A local startup piloted by two UF alumni screened its first national TV ad on the DIY Network last week.
Fracture — a digital imaging company that prints photos onto glass — was picked up by ad agency Sandwich Video, which has produced ads for companies like eBay, Zipcar, Yahoo and Square.
Fracture co-founder Abhi Lokesh said his team reached out to Sandwich Video, which is recognized in startup culture for making impacting ads.
Last year, Fracture was featured on a DIY show, and the exposure generated positive feedback, Lokesh said. That’s why the company decided to create an ad for the station, and so far, he said, it’s working.
“It’s still preliminary, and we don’t want to jump the gun, but traffic to the site has gone up, and orders are already coming in at a higher pace,” Lokesh said.
Fracture’s marketing director, Kay Mitchell, said the video was aimed at showing the personal side of Fracture prints.
“We wanted to show people what it was like to hold a Fracture and the emotional value of our project,” Mitchell said.
The ad depicts a man snapping photos at various locations, ordering Fracture prints of them and hanging the prints on his walls.
UF alumna Kelsey Reese, who helped choose a design for Fracture prints at her magazine internship, said people have responded positively to the prints, and she thinks the commercial will work well.
“The DIY Network is a good fit for them,” Reese said.
A version of this story ran on page 3 on 9/25/2013 under the headline "Startup ad carves way into national spotlight"
Customer experience employee Brittany Ferguson assists visitors at Fracture on Monday afternoon. The startup, located at 112 SW 6th St., has recently been featured in a national TV spot.
