Ready for the upcoming Mountaineer football season? United Bank and Pikewood Creative certainly are. As we head into the Big 12, the Mountaineers are ready to go to work.

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This purpose of this commercial is to communicate the overall benefits of using Citynet Cloud Services for business. With the Citynet Cloud, businesses can share, protect, and manage information with greater efficiency.

Our idea was to create something that would stand out and be memorable. We didn’t want to get into too many specifics with this commercial because the scope of services and capabilities involved could be overwhelming to most viewers. So, playing off the idea of “city” in Citynet, we decided to create a virtual/futuristic city to represent this idea of the cloud and local community. And so, a city in the clouds was born. The city itself has a futuristic design while being positioned in a sterile, vast, and open landscape. The landscape represents the cloud environment with its scalable and endless possibilities. The city brings that often nebulous concept of the “the cloud” into a unified community. In this case, the community focus is on the West Virginia service area. Within the city are buildings that represent the four major services/benefits of using the Citynet Cloud. Those services are access to information, information security, business growth, and local support.

Citynet is an IT services and management company that was founded in West Virginia. The company is now one of the leading providers of IT services in the state.

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Pikewood National Golf Club is simply one of a kind. And Golf Digest magazine took notice of this, naming Pikewood National the “Best new private course in America” for 2009. Click here to read Golf Digest’s take on a true masterpiece in the mountains of West Virginia.

This :30 spot ran in high definition on WPXI (Pittsburgh, PA) during The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL., and will also run on WPXI inside of the U.S. Open on June 18-19.

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We produced this commercial to promote Muriale’s Restaurant River Terrace. The River Terrace is used to host large events and specials occasions such as weddings and anniversaries. The terrace is located along the banks of the Monongahela River in Fairmont, West Virginia.

The idea for the spot was inspired by the river itself. It includes flowing lines and butterflies that guide the viewer throughout a peaceful, outdoor experience. The graphics were drawn completely by hand to provide just the right expression and a parchment paper texture gives the spot an “old world” feel.

Muriale’s is an award winning Italian restaurant in Fairmont, West Virginia. Since its founding in 1969 by brothers Frank and Sam Muriale, the Muriale’s name has stood for quality and value. Now in its second generation of family operation, the tradition continues.

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We have produced several corporate commercials for Robinson Auto Group in Wheeling, West Virginia. We helped Robinson Auto through a re-branding campaign when they moved in a new and much larger facility.

Robinson Auto is a well established name in the area and their location had remained the same for many, many years. So, making the move to new a place was a big deal.

We designed a new logo and started to develop the new Robinson Auto brand. The first step was a series of television commercials that covered a variety of topics, including parts and service. The location and appearance of the new dealership are highly emphasized in the TV spots.

To add this emphasis visually, each of the new buildings (Toyota, Ford, and GMC) were modeled in the 3D. Once the models were created it helped set the tone for all the spots and added the flexibility needed to create a commercial series for Robinson Auto.

When the 2010 holiday season rolled around, Robinson Auto decided that they wanted to send a nice message to old and new customers to thank them for the success at the new location… Not a commercial to sell cars, just a message of gratefulness and thanks.

So, we added some holiday splendor and Christmas spirit to the Robinson Auto buildings to help spread the message. The spot was so well received, it was reported that one of the Robinson Auto owners actually shed a tear upon seeing it. That’s what we like!

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United Bank is a long time client of Pikewood Creative, and is the main sponsor of West Virginia University Athletics. United Bank wanted to create a :30 spot that really captured the essence of the anticipation that fans feel in the month leading up to the college football season – specifically the West Virginia University Mountaineer season! Dan Lohmann came up with the concept of shooting really raw, unscripted footage for this spot.

The WVU football team was only holding pre-season conditioning for two hours that morning. In that two hours, the camera crew ran as many drills and finished just as sweaty as the football players! Unique angles, unscripted footage, the unknown elements of what drills would actually be performed, the true pre-season images that are rarely seen (no uniforms, no pads) gave this spot a special feel. To tie it together, the West Virginia University Marching Band gave us permission to use their drum line cadence as the background music for the spot. If you ever pass through Morgantown during football season, you’ll know that people practically stand up and salute when they hear that cadence begin! That rhythm alone screams Mountaineer football! The early AM light, the outdoor drills, the finishing drills on the treadmills to the escalating cadence of the drumline – that captures the essence of the pre-season excitement for Mountaineer fans, and ensured a tie-in in the mind of every Mountaineer fan that United Bank is on board with THEIR team! And it ain’t your average bank commercial!

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Wheeling Hospital has served the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, Eastern Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania longer than any other hospital in West Virginia. It was founded in 1850 by Bishop Richard V. Whelan and Dr. Simon Hullihen and is owned by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

This local television commercial is part of an advertising campaign that started in December of 2010. The commercials are intended to show the passion and high caliber of service offered at Wheeling Hospital. By telling the stories of Wheeling Hospital staff members, the good folks in West Virginia, and surrounding areas, get an idea of what they can expect from their local hospital… A high level of comprehensive care, offered by doctors and nurses that are part of the community.

Each interview and scene in this video production was shot on location at Wheeling Hospital in West Virginia. The message is real, the imagery is beautiful, and that’s why this campaign has been so successful for Wheeling Hospital.

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We reviewed a bunch of Mountaineer footage and ramped up the graphics generator to produce a fresh basketball spot for United Bank. Former WVU players include: Rod “Hot Rod” Hundley, Ron “Fritz” Williams, Mike Gansey, Jerry West, Kevin Pittsnogle, and Joe Alexander.

The spot was later updated to include Da-Sean Butler in his last season as a Mountaineer.

United Bank is a major sponsor of West Virginia University Athletics and this spot was produced to work as part of a series of television commercials covering various sports at WVU.

The post They Are Legends appeared first on Pikewood Creative.

This GMC and Chevrolet dealership television commercial was produced to run on local TV stations in West Virgina as well as sports arenas such as the West Virginia University Coliseum. The commercial is intended to establish a corporate brand for Northside Automotive and focuses on the GM portion of the business.

It was produced with great still photography (by DMAX), animation, and motion graphics. A “template” approach was used so that new prices and products could be included in a timely manner while maintaining the overall feel and integrity of the commercial.

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United Bank is a major sponsor of West Virginia University and for the past several years now, we’ve created a United Bank commercial to generate excitement in regard to WVU basketball.

We’ve created a number of these spots and had some creative struggles with this one in particular. It seamed as if we’d covered just about all the topics one could bring up in regard to the increasingly popular sport at WVU.

We had several brainstorming meetings… Trying to come up with something different, consistent with the United Bank message, and consistent with the previously produced spots. Nothing great was coming to mind. Then, one of our team members pointed out that the shape of the key on the basketball court matched the shape of the U in United Bank.

That revelation stirred the creative pot and ideas abounded. Introducing some popular players from a very successful (Final Four appearance) previous season, such as Da’Sean Butler and Devin Ebanks, we produced a spot complete with 3D graphics and special effects.

The visuals convey the idea that United Bank is mostly certainly united with the Mountaineers.

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Celebrate the Game is the first animated spot we created for Muriale’s Italian Restaurant in Fairmont, WV. Our previous television video productions were focused on Muriale’s owner, Rocco Muriale. For this video project, Rocco wanted something a little different… something that would capture the fun and excitement of being at the Muriale’s bar while enjoying or celebrating Fairmont State University and West Virginia University sports events – before, during, or after the event. The spot was created for the primary purpose of local television advertising.

During our initial meetings, Rocco let us know that he was interested in an animated television spot… Something fun to encourage folks to come and enjoy his bar. So, we went to the drawing board (literally) and finally decided to create a couple of characters rushing to the game on mopeds. The main characters would be accompanied by large crowds, wildlife, fireworks, scenery, and fellow sports fans. The look we established was that of pencil drawings on parchment to help capture the right expression for the television spot. Complimented with a “cut paper” animation style and just the right music, the piece takes the viewer on a imaginary, fun, and frivolous adventure. We hope you enjoy.

We also designed the Muriale’s website. Check it out. Muriale’s is an award winning Italian restaurant in Fairmont, West Virginia.

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Citynet is an IT services and management company that was founded in West Virginia. The company is now one of the leading providers of IT services in the state. In fact, it’s the only major company that provides a high-level of management, service and support. Citynet wanted to convey this message to its West Virginia audience in the form of a commercial… A spot that would run on local television, the Internet, and sports venues.

Our initial thoughts on the project were to capture the founder of the company, Jim Martin, on film an tell the story of how he started the business. We knew the story would resonate with the target audience. That story being something like “Hometown Boy Builds Great Local Company.”

So, we story-boarded the spot in preparation for the big pitch. We learned that Jim Martin has a fondness for extreme sports and included some of those ingredients into the mix. Once we were pleased with the our plan, we talked the idea over with the client.

The idea was well received, however the star of the show developed stage fright and big case of humility. There would be no hometown boy establishes great local company story, no jumping off bridges… no skydiving!

So, we headed back to the drawing board and decided to take a different approach. An approach that would include a bit about Mr. Martin, but would focus more on how Citynet is the only major company still standing in West Virginia. The only company standing after a big “shake up” in the telecommunications and IT industry.

Due to the companies that had gone out of business or left West Virginia, the idea of dominoes falling came about. And so, the dominoes fall and one is left standing… Citynet.

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