Iceland. A country full of natural wonder and very real things you can experience in a very real manner. Unlike a fake virtual reality that requires avatars and funny looking headsets.
The Icelandverse was a direct response to Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of the Metaverse, and was meant to remind people of this very real thing.
We produced this video in just 10 days. And within hours of launch, the video went viral, resulting in 6 million views in less than a week. The media liked it, everyday people liked it, U.S senators liked it, and even Mark Zuckerberg, himself, liked it.
And a couple months later, he even went to The Icelandverse to see it with his own eyeballs.
Success!
Press:
Fast Company’s 5 Best Ads of 2021, Forbes, Business Insider, The Economist, AdWeek’s 25 Best Ads of 2021, AdAge’s 30 Best Ads of 2021, Contagious, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, People, Mashable, Gizmodo, The Verge, CNN, The New York Post, CNBC
Awards:
2022 Cannes Silver, Film, Travel & Leisure
2022 Cannes Silver, Film, Breakthrough on a Budget
2022 Cannes Bronze, PR, Travel & Leisure
2022 Cannes Shortlist, Social, Real-time Response
2022 One Show Gold, Real-time Response
2022 One Show Merit, PR Media Relations
2022 Clio Awards Bronze, Real-time Response
2022 Clio Awards Short List, Film Craft
2022 ANDY Awards Gold, Idea
2022 ANDY Awards Gold, Craft
2022 Effies, 3x Silver / 1x Bronze 1x Finalist, David vs. Goliath
NY Festival Advertising Awards 1x Grand / 3x Gold / 1x Silver
2021 AdWeek’s Best Ads of the Year #14
2021 AdAge’s Best Ads of the Year #29
2021 Fast Company’s 5 Best Ads of the Year
IKEA. Home of Swedish design, giant blue shopping bags and you guessed it - delectable Swedish meatballs. During the pandemic, we discovered people were missing the classic in-store IKEA experience, so we decided to bring it straight to their doorstep.
Introducing the IKEA Meatball Candle. The world's first Swedish meatball-burning-scented candle.
A meaty delight nestled in a box containing a multi-sensory experience that mimics the journey of walking through your local IKEA.
This incredibly beefy idea not only generated 4.7 billion earned media impressions with zero media dollars spent, it more importantly gave Gwenyth Paltrow a real run for her money (seriously, people tried to buy it on resell sites). And even inspired a radio station to write a very meaty jingle about it. Success!
Press:
Awards:
One Show - Merit
Effies - Silver
In the last few years, the billionaire race to space has taken over media headlines. But what most space tourists don't know, is you can have an out-of-this-world experience for a fraction of the cost – right here on Earth – in Iceland. So we set to get the word out by launching a film for these space tourists during the buzz of the Space X and Blue Origin take-off. And just in case we didn't get to them before launch, we sent our message about space, to space. Literally.
In addition to our galactic billboard, we launched an earth-side board right outside SpaceX, in case a certain billionaire missed the memo.
Press:
The first post-pandemic trip out into the world would be a huge step for people to take. They had been shut inside for months, doing nothing and wearing nothing but the same old, sad sweatpants. To help travelers get up off the couch and onto the Icelandic trails and city streets, we needed to make sure they would be properly outfitted.
So we created the world’s first sweatpant boots. Custom hiking boots created from travelers actual lockdown sweatpants. Suitable for scaling a volcano or frolicking through a fjord, the limited-edition, sweatpant boots would be available only to those adventurous enough to come to Iceland to collect them.
We invited the world to trade in their pandemic sweatpants for boots with a music video that drove to sweatpantboots.com. There, travelers could reserve a pair of their very own sweatpant boots or explore Iceland with a virtual sweatpant boots try-on. For one month only, travelers who had scored a reservation could come to the pop-up shop in Reykjavik to trade in their pants and receive their custom boots made by an Icelandic designer.
Awards:
The One Show, 2x Shortlist - Sweatpant Boots, Visit Iceland
Cannes Lion, 3x Shortlist - Sweatpant Boots, Visit Iceland
D&AD 2x Shortlist - Sweatpant Boots, Visit Iceland
Effies, 1x Gold / 1x Silver - Sweatpant Boots, Visit Iceland
86 million Americans have prediabetes. Maybe-even-you-person-looking-at-my-portfolio.
It’s true, 1 in 3 Americans are affected by prediabetes and despite this huge number, awareness of this public health crisis was negligible. Our task was to change that. How? By getting America to take a very simple risk test. NOT a simple task.
So instead of creating a standard TV spot to raise awareness around it, we built the actual risk test right into the spot, so every viewer would know if they had prediabetes – right there, right then.
The campaign resulted in 372 pickups that lead to over 500,000 test completions in a matter of days. And for the first time ever, prediabetes became part of a national conversation.
It got some pretty great press:
Other highlights: Bloomberg News Online, CNBC, CNN, Univision, U.S. News and World Report, Telemundo, Yahoo! and FOX, NBC, ABC, NBC affiliates across the country.
And even won some pretty great awards:
Cannes Bronze Lion
Cannes Shortlist
WPPed Cream Awards
Effie - 2018
Effie - 2017
Hopefully all of Destiny's Child is prediabetes free now.
Year two of Ad Council was tricky - 86 million Americans (1 in 3) were still affected by prediabetes, and despite our success from the previous year the ask was the same: how do we get people to take a simple test to understand their risk?
Well, we decided to take the success of putting the real-time test in front of people via TV to the web. We looked at online behavior to see where our target spends most of their time and decided to target them, right there, right then.
Lucky for us, they spend a lot of time looking at some pretty adorable stuff.
And in the end, the work ended up being just as successful as year one leading to over 500k test completions and nearly 9 million views.
Press:
Everyone knows that The UPS Store does shipping, but what most people don’t know is that they can actually do a whole lot more. Our job was to fix that.
How? By creating a national TV campaign featuring some VERY enthusiastic UPS Store Franchisees.
And it turns out the work, worked.
Proof from a UPS Store franchisee:
“I just had a guy come in and say "I just saw your commercial last night for all of the services you offer. I never knew you did so many things here. Is it true that you notarize documents?”
In addition to shooting multiple TV and digital spots, we also designed a couple of our dream businesses from the ground up. It was all very vectory and very fun.
Press:
A.K.A. The-stop-what-you’re-doing-on-the-internet-like-looking-at-portfolio-sites-these-savings-are-too-good-to-miss-Sale.
With IKEA’s biggest and only sale of the year, we know it’s not just the savings people go for, but it’s the ability to make their personal home dreams happen right now. So we took that love and made it personal using their very own words.
AKA-THE-BTW-ICYMI-FOMO-IRL-FTW-YES-PEOPLE-REALLY-TALK-LIKE-THIS-SALE!
Press:
With the launch of Apple Pay, American Express wanted to assure card Members that the safety and security that comes with Membership would remain the same.
To convey that message, we went back through 50 years of American Express work to illustrate how payment has changed and to welcome the next evolution.
Now I can tell people I made a commercial with Jerry Seinfeld and Marty Scorsese…(sorta)
Press:
IKEA knows that not everyone is born an early riser. But through its range of products and bedroom solutions, IKEA is making it easier to embrace the day and the all-new you that will result (just maybe not overnight.)
For this campaign we created a series of :15 films, digital, and social highlighting those peculiar little joys of waking up early.
P.S. I’m still not a morning person.
Press:
Losing weight is as hard for men as it is for women. And for some reason, men don't like asking for help (what?!). Weight Watchers wanted to change that. What came out of it was Lose Like A Man, a campaign starring a man who is able to eat his meatballs AND lose weight.
This was the first 360 campaign I ever helped create in my professional career and saw it air Christmas Day at a dive bar in my hometown - not a bad way to kick things off.
Happy meatballin’.
Press:
Once upon a time I shot a campaign for Macaroni Grill that involved two of my favorite things: hunky Italians and pasta.
Beyond my love for the two, Mac Grill needed to remind people that life is better lived when you're filling your belly with wine and tortellini, instead of looking at portfolio sites (or whatever it is you like to do...)
The American Dream has changed. And whatever that looks like for you, you should be able to live it. This campaign isn’t about having a dream home. It’s about IKEA enabling you to create your best life at home.
A bold proclamation emblazoned on a flag communicates that, with IKEA’s support, anyone can live the dream they want.
(Even if that dream means building a six-drawer dresser that may or may not lead to some excessive wine drinking, that may or may not lead to some very awkward tweets.)
The campaign we created includes holiday and brand TV and some very fun non pre-roll, pre-roll.
When Lucky Charms launched two new rainbow marbits they asked us to come up with something for the limited release. And while we didn't get to make our cereal hot tub float, we did get to make #LuckyToBe - a social good campaign that asked people to express why they are #LuckyToBe who they are. It was one of the first LGBT campaigns ever launched by a family brand and proved that simple ideas trump small budgets, limited time and big obstacles.
The campaign got some pretty cool press and even won some pretty cool awards.
Press:
(One of my favorite quotes)
“Sometimes the best thing a brand can do is lean into the conversation that’s already going on around it. And that’s exactly what Lucky Charms, a brand that some people have always seen as a little queer, is doing, in part to support LGBT Pride Month.”
— Adweek
Awards:
Gold Regi Award - Outstanding Achievement in Multicultural Campaign
Ad Color Futures - Ad of the Year Award
AAF Mosaic Award - Multicultural Digital Media Usage
ANA Multicultural Excellence Award
ANA Multicultural Award Grand Prize Digital
ANA Multicultural Award Grand Prize LGBT
ANA Multicultural Award Significant Results
A few years ago General Mills wanted to change the perception of sugary morning cereals. What came out of it was Hello Cereal Lovers digital campaign - a campaign designed to remind Moms and cereal fanatics alike that our favorite past time breakfast is still as wonderful and healthy as it ever was. Moms all over rejoiced and we got to make some pretty fun cereal GIFS.
Specifically we developed the Website, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter page, along with daily content.
It was named one of the 13 best social media campaigns by Postano. And was featured on the cover of the New York Times .
Awards:
13 Best Social Media Campaigns: Postano
Internationalist Award for Innovative Media: Bronze
Press:
A collection of vector(y) things for clients, friends, and mostly fun.
1. Probono Austin Farmers Market Poster for all those downtown ATX hipsters.
2. Lockup for American Express brand campaign line. The ellipsis served as the graphic thread across multiple mediums and partner work.
3-5. Real logos for a few not so real businesses for a very real commercial.
6. Logo & Business Cards for Austin Energy Audit.
7. Logo Redesign for Austin’s beloved trailer snow cones, Ice Queens (and the very first rebrand I ever did. I should probably take it out of my book, but I’m nostalgic, what can I say?)
8. & 9. Hello Cereal Lovers campaign posters for General Mills. The most fun I had playing with my food.
10. American Express celebratory print for Fred Smith from FedEx. Two iconic brands and a really simple ad. My favorite combination.
11 & 12. Print and OOH for Mastercard’s annual Priceless Holiday campaign.
