… it’s all the same.  I’m really excited to be back.”

The addition of Edwards now gives Propulsion its 4th video editor to go along with its 3 audio producers. It also gives Propulsion another shooter, both on location and in-studio.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to have Mike back,” says Chris Craft, President and owner of Propulsion.  “He was such a key member of the team while he was here before, and will be even more so now.  His eye for production, his talent, his speed, and most importantly, his personality and sense of humor is an asset that adds to the company chemistry.”

The hiring of Edwards is the second recent addition to the Propulsion team, along with the acquisition of new production equipment and a brand new, redesigned website.

Propulsion Media Labs is a Malvern, PA based audio and video production facility, working for a national roster of clients over the last 20 years. They provide commercial post-production, camera-crew services, and voice talent casting.

Propulsion reveals PED use on web

Contact: Corey Dissin                                                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: 610-640-4040

Email: coreydissin@promedialabs.com

PROPULSION MEDIA LABS LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE FOR 2013

Newly designed comprehensive website with targeted samples and searchable database of over 1,000 audio and video samples

Malvern, PA – February 4, 2013 – Propulsion Media Labs announces a total redesign and restructuring of its website which is now live on the internet.  The first major website overhaul since 2007, the new Promedialabs.com features over 1,000 audio and video samples sorted by industry and style in a user-friendly, searchable database.  TV and radio commercial samples are broken down by industry categories such as restaurants, furniture stores and sports events, and by style categories like upscale, funny, clever and hard-sell.
 
Known as a broadcast production leader in the retail automotive advertising world, Propulsion devotes a special section on the upgraded website to that portion of its client base with a huge library of spot samples sorted by every automobile manufacturer and spot style.  
 
“We constantly get requests from clients and prospects looking for recent work we’ve done.  They want to see specific samples of spots we did for places like lawyers, banks, fitness centers, etc.,” said Chris Craft, President and Owner of Propulsion Media Labs.  “Our goal was to simplify the process for folks, and give them access to a huge amount of content right at the tip of their fingers online.”
 
Additionally, the revamped website introduces 6 new voice talent signed to what Propulsion brands as “The Top 100 Most-Qualified Non-union Voice talent in the Country.”  As with the commercial samples, the talent audio snippets are categorized for easy reference.
 
Propulsion Media Labs is a Malvern, PA based audio and video production facility, working for a national roster of clients over the last 20 years. They provide commercial post-production, camera-crew services, and voice talent casting.