We made two Super Bowl spots with rockstar Post Malone and let the world decide which one aired during the big game. #PostyStore vs. #PostyBar The two spots went head-to-head in social voting, generating more social mentions than any other ad in Super Bowl LIV.
After a seven year Super Bowl hiatus, Nissan re-entered the game wanting to spotlight their new brand message: that thrills have the power to transform you. So, we told the story of how a single joy ride transformed mild-mannered Eugene Levy into a high-octane Hollywood hero. And according to the internet, a #ThristTrap.
Our mission was to reinvigorate the Bud Light brand and make it a brand that people would be proud to hold again. To do that we had to first put Bud Light back in the cultural conversation in a big, positive way.
In a time when we are beset by negativity and divided by our differences, the beer drinkers were ready for something to bring us together. And if that thing was a Medieval-era gibberish toast? All the better. Thus, the Dilly Dilly phenomenon was born.
Introducing the Heinz Packet Roller: a revolutionary, patented engineering feat that helps people get the most out of their ketchup packets. Some may think it's the "dumbest, most unnecessary invention ever", but it has certainly gotten people talking; it has achieved over 746 earned placements, resulting in 1.12B impressions and a 99% positive sentiment. Highlights include organic shoutouts from The Late Night Show with Colbert, as well as coverage in CNN, AdAge, Hypebeast, and more. All this drove sales to unprecedented heights, and within a week, the product was sold out. But you can still find them on eBay for 20x the original price.
As one of the biggest cultural moments of the year, the Super Bowl deserves something special. So we teamed up with HBO’s Game of Thrones to bring together pop culture’s two most famous medieval kingdoms.
Delta is one of the biggest airlines in the world, but in an industry plagued with hassles, size doesn't matter. No one is waiting for a bigger airline; they’re waiting for one that’s committed to making flying better. We began by acknowledging the truth of this challenging industry instead of the '60s Pan Am fantasy most carriers continue to push. We also established a consistent worldwide brand look and voice for a company that has flirted with many different campaigns over the past decade. The result is an honest and optimistic approach that acknowledges the issues but presents solutions to them in a consistent, believable way.
I led the creation of Hilton’s first ever global brand platform, a comprehensive 360 campaign encompassing social, digital, outdoor, radio, experiential, and a dozen television commercials. The campaign was narrated by Emmy award-winning actress Catherine O'Hara and featured Paris Hilton, with each spot containing at least one hidden Paris Easter egg.
Instead of focusing on travel destinations like the rest of the hotel industry, we tapped into travel realities and cultural conversations, such as the nightmarish experiences encountered by some Airbnb users. We reminded viewers that there’s no substitute for true hospitality. Our message was clear and simple: It matters where you stay.
With the rise of convenience culture, it's gotten way too easy to avoid commitment. Everything is forgotten by the next tweet, leftward swipe or job you grab in six-month's time. Equinox wanted to rise above this rather lazy approach toward living. As a gym, they know commitment is everything. To encourage people's commitment in an interesting and provocative way, we went beyond the usual gym photography and instead focusing on commitments in life. The result was a campaign that got people talking, made national news and won some awards.
Advertising is so much more than TV spots and billboards these days. The number of ways we can bring an idea to life and interact with our audience is almost endless. I believe in starting with a great idea and finding the best way to execute it, which often leads to multiple platform campaigns. But in this section I tried to highlight my favorite social media endeavors.
Jet lag is a big issue for business travelers. Using Oxford Neuroscientist Russell Foster’s groundbreaking research, we invented the first ever Photon Shower. A remedy for jet lag, the Photon Shower uses Foster’s research on a photoreceptor in the eye. When introduced to spectrum-specific light for a set time, the receptor resets the body’s internal clock. The Photon Shower is customized to each user based on the user’s distance, direction, and duration of travel. The result was a way to highlight and promote the many ways Delta is committed to bettering sleep. Created for the TED Conference, the Photon Shower won the Project Isaac Award for Marketing Invention and a D&AD Yellow Pencil.
I definitely can't take credit for starting the "This is SportsCenter" campaign. However, it was an amazing experience to contribute over 50 new commercials to one of the most award-winning and longest running campaigns ever. Here are just a few of my favorites that I created as either an art director or creative director.
The truth is all light beers are not the same. And drinkers deserve to know exactly how they’re different. So, Bud Light made a commitment to be upfront with their drinkers as the first major beer brand to put the ingredients right on the package. To get things started in a big way, we created a film about the epic journey to return a wrongly delivered barrel of corn syrup to its rightful owner and aired it during the Super Bowl.
GAP wanted to make a big deal out of their new store design. This 90 second TV and cinema spot did just that. My partner and I, along with Spike Jonze, got to do what so many people have only dreamed of doing: destroy a GAP store.
The things you commit to are the things that make you. In the case of the stutterer Rashad, commitment was as simple and as hard as finishing a sentence.
The Jordan Brand has always stood for greatness of the individual athlete at the highest level, but it was time for the brand to evolve. To be more welcoming and accepting of the community, of not only athletes but artists, entrepreneurs and activists, pursuing their goals at all levels. The UNITE campaign consisted of a launch film, city-specific cuts, OOH and dozens of social interviews.
Sometimes it's better when your dreams don't come true
After creating a very successful black & white campaign that helped lift Delta out of the depths of the airline industry, it was time to make a new statement. With plenty of good things to talk about, this is the first spot in a new campaign that aims to show the world that Delta is, once again, on top.
When the Masters banned our beloved phrase, we quickly seized the opportunity by creating a royal decree from the Bud Light King. We also sent 1,000 green Dilly Dilly hats & shirts for people to wear at the tournament. “For if thou cannot say Dilly Dilly, thou can still wear Dilly Dilly.” Dilly Dilly was everywhere, resulting in 19,153,667 mentions on social and over 900 million earned media impressions. We increased retweets of our content by 111% and earned 157,804,791 press stories and posts. All for 0.0046% of the brand budget.
When Nissan sponsored the NCAA Final Four, they needed a campaign that not only captured the excitement of the events, but also equally supported both the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. We created The Road 2 Final Four: a multi-level initiative featuring mascots from 27 teams, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The path to the Final Four is unpredictable, yet there is only one way to get there—by taking The Road 2, where all the madness happens. It’s a stretch of highway where anything is possible, even drifting mascots.
In celebration of Pride, we created LGBTQAlphabet, a short film that aims to prove that a community so diverse can’t be contained in just six letters. The five-minute video gives meaning to all 26 letters of the alphabet, as interpreted through dance and voiced by members of the LGBTQA community. Shot all in one day, with an entire budget of less than $200K, this film had more than a million views in the first week.
We created an epic Dilly Dilly moment in Philadelphia when the city made our catchphrase their own by redubbing it Philly Philly. We showed up at their Super Bowl Championship parade and gave everyone in the city free Bud Light, while skywriting Philly Philly and Dilly Dilly over their celebration. When our client wanted an OOH campaign to keep the momentum going, we suggested a statue instead. One that commemorates the moment Nick Foles asked his coach, “you want Philly Philly?”, the play that won the Super Bowl.
A formerly “Miller Lite City” became a huge Bud Light success. Earning 1.6 billion impressions, 4,000 news stories and a 20% sales increase in Philadelphia.
During a game, the friend who battles the concession line and returns with beer, is a true hero.
What could have been a miserable assignment. We refused to let that happen. Flipping the usual industrial safety video on its head, we turned it into something people might actually want to pay attention to. In fact, the "internet" version has over 9 million views on YouTube, making it by far the most popular piece of content Delta has ever created. We have created almost a dozen different versions. Here are a few of my favorites.
Traveling for business is hard work. No matter how often you do it or where you go, there are plenty of reminders you're away from home.
Millions saying our phrase, “Dilly Dilly” was a dream come true. A craft brewer using it for their new beer was flattering but an issue. To protect our idea without upsetting the craft beer community we stayed true to our fun, slightly silly brand. In 24 hours, we had our medieval town crier at their brewery reading a lighthearted cease & desist scroll to everyone. Managing to make positive headlines while also making some new friends.
We all know flying can be a pretty transactional thing. Delta Innovation Class is an attempt to enrich that experience -- by creating a mentoring program at 35,000 feet.
The idea was simple: our flights are full of brilliant minds travelling to big events. Could we partner with these incredibly smart people and have them use their time in the air to do something they would never have time to do on the ground: mentor an up-and-coming person in their industry?
Through paid media, social and PR efforts targeted at specific business communities relevant to Delta, we drove consumers to deltainnovationclass.com. Here, they could apply to sit next to these respected names in their field, getting not just professional advice, but once-in-a-lifetime-access.
Delta wanted to promote their international flights out of Los Angeles. Instead of junking up the skyline with more headlines, we recreated street art from all over the world and encouraged people to go see the originals.
We worked with street artists like Beastman, Findac, SHOK-1, and Curiot to replicate every single detail of their original pieces, from the windows that appeared in Beastman's mural in London to the vandalism that appeared in Nachito's mural of a monkey in Mexico.
Passersby could also win a trip to the original location by posting a picture of one of the boards on Instagram.
The Delta Dating wall let visitors fake their worldliness to give their online dating profiles a boost. Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the wall featured nine exotic locations and playful illustrations from Andrew Rae. To amplify the wall, we partnered with Tinder and even held an event with professional dating experts to give you pro tips for successful dating photos.
Originally created with Dolly Parton in mind, this concept got even better after she turned us down and Darius Rucker was into the idea. Artist David LaChapelle lent his visual genius to this over-the-top production for an over-the-top sandwich, the TenderCrisp Chicken Bacon Cheddar Ranch. Add the Cowboys cheerleaders, Brooke Burke, a creepy King, a girl named Vida, a funny song sung to the tune of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and you have one extravagant ad. This spot was voted "best commercial of the year" by MAXIM magazine. How's that for hitting the 18-24 male fast food target.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of Delta and Coca-Cola partnership, we used the place where both brands meet — the tray table. We commissioned twelve artists from around the world to create destination-inspired art on the tray tables of a Boeing 767, turning it into an airborne art gallery.
In addition to the artwork onboard, the original artwork was displayed in a massive, vending machine-shaped gallery in the world’s largest airport in Atlanta, Delta and Coca-Cola’s home.
Concepted, produced and on-air in less than a month, this spot won the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee launch for Wieden+Kennedy. It also introduced "The Things We Make, Make Us" as the new tagline for the brand. Featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and praised by Michigan's own Michael Moore.
One of the first campaigns I created as Creative Director on ESPN was the “Your NBA Destination” campaign, giving birth to the NBA on ESPN RV. Over four years, this campaign featured dozens NBA players in nearly 40 commercials. Here are a few of my favorites.
Monday is universally recognized as the crappiest day of the week. Fortunately for us all, 16 weeks a year, the drudgery of Monday is offset with the joy of Monday Night Football. MNF means kicking back with friends, watching great football and recapturing a little of the vibe of your weekend. It's the one big, glorious reward fans have to make Mondays worth it. “Is it Monday yet?”
Burger King wanted to create a high-energy campaign that focused on their signature sandwich, the Whopper, and their "Have It Your Way" eagerness to make special orders. Our answer was a Busby Berkeley-style song and dance routine performed by the Whopperettes. This campaign was shot over seven days in Rio: the perfect place for dancers, beautiful costumes and people who only speak Portuguese. "America's Favorite" premiered during the Super Bowl, a first for Crispin and the first for Burger King since the infamous "Herb" spot. This campaign won a Gold Lion at Cannes.
To announce SportsCenter's change in format to begin airing live shows in the morning, we developed a campaign of 30-second live reads done by an actual ESPN employee, Steve Braband. We literally followed Steve around every second throughout the two weeks of the campaign. Whenever it was time for another commercial, he had to stop what he was doing and deliver another “SportsCenter is Live” read. No editing. No second chances. Just like live television. There were 268 original spots in all.
How can you compete with an authentic beach beer with that weird lime ritual everyone loves? We embraced our "fake lime flavor" and did something no high-falutin’ beer ever would. We made popsicles. Frozen Bud Light Lime popsicles (1% abv), to be exact. Coachella liked them.
A pet project for Luke Sullivan, I thought these ads were dead until they were resurrected years later and produced by Mike Lear at the Martin Agency. They even won some awards. Never give up folks.
This commercial started as a spec spot, but MINI liked it so much they payed to finish it and run it.
This video for Delta's mobile app was produced for less than $10,000 and received over a million YouTube views in less than three weeks with no paid media.
These spoof perfume/cologne ads for Molson Canadian ran in men's magazines: GQ, Maxim, and Playboy. We spent weeks perfecting the real beer scent.
The NFL Countdown team's chemistry and knowledge could make topic exciting. But lucky for us, they chose football.
The Molson Canadian “Tools” campaign gave guys tools to "make friends” on their nights out. Fake business cards, fake wallet photos and fake activities stickers to help them appear more sensitive than they might be. Tricky? Yes. Effective? Yes. Molson’s business thrived. This campaign won the $100,000 Kelly Grand Prize. There was also an article done about this campaign in the New York Times, which included one of the fake photos with the caption "fake grandmother." Ironically, the woman in the photo is my real grandmother.
This compilation shows three of twelve spots that we created for a two-year-long, fully integrated campaign called “Whudafxup?” There was also a full web experience, radio, ringtones, print and even talks of a movie. This campaign won some awards, but more importantly, it resonated with kids and did its job of educating them on the truth about big tobacco.
Directed by, and starring, English funny man Harry Enfield, this campaign tries to take the piss out of our diet-crazed society while selling Burger King's premium beef patty. "A diet is what you eat, so eat the Angus Diet" proclaims Dr. Angus. But the real cleverness of this campaign is its media placement. Buying infomercial slots allowed us to run 5-minute long spots at peak times for our 18-24 target for pennies. We also created a 127-page diet book that you could order by phone, online and was even sold in some bookstores. This campaign won a gold pencil at the One Show.
How do you comment on the biggest occasion in sports when it doesn't happen on your network and you don't have rights to photos, logos, or even the athlete's name?
Google receives thousands of resumes each day, the vast majority are from unqualified applicants. With the insight that top IT grads tend to be compulsive problem solvers, we created a campaign full of difficult problems. The campaign generated about $850,000 in free media coverage, including stories on ABC Nightly News, a feature on 60 Minutes, and a total of about 2,400 qualified resumes. To be clear, I created the G.L.A.T. part of this campaign, not the billboards, although I wish I did those too.
These ads ran as double page spreads in cycling magazines.