
Sandwich Video: The company that makes nearly all startup videos - coldtea
http://sandwichvideo.com
======
nodesocket
Smart marketing by Adam to star in most every video they make. Instantly when
I see him, I know its a sandwich video. Basically they have built in branding
into their product.

However, I have to admit, if I was forking out the big cash for a sandwich
video for my startup ([https://commando.io](https://commando.io)), I'd insist
to not star Adam, because it is somewhat distracting from the message of my
startup. He is basically everywhere, and it sort of gives me a strange (but
negative) sensation of devaluation of the startup. Am I the only one who feels
this way?

~~~
pmorici
"I'd insist to not star Adam, because it is somewhat distracting from the
message of my startup. He is basically everywhere, and it sort of gives me a
strange (but negative) sensation of devaluation of the startup. Am I the only
one who feels this way?"

That seems like a very inside baseball concern. I really doubt your typical
consumer has any memory of the actors in a typical consumer web product video.
I mean, going through this list, I've seen a lot of these videos over the
years and didn't realize they were all made by the same people until it was
pointed out here. I'd also venture to guess that he appears in a lot of them
to cut the costs of the video. More people involved in making a video means
higher costs.

~~~
nodesocket
> "I'd also venture to guess that he appears in a lot of them to cut the costs
> of the video."

I'm nearly 100% positive is it intentional that Adam stars in most of the
videos, and it not due to cutting costs. It is calculated marketing and
probably a requirement by Sandwich. Their clients: Ebay, Groupon, AirBnb,
Square, Coin, Warby Parker, Jawbone, and Lyft can afford to pay for an actor
or actress.

~~~
mschaecher
FWIW the Airbnb video stars a very talented Airbnb employee, Venetia
Pristavec, who ran video efforts there since the early days.

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lonelysandwich
I'm not sure what I did to luck into my company being on HN today (thanks,
coldtea), but if anyone has any questions about Sandwich, I'm here for you.

~~~
rdl
Ballpark pricing and schedules. I don't need a video right now, but knowing
budgetary figures lets me know when a video is even a viable option for
something.

~~~
itafroma
> Ballpark pricing and schedules.

They explain both on their How It Works page: [http://sandwichvideo.com/how-
it-works/](http://sandwichvideo.com/how-it-works/)

~~~
chacham15
They give $, $$, and $$$, but that doenst help me know whether or not I can
afford them at all. Do they consider 500$ one dollar or 5000$?

~~~
lonelysandwich
Those rough categories adjust as the market for good video adjusts. Currently,
$ is about $50K, $$ is $75-150K. $$$ is anywhere above that—we've done
broadcast work in the high six-figures range.

That said, when a project with a small startup without much capital is
interesting enough (read: first of its kind, first to market, best in class),
there are other arrangements to be made. We figure out some sort of equity
and/or revenue share with more than half of our clients, where it makes sense
to forego some of our markup and other fees in exchange for opportunity to
participate in the future success of a product.

~~~
rdl
Ah! Those are absolutely reasonable, and now I can see why everyone uses you.

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sauere
Good work but it can't compete with the best video ad ever made:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI)

~~~
slhomme
By the way, we also made a "behind the scene" interview about this video:
[http://startup-videos.com/blog/behind-the-scenes-of-the-
doll...](http://startup-videos.com/blog/behind-the-scenes-of-the-dollor-shave-
club-video-interview/)

------
slhomme
Adam and Sandwich video are pretty much the reference in the "startup videos"
industry, specially for "live action" videos. They have such a distinctive
style and premium quality standard attached to each of their videos. Even
though they have a very specific style, they always try to stay innovative and
craft original concepts, which is very inspiring. We made a "behind the scene"
interview with Adam a little while back when Sandwich really started to get
popular [http://startup-videos.com/blog/startup-videos-interview-
sand...](http://startup-videos.com/blog/startup-videos-interview-sandwich-
video/) definitely worth a read if you want to learn more about his process.

That being said, there's a lot of other very innovating and smart videos made
by other studios/startups, and if you're curious about them, a good place to
check out is [http://startup-videos.com](http://startup-videos.com)
(disclaimer: I'm one of the cofounder of the site).

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tmcz26
We used Video Brewery
([http://www.videobrewery.com](http://www.videobrewery.com)) to find an
independent animator for our startup
([https://www.konduto.com](https://www.konduto.com)). We found an excellent
animator and contracted the voice-overs from Voices.com. The result was great
and much cheaper than the companies we quoted.

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yoavush
We love Sandwich video. We at Veed.me
([http://www.veed.me](http://www.veed.me)) help startups with low budgets as
well - get an affordable and awesome videos. For a budget between 3k-10k we
had great companies like Waze, Jawbone, Check, WeChat and many SMB's getting
their great video.

Also - it's free to list a project.

Sandwich video are f __ __ __* awesome, but not every startup can get a video
there.

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_neil
I think my favorite is the Aeropress "ritual" video.
[http://vimeo.com/40980282](http://vimeo.com/40980282)

~~~
Spearchucker
Interesting. I find that one over-produced. Especially the middle part where
the camera keeps changing from a vote of the spout to a vote of the guy's
shirt. And while it's superficial as he'll of me to say, he doesn't have the
most attractive fingers, which puts me off a bit.

~~~
graublau
Over-produced? - Have you watched a TV ad?

It was short and simple shots of making coffee. There is no narration, hardly
any music. Subtle stuff.

~~~
lonelysandwich
Over-produced is an interesting take on the only “spec” commercial I've ever
made simply because I love the product. It cost me about $300, full
disclosure. Meaning it's actually the most under-produced of our videos.

~~~
billmalarky
Well whatever you did. It works. I must have an aeropress now.

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owenwil
Their videos are incredibly well done, highly polished and very descriptive. I
suspect they cost a lot, but they always do a great job of explaining exactly
what they do. Perhaps my favorite one is the latest by Slack where it's pretty
much their office saying how Slack changed the way they work
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zVzWU95Sw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6zVzWU95Sw)

~~~
snogglethorpe
Their videos are indeed excellently made, very slick, very polished.

However, I'm not sure this style really works well with all their clients. I
watched a bunch of their example videos, and in some cases where the startup's
fundamental concept is... welll.... kind of weak, the combination of a super
slick video with a dumb startup idea tends to make the latter's flaws reallly
stick out. It ends up seeming as if the video is mocking the startup rather
than trying to sell it....

~~~
lonelysandwich
It's an interesting point you make! I'm curious, can you point to any
specifically where you feel the video has had this effect?

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pravda
So how much do they cost? Ballpark figure. $3k? $10k?

~~~
kul
probably closer to $50k

~~~
mschaecher
definitely this. Can get more expensive quick too, especially if a video
requires multiple locations, multiple actors, multiple actors speaking, etc
etc.

Also I can't remember if Adam does this, but most the industry will have
different price tiers based on what you want to do with it. Running something
on your homepage is a whole different ballgame compared to homepage + TV ads.

~~~
giovannibajo1
You can still make a decent job with much less than that, by using semi-pro
actors, directors and editors.

We made a video with €3.5k, by contacting a local theater / cinema center, and
got overwhelming positive feedbacks with the result. In retrospect, we are
very happy with the quality/cost ratio.

I'm linking it here so that people can judge the difference in quality (which
is visibile, but worth 10x the cost?):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODFHTN45vmo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODFHTN45vmo)

~~~
coldtea
Nice story, funny and cute acting, but definitely lower quality in a lot of
production areas, which is what 10x ensures you get.

Two things that struck me were the lighting (amateurish) and the DOF (or
abundance of it).

~~~
giovannibajo1
Yup, I mainly wanted to stress that there options for non-funded startups with
little budget. We got lots of positive feedback on the video and I'm sure it
did its job of explaining the app to the viewers.

~~~
billmalarky
You did well. Sandwich video is just for a different market (VC funded start-
ups mainly it appears).

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solomone
Huh. I remember robinhood. I signed up for that a year ago and I'm still
#183,851 in line. Cruise'n right through that wait list.

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kingnight
Aside from the main guy being in all the videos, I thought their website was
incredibly well written and provided a great explanation of their services.
Refreshing as far as professional services websites go.

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porsupah
I'd be interested to find out if Sandwich are sufficiently confident to offer
contracts based on some measurable outcome metric. Such a "no risk"
contingency would be valuable for very small business owners, beyond the
likely budget of a normal up-front approach.

Difficult, and probably not that well advised, but..

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icpmacdo
I had never heard of this startup before
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c6QdNhy1Aw&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c6QdNhy1Aw&feature=youtu.be)
, really cool.

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aren55555
I find that a lot of Canadian startups (specifically those in Kitchener-
Waterloo) use Arc Media: [http://www.arc-media.ca/](http://www.arc-media.ca/)

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chris123
This is interesting because I was wondering why so many of these startup
videos seemed so similar (not in a good way, IMHO, but that's just my personal
tastes and preferences).

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TaoloModisi
If you use sandwich, it seems like your video becomes a sandwich branded video
rather than your own branded product video, as Adam and his team star in every
video. So, even though the videos produced are catchy, I believe, as a founder
([http://www.dialmedirect.com](http://www.dialmedirect.com)) you need to
figure out ways to brand your product, so that it's stands out from the crowd
and at the same time expresses your value, vision and mission.

~~~
yeukhon
Actors are to be forgotten, but the message isn't.

Sure the 1-in-all credit card is so funny and powerful that I can remember the
story and what the actor (Adam) kinda look like. That's because the actual
selling product resonate with the viewers and the ad itself is both
dramatically and realistic.

You probably can arrange your contract with Adam such that you can be the
voice while his team does all the acting. Think of Apple's videos, usually Jon
Ive is the one talking (probably due to his English accent) and his appearance
only last 1-2 seconds in the video.

~~~
TaoloModisi
Ah I see, it looks like there are different ways you can bring out the brand
messaging, so long as you have the right people doing it in front. There are
tones of founders out there that don't have much charisma, so I guess using
Adam would work, and for those that have charisma, they can probably use
themselves and have Adam and his team in the background... Whatever works for
the teams involved.

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todd8
What a fun and addictive web-site (actually the videos). Bravo!

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dbates0623
Look up Bokeh Inc. (Seebokeh.com) They have a strong list of company's whom
they have worked with and tend to understand start-ups extremely well (as they
are a start-up themselves).

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dbates0623
Look up a company called Bokeh Inc. (Seebokeh.com) They have a great website,
and a pretty impressive list of clients considering they are a start-up
themselves. They have also worked with Y-Combinators before like Watsi and
Caviar.

