Condado Tacos TV Commercials

We teamed up with the popular casual dining brand Condado Tacos to produce their latest campaign of OTT & broadcast TV commercials.

Fresh Creative

Founded in 2014, Condado Tacos has grown from its original Ohio footprint to a regional powerhouse operating in 15 markets. With new restaurants opening across Michigan, the Condado marketing team was prepared to step up their advertising game, investing in a full brand awareness campaign including video advertising, lifestyle & product photography, and social media content.

Writer/Director Craig Pentak developed the creative direction in collaboration with the Condado marketing team. Two video advertisements titled "Crave Together" and "Taco People" established the pillar content for the campaign. Both spots required a combination of lifestyle video captured on location at one of Condado’s premiere locations, as well as high-speed video of fresh menu items captured in studio.

Establishing the proper evening vibe was key to the lifestyle scenes (Drag slider to compare storyboard with final).

Location Lifestyle Video

After scouting several options, our producers chose one of Condado’s most popular restaurants for our lifestyle location. Our production team coordinated closely with the restaurant’s management to craft an overnight production schedule that created the fewest impacts to customer experience or operating revenue.

With its wide dynamic range, true skin tones, and brilliant color science, we selected the ARRI Alexa 35 camera package for our lifestyle video production. We paired the Alexa 35 with the expressive Blackwing7 prime lenses to complete the desired look.

Dual photo and video sets in action on the Kinopicz soundstage — The Condado marketing team reviews the latest "Taco People" frame on the photo / social media set.

Maximizing Studio Time

For our studio day, the client required two sets: one for still photography/social media video of the principal actors—plus a second kitchen set lit for high-speed video of Condado’s featured menu items. The Kinopicz soundstage provided ample space, power, and facilities to run two sets concurrently throughout the day.

San Francisco-based Chef Nicky Morse led the food styling efforts, bringing his meticulous artistry and attention to detail to the set—making the hero shots really shine.

Chef Nicky Morse makes some final tweaks to the hero shot 1st AC Zach Hoover stands by. — Chef Nicky Morse makes some final tweaks to the hero tacos shot as AC Zach Hoover stands by.

Positive Reactions

As this was the company’s first foray into high production value video advertising, expectations were piqued—and the team’s hard work paid off. The initial OTT distribution across the Detroit DMA yielded significant positive results, with new cuts of the original TV commercials planned to further extend ROI.