How To Get Champagne Results With a Beer Budget

You don't need a Hollywood budget to make a blockbuster ad.

Many years ago I was working with my now business partner, Brandon, in one of his other businesses, Data Doctors, a computer repair and data recovery business with a national footprint in the United States.

The challenge they were having — and quite honestly all businesses have — is building their brand, their market share, and of course, increasing their customer base.

At the time, they started expanding their service offerings from computer repair and data recovery to smartphone repair. Let's face it: smartphones are computers and if any you own one, you know those things are as slippery as snot.

So, we decided to create an ad. But I thought, rather than creating a boring 30 second ad, why not get a little more creative? Think out of the box and do something that not only advertises the service, but does so in a creative, fun, and memorable way…

Parody For The Win

Gym Class Heroes had a hit song featuring Adam Levine around that time. You could not escape this memorable song — it was everywhere. I thought it would be great to parody that song and shoot a video that went along with it. The two partners were on board. But… there wasn't really a budget for this type of production. So, I, along with a group of young and hungry interns, took our DSLR cameras and some smartphones to the streets, and over the course of two days, filmed this advertisement.

Again, there was no budget for this. And the fact is: you don't need a Hollywood budget to build something of this quality. You just need imagination, time, and the willingness to put in the work. That's all it takes.

A few days later, the video was done. And the ad was ready for the world.

I want you to watch Smartphone Kind of Man not because it's witty or funny, but because I want you to see the possibilities of what you can do for your business. In fact, I don’t want you to see it because I was pretty chunky at the time and hated being on camera, but no one else could have pulled it off the way I could, so I did it.

Hope this ad shows you what’s possible.