BOCA RATON, Fla. (June 25, 2009) – Omni Advertising, one of the area’s largest advertising companies has recently taken on a new challenge, advancing the mission of G-Star School, the nation’s largest film and TV production and acting high school located in West Palm Beach. Recognizing the need to expand the industries that call Palm Beach County home, Omni Advertising welcomed the opportunity to help the G-Star school expand their film program by providing pro-bono advertising and public relations support. Omni strongly supports bringing the film industry into Palm Beach County as it will add tax revenues, jobs and create opportunities for local businesses. Through this comprehensive Omni/G Star partnership, it is estimated millions of dollars will be added to the local economy.

Additionally, Omni plans to be a part of supplement student course offerings and workshops including internships to students on specific creative projects and television and music studio work. This real life application will enrich student’s curriculum andportfolios.

Ken Hudson, CEO of Omni Advertising said, “G-Star School provides a unique product to area students and students nationwide who want to work in the motion picture industry, Omni Advertising is happy to help further the mission of G-Star, with the hopes of making Palm Beach County a motion picture destination.”

For more information of the G-Star School and the filming of It’s a Dog Gone Tale: Destiny’s Stand, visit www.gstarschool.org.

Read the complete press release in pdf format.

View photos from the set at flickr.

View photos from the movie set at pbpulse.

Back to the new creative. Below you’ll find some new spots that we have recently made for our clients. Remember we feature a in house studio and have the capabilities to drive traffic to your dealership, even in these tough times.

Break out the popcorn and enjoy.

Central Florida Honda Dealers

Click here to view the embedded video.

O’Brien Hyundai at the Auto Park

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sheehy Ford

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jim Hudson  Auto Group

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jim Hudson Toyota

Click here to view the embedded video.

Van Cadillac

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can always view all of our posted ads by clicking here.

So how does the Payment Insurance Big 3 stack up?

Chart from Jalopnik.

Now as you can see, Ford offers more payment assistance, larger payments and a bigger maximum payout. But, Hyundai is the manufacturer that truly covers the consumer’s negative equity. But the benefit of covering negative equity is a difficult thing to explain to a consumer.

To be fair to GM, this is only part of their Total Confidence program.

Now let’s look how the manufacturers tried to convey this complicated message in a 30 second ad.

Hyundai Assurance Plus

Click here to view the embedded video.

GM Total Confidence

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ford Advantage Plan

Click here to view the embedded video.

Placed back to back to back the messages look very different. While Hyundai and GM try to relate to the viewer, Ford dives right into their message. Hyundai adopts a plus sign in their ad, GM uses a rally cap and Ford just uses straight figures.

The problem with Ford’s direction is what will the viewer ultimately remember. After a few minutes do you remember the figures from the Ford ad? Do you remember the backwards hat? How about the plus sign?

Hyundai and GM went soft with their sale, Ford took the hard road with theirs. Ultimately time will decide which direction was the best.

First we posted about our meeting with Conan O’Brien. Now, we’re posting a video about Conan’s partner in crime, Andy Richter. Yeah, we admit it, we miss Conan. Can’t wait for June 1st.

Adfreak.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for GM, this story comes out on CNN.

Basically the accountants at GM have serious doubt as to whether GM can survive as a company. These aren’t outside accountants looking in or a talking head specualting, these are the accountants that work directly for GM. In the 480 page document that GM filed with the Securities and Exchange Committee, as part of the bailout agreement, the accountants wrote they have “substantial doubt” about GM’s future.

Sales are down 40% and if that doesn’t change, GM could file for bankruptcy, even with the help of Government money.

Scary just got Scarier. Just reading this makes me want to stay as far away from a GM product as humanly possible. This will not bode well for sales.

So what’s a dealer to do. Put the emphasis on your dealership, not on the manufacturer. Be honest with your customers.

While the manufacturers future is in doubt, you can still count on Dealer Name. We will honor all factory warranties, no matter what happens.

That’s the message that dealers need to put out. Customers are going to worry about their warranties. They’re going to worry about parts and service if GM goes under. So take away their worry by telling them to trust you. Right now, your brand equity can be worth more than GM’s.

We learned about his vision for The Tonight Show,  asked some questions and took some pics.

First, he said the Tonight Show will be a little different from his Late Show. Some characters and sketches will not appear during the 11:30 slot in an effort to appeal to a wider audience. He didn’t elaborate on which sketches will not appear, but one can guess Masturbating Bear and Horny Manatees will not be a staple on Conan’s Tonight Show. Conan did mention the Year 2000 will continue.

I was only able to ask one question and I wisely wasted it on a Simpson’s question: Is John Swartzwelder real? Conan responded, “He’s surreal. A surreal talent and very real.”

As for the picks, you can view them after the jump.

Conan and our fearless leader, Ken Hudson.

Account Executives Tia Larsen and Dawn Marinelli share a moment with Conan.

Conan and Me (which sounds like a great name for a movie or band)

Motion Graphic Editor, Jake Hamby posing with Conan.

Without further ado, because I know you’re just dying to see what we look like, here are some people from around the office. Just click on the thumbnails below.

The new Lexus ES is so smooth… How smooth is it?… It’s so smooth it won’t knock down a giant city of cards when the engine is running. Wow! What a terribly literal joke for a terrific lateral thinking commercial.

You can see how they created the ad here.

From Adfreak.

After posting an over 600 word rambling rant, I’m going to keep this post nice and breezy. The above spot is an ad that is currently running for the South Florida Honda Dealers. The ad plays up both the low down payment and monthly payments currently available on Hondas.

Some food for thought. When advertising low payments, keep in mind that most customers don’t have a lot of money to put down right now. Ads that have low payments but a high down payment will bring in traffic but ultimately make customers angry.

Right now you can’t turn the corner without being smacked in the face with more depressing news about the economy. It seems that a company’s first reaction is to layoff employees to keep the business afloat. However, the first reaction the company really had was indifference.

Let me explain. The economy has been heading downhill for quite some time. It did not become this way overnight. When the economy first started its tumble, comapnies could have altered their business strategy or model. They could have made some changes. But, for the most part, companies stayed with the same plan they’ve had for years.

Look at the newspaper business. The newspaper is quickly fading away, going down the path of Morse code and the pigeon carrier for how news is spread. A few years ago, they could have jumped online and changed their business model. But most papers kept true to their history and shunned the online community. Where they have failed, blogs have thrived.

Now, newspapers are moving online and are posting high readership. For some newspapers though, it may be too late.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and it seems obvious that newspapers should have made the move online a long time ago. But I guarantee there are many things at your business, at your dealership even in your personal life that you wish you would have done.

So why don’t we do it? Well, one reason is the fear of failure. People are crippled by this. No one wants to go out on a limb, take a chance and then fail. But if we never failed, how would we learn? The Japanese consider every failure a gift. They view every failure as a learning experinece. By learning from your failures, from your mistakes, you can better ensure that you won’t fall off that limb again.

Another reason (and there are many more than these two) is sacrifice. Anyone can put up a website, anyone can offer a sale, but it takes sacrifice do it the right way. Most people just go through the motions. They put up the Facebook account, but they don’t update it. They offer the sale in their advertising but don’t explain it to their salespeople. Why? Because they have to sacrifice their time to do it.

In fact, everything takes sacrifice. That’s why diets are a multi-billion dollar industry. People don’t want to sacrifice their time, TV or food to be in shape. They want the do-it-all pill.They want to set it and forget it. They want the gimmick.

Anything that is worth having in life does not come easy. It takes hard work. It takes change. It takes sacrifice. But until you’re ready, you will never move to where you want to be. No one just wakes up and works off their God given talent. Athletes train. Students study. These are all forms of sacrifice.

The ball is now in your court. You can continue to do what you are doing. You can stay on the same path. Or you can make some sacrifices. Start working a little more. Start reading a little more. Start giving up some things you cling to and gain much, much more.

Sorry for the rambling. I didn’t draft out this post. I just wanted to speak from the top of my head. Let me know what you think. And in no way shape or form do I think our current economic crisis could have been avoided if people would have sacrificed. But I do think people and companies would have been better prepared.