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Ranked as one of the Best of ’98 by Adweek, this spot made buzz in Newsweek and The New York Times. It also prompted Fox Network to consider including the chihuahua in their cartoon Godzilla: The Series. But the artists couldn’t figure out how to fit a tiny dog and a 200 foot lizard on the same screen.
They wanted a leave behind flier for candidates. I suggested a trade magazine. A month later, we had 18 pages of glossy, branded content and third-party advertising. An instant hit.
24seven wanted to enable candidates to become better candidates. So, we created a series of Fashion Career Lounges, hosted by industry insiders. News of the Lounge reached Women's Wear Daily. Can you say free advertising?
I moonlight as Creative Director for a minority agency, creating exhaustively-integrated marketing campaigns for the American Heart Association: print, posters, web, radio PSAs, collateral, swag and street teams. Wherever African Americans are, we're there, reminding them to get their heart checked.
I was employed by Capital One to standardize the copy tone
of their communications – online, in the mail and internally.
At one point this page had a lot more spunk. I think the folks in
compliance had their hand in this.
In one year, I wrote 3 print campaigns, 62 letters, created 17 DM packages, managed the content of their online banking and loan sites, created 3 brand guidebooks, named and helped position their small business venture, wrote 6 partner pitches (won 5) and helped launch CardLab and their new logo. Whew.
I proposed a new DM slant at Capital One: a lifestyle magazine. For the cost of three mailers, they could cross-sell their entire line of financial services. The average consumer spends 25 minutes reading a customer magazine. “Junk mail” becomes “keep mail.” Want proof? I've got a whole deck.
My best piece. Part of an integrated Sprint campaign. Almost on a
whim, they asked for a postcard promoting 2 hours of free calling
on Halloween. We mailed 60,000 pieces – which generated 2.5 million
calls and shut down long distance service in Boston. Because of
this postcard, Sprint increased our ad budget by 30%.
I do a lot of viral work. And I make films. In 2 weeks, I created 10
viral videos for Hero.md. One in particular commemorated a surgeon
who was killed in Iraq. Shortly thereafter, I received a kind e-mail
from his mother, thanking me for the tribute. Mission accomplished.
Our positioning was "we're looking out for” college students.
We had to prove it. This was the first of a dozen “tips” ads
run in college newspapers. Allegedly, students were cutting
the ads out, leaving shredded newspapers nationwide.
Citibank became the #1 credit card on college campuses.
We were asked to come up with a T-shirt for tabling events. But, a T-shirt doesn’t "look out for you." For the same cost, we created laundry bags, instead. The things went like hotcakes.
Great case study. The assumption with mileage-plus cards is that people want free travel. Reality: they don't actually think they'll earn enough miles for a trip – they just like racking up miles. "Chaching!" This was part of a campaign that ran for 8 years, won loads of awards and made Citibank AAdvantage the #1 miles card.
The same notion applied to Southwest's card, with a twist.
The first client I won as Creative Director at Divercity was Virginia Lottery. This was some of the better POS work.
We also came up with giving twenty homes in poor, urban
Virginia communities a $10,000 facelift – a permanent, tangible
reminder of what a pocketful of unexpected cash can do.
And, a great way to spend a limited ad budget in a way that
actually serves the community we're marketing to.
I love mom & pops. This one's run by a single mom (no pop). Shop online here for the holidays. Tell Lindsay I sent you.
I'm a zealot for word-of-mouth advertising. These ads generated talk. Perhaps too much talk.
How do you market an institution that condemns marketing? Make ads an education (for education). Today, the school has its highest enrollment in a decade.
These realtors weren't cut-throat brokers. They were the nicest people imaginable. So, I came up with: "Nice move." More than a tagline, it influenced how and where we marketed. Supporting the local community: very nice, indeed.
How do you make a brand a lifestyle choice? Give away cloth
bags, compact flourescent bulbs ... and recylcing bins. On
trash day, the streets would be lined with good-will Summit
advertising. We're still negotiating with the city on these.
Thanks for reading. Let me know how you liked it.