Black Lab Productions - Advertising - Food Photography

Who We Are

“It takes a team of talented people to have successive years of improving sales and profits in the restaurant industry. In 2006, we brought on Black Lab Productions to be our Marketing and Advertising partner and to be a part of the NORMS team. Black Lab Productions quality of work, creativity and forward thinking resulted in an increase in NORMS brand awareness, brand perception and reinforced NORMS iconic status in SoCal. They re-positioned the NORMS brand and executed to every consumer touchpoint from menus to in-store to outdoor to print to website to social media. Black Lab Productions also created and produced over fifty TV commercials for NORMS that were high concept, high quality and always on budget. Most importantly, Black Lab Productions treated the NORMS business like it was their own business, which is very rare to find these days.”

~Phil Singerman, President of NORMS Restaurants ~ 2000 – 2015

The Greatest Resource is Resourcefulness.

Resourcefulness that positions brands to transcend product categories and will stand the test of time.
Resourcefulness that only when a brand positioning creates an emotional connection with the consumer, long term loyalty will be achieved.
Resourcefulness that creates ideas that will translate across all consumer touchpoints.
Resourcefulness that creates content that will engage, excite and get the consumer “to do something”.
Resourcefulness that the strength of the idea creates an “internal battle cry” and the staff team members become the strongest brand evangelists.
Resourcefulness that creates monetary efficiencies for our Clients by providing all disciplines and services “under one umbrella.”
Branding, Marketing, Advertising, Qualitative Research, Graphic Design, Package Design, Food Photography, Illustration, Social Media, Media Planning and Buying, TV and Video Production and Product Development.

We have combined the “do’s and don’ts” from our worldwide experience with the “do’s and don’ts” of running our own company for the past 14 years to create a model that is more efficient and more effective for our Clients.

Our compensation model is not the “traditional” model. Whether it is a project, or a monthly retainer, we work on a “flat fee” — no overages. Our Clients know exactly what they are paying, there are no grey areas and there are no surprises.

Black Lab Productions model puts trust back into the Client/Agency relationship so everyone can concentrate on what’s important, the work.

At Black Lab Productions there is only senior talent. There is no bait and switch.

Black Lab Productions is privately owned and operated. Which means our Clients’ business is our business. Yes, we take it personally.

Skills

MARKETING & ADVERTISING

DISCOVER THE ONE SIMPLE TRUTH. Can you build an emotional connection with your consumer while at the same time give them a reason to act? The truth is, yes you can. It’s called brand-tailing. Work that builds both your brand and your sales. And, we do it exceedingly well.

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

AIM HIGH. High-end food photography without the high cost? How? We bring the studio to you. We work directly with your Chef or one of your top cooks and shoot directly out of your kitchen. We cover a wide variety of angles and focal lengths to support the wide variety of photography mediums used today from TV to Print to Social Media — all in the same session.

RESTAURANT MENU ENGINEERING, DESIGN & CREATION

MAKE IT SIMPLE. Hiring multiple people/companies to engineer, design and create a restaurant menu is no longer needed. From pricing to naming menu items, to food photography to design to delivering the final artwork ready for print, Black Lab’s restaurant menu expertise garners profits for Clients as well as elevates brand perceptions. The actual menu is the most important piece of communication for a restaurant. How many times have you gone to a restaurant and said, “This is the most confusing menu I have ever seen?” A menu needs to be simple with a clean design, easy to read and digest and, most importantly, a menu must be appetizing. We understand every step of the menu building and executing process which is no easy task, but done correctly a menu will keep customers coming back time and time again. And, as we all know, it’s all about the repeat customers in the restaurant business.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

SOCIAL MEDIA IS A PART OF OUR DNA. We build emotional and deep relationships between brands and their consumers. How? By creating engaging content that speaks to the audience. People can sniff out a corporation on Social Media and churn out very quickly. We dive in and define the target and speak to them in a way that not only builds brand awareness and affinity, but also engages on a day-to-day basis by providing day-to-day content that is intriguing. Engagement and interaction is the key to success in Social Media for brands. We also don’t clock in and out Monday thru Friday from 9AM to 5PM, we provide Social Media for our clients 24/7 because being Social is, well, 24/7. One of our main goals with Social Media is to build our Clients’ SEO. As more people engage and interact with a brand online, the higher a brand’s SEO appears on searches from sites like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Positive ranking SEO means more business for brands, makes the cash register ring and provides an ROI for our Clients.

DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

IT’S A VISUAL WORLD. We live and breathe in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. We use each tool separately or all together to deliver the most effective piece of visual communication. From offline to online we have the tools, the skills and the vision to effectively communicate across all consumer touchpoints.

TV & VIDEO PRODUCTION

TAKE ACTION. Many of our Clients thought it wasn’t affordable to create and produce a TV spot or campaign and still have enough money left over to place media. We are happy to say, this is not the case. Black Lab’s in-house production capabilities make it feasible for Clients to have a presence on TV. We are experienced in creating high concept commercials, new media content and anything else where a camera is used to tell a story. No project is too small or too large. Some of our best work has been done on a shoestring budget. We challenge ourselves daily to produce the highest quality work at a price less than imaginable. TV or Video Production is an action sport and we are on your team every step of the way. From pre-production to production to post-production (locations, casting, wardrobe, shooting, rough cuts, editing, color correction, graphics, music, sound design, mixing, online, etc.), we are there to do whatever it takes to get the production done on time and on budget and delivered at the highest quality.

MEDIA BUYING AND PLANNING

EVER EVOLVING. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound? The most effective creative sometimes never gets seen or heard by the target audience. There is no cookie cutter media plan — those days are long gone due to the plethora of media options and the rate at which new options become available. Our integrated media solutions map to the customer’s journey and we go to the customer and connect to them in their day to day life through media, technology and social habits. Every potential customer is unique in their media habits whether it is Broadcast, Print, Digital or Social. We leverage our Clients’ investments every day. The good news? Clients can now afford to plan and buy media, reach their target audience and build brands and sales for the long term.

CAUSE MARKETING

CAUSE-AND-EFFECT. We believe for every action, there is a reaction — so why not cause a good action? Adding value to our client’s business is our business. Adding value to a person’s life through giving back is our mission. We consider ourselves fortunate to have been given the opportunity to work in Marketing, Advertising, Branding, TV Production & Product Development, where ideation is our currency. That’s a pretty cool way to make a living. We express our thanks and gratitude for our good fortune by using our skills and capabilities to help meaningful causes. Black Lab Productions treats non-profits the same as for-profits — we give it everything we’ve got.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

CREATING PRODUCTS TO SELL PRODUCTS. Realizing the need in the marketplace and making dreams come true (to invent, create, manufacture and distribute our own products), Black Lab Products was born in 2008. Building sales for some of the world’s largest companies (Heinz, Huntz, French’s, Colgate, Crest … just to name a few) by transforming every day products into every day entertainment. Black Lab Products works in collaboration with Clients/Companies to invent, create, manufacture and deliver promotional products that motivate the target audience to take action and build sales. Creating fun and excitement around a brand through promotional items is key to building sales even through tough economic times. Black Lab Products. We make function fun.