Contributor: Natalie Wood

If you’re old enough to remember the awesomeness that was Saturday morning cartoons, then you can appreciate the time and talent it took to create the weekly sagas of some of our favorite cartoon characters. From brainstorming and storyboarding, to adding audio, and editing video. The days of hand-drawn animation are slowly becoming obsolete, much like the cassette tape and VHS player.

Computer-generated animation is commonplace now in everything from movies, to television and even advertising. AdToons takes you back to the basics. Sticking with the message, and adjusting the animation to meet each specific message and audience. It’s real people, drawing real drawings and conveying real messages, to real people.

Give us your elevator pitch: We help businesses who have a boring website and are losing leads to the competition retain and convert traffic easily with engaging marketing videos called AdToons (Advertisements that are cartoon based).

What makes your company/product different from your competition? Unlike traditional ad agencies who specialize in creating videos, we have the experience and knowledge of leveraging what we learn from very smart marketers and clients, but also the experience of selling products and services ourselves online —anything from books, to “how to” courses, to paid for newsletters so we bring that level of expertise into all of our clients marketing videos. These are two different animals; advising someone what to do vs. doing, succeeding then advising based on previous results.

What is it like to start a company in the Rust Belt? The majority of our clientele comes from outside Ohio and even the country. But I always say with great pride when people ask where the business is located – in a small town outside of Toledo called Sylvania.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned? When you start a business 80% of your efforts need to be focused on sales. Most artists and creative types don’t have clue one how to sell their talents, and thankfully, I had a mentor along the way that shared with me that I am more than an artist. Because of that shift in mentality, I have been able to build and grow a business.

What is the future for your company? AdToons will be on the leading edge of compelling, creative and dynamic marketing content always striving to generate more leads and sales for our customers…and never making any apology for doing so. Any local business interested in capturing more of the traffic – even cold traffic—to the tune of 20%, 30%, 40% that visits your website, can visit www.adtoons.com. Interested? Call 419-841-3030 for more information.

Staff Writer