Case Study:

Bismarck Motor Company: Drive-Thru

Category

Narrative

Launched

Aug. 8 2025

Runtimes

30s, 15s

Seen On

📺📱💻

At a Glance

Bismarck Motor Company wanted to show that buying a car could be as simple as ordering at a drive-thru — fun and stress-free, without the typical dealership pressure.

We built a full drive-thru set in-studio, cast for comedic timing, and sweated the small details to make a fake world feel completely real.

Highlight brand promises:  Buy a car like you buy everything else. Engaging and light tone without feeling too cheesy.

While they selling multiple brands, the hero would be a Volkswagen vehicle.

They are not interested in throwing shade at competitors, just want to emphasize a stress-free buying environment.

The Process

Our team handled the full set build in just a few days, ensuring the main structure was up a week before the shoot. This gave lighting and camera team time to block scenes and finesse the look.

To sell the realism, we paid close attention to the small things: scuffing up the too-clean concrete floor, adding a curb and a sprinkle of street debris, and layering in subtle details like a fake streetlight, a false gutter, and even a sign reflection to ground the environment.

Every element helped make this world feel believable — even if it was built from scratch.

Our Approach

Having partnered with the client on previous campaigns, there was already a strong foundation of trust.

That gave us the creative freedom to lean into humor without tipping into “cheesy commercial” territory. We knew the key would be casting — finding someone with natural comedic timing and the ability to improvise in the moment.

Nailing the Performance

Delivery can be tricky, especially when an actor needs to nail a punchline. Joel carefully worked through each of the lines with our actor to get the best delivery possible.

In-Studio vs On-Location

Building an outdoor set indoors had tons of advantages.

Here’s a few of our favorite:

  • Weather control
  • Filming a nighttime scene during the day
  • Plenty of time to prepare and test the scene

Noise, Reflection, Challenges

Getting clean audio from a vehicle is a real challenge. We worked with a lot of different microphone placements to get the sound just right for this ad.

Practically made, practical effects

  • We utilized a 100″ TV as a virtual backdrop to film reverse shots.
  • Our menu board was a TV mounted on an 8×8 post.
  • Our ordering speaker was 3D-Printed.
  • Most importantly: we made it all in-house.

Behind the Scenes: On Set

The Final Product

But that's
not all!

Our previous ads with BMC looked good enough that people kept thinking they were made out-of-state!

As a fun add-on, we also created a behind-the-scenes partnership video for the campaign.

This was a great opportunity to pull back the curtain and show the local talent and craftsmanship behind the scenes.

More Case Studies

The Lily Initiative: Awareness

 View Case Study

Bismarck Motor Company: Drive-Thru

 View Case Study

Add Your Heading Text Here

Click here

Ready to see more of our work?

Taking a peak behind the scenes is fun in our case studies.

Next, see our work across the industries.

See Our Work