The Fallout: A Real-World Cybersecurity Story
To bring awareness to Lenovo’s new suite of cybersecurity offerings called ThinkShield, we created a 3-part docuseries that takes viewers behind the scenes of one of the most devastating corporate cyberattacks of our time — the infamous 2014 Sony Pictures hack. The goal for this branded content series was to spark conversation around data security while helping to establish Lenovo as a credible thought-leader in the space.
OUR TARGET: IT professionals and C-Suites
After interviewing many IT professionals, we uncovered that while they’re well-educated on the security challenges their organizations face, they struggle to get the approvals and budgets they need from their C-Suite. So this branded content was created to spark a dialog between the IT community and the C-Suite, positioning cyber security as a necessary investment.
THE POSITIONING: Tell the truth. Sell the truth.
The high-concept scripted content produced by our competitors was entertaining but lacked authenticity… and therefore failed to register with our IT panel. They want to understand what actually happens after a data breach, as opposed to what they’ve seen in the movies. That’s how our strategy of tell the truth, sell the truth was born. From there, we arrived at a simple, yet bold big idea.
THE BIG IDEA: Create a docuseries that takes viewers behind the scenes of one of the most notorious corporate hacks of our time.
The Fallout: A Real-World Cybersecurity Story is presented by actress and tech enthusiast, Olivia Munn, and details the most important stages of a corporate breach: The Threat, The Hack and The Aftermath. In this end, the film series went viral, igniting the conversation around data security and reminding companies how important it is to stay ahead of dangerous breaches.
A project that reminds everyone the importance of voting.
On the eve of what many perceived to be the most important election of our lifetimes, we were inspired to create a piece of sharable content that would not just remind Americans about the importance of voting, but also remind them of the inspiring presidents that came before... and the powerful legacies they left behind. The Presidents who embodied qualities of true leadership and stood for principles that helped unite us as a nation.
We invited a variety of Americans from all ages and all walks of life to answer one simple question: who was the President that inspired you most throughout your life… the President you wanted to be like when you grew up. We had a table full of framed portraits of past Presidents and asked each of our subjects to select the one that meant the most to them.
In listening to our subjects talk about these Presidents, what stood out to us was the consistent themes of kindness, strength, fairness, and the ability to bring people together — a far cry from what we’ve seen represented in parts of the 2016 election. We want this film to remind voters to think about the example we’re setting for the next generation. Of the two candidates on the ticket, who do we think will do a better job at inspiring our children? That’s the person we hope Americans vote for.
Directors Matt Ogens and Steve Oritt, approached Creative Director/writer David Blacker to help brainstorm a concept that could be turned around quickly and on a modest budget. The goal was to create something original, simple and effective. The “When I Grow Up” concept was born. We called upon our talented and hard-working industry friends (Producer John Nguyen, Union Editorial’s Daniel Luna and DP John Tipton) to help turn this around in record speed.
We’re all very proud of how the piece turned out and its power to remind people of the important qualities we need our future President to embody.
Credits
Directed by Matt Ogens and Steven Oritt
Creative Director/Writer: David Blacker
Producer: John Nguyen
Director of Photography: John Tipton
Music by WAZ-JACKSON
Post Production: Union Editorial
Editor: Daniel Luna
Post Executive Producer: Michael Raimondi
Post Producer: Samantha Machado
Assistant Editor: Hunter Lurie and Roman Petrov
Finishing: Resolution
Logan Aries: Finishing Producer
Maury Rosenfeld: Flame Artist
Milos Zivkovic: Sound Engineer
Eccentric Groomer
For the launch of Lenovo’s brand new Yoga 920 laptop, we were tasked with creating a bold, unexpected and thumb-stopping social campaign that would show how and why Yoga 920 is different. We created several pieces of video content featuring an eccentric dog groomer with big plans for his furry clients. Only the Yoga 920 could inspire his vision and help bring his one-of-a-kind creations to life.
Our Target
The Design Trendsetter — is interested in more than just the latest gadget. They want technology that is as unique and different as they are. From Facebook Canvas, to Instagram stories to Twitter, we engaged them by showing off all the creative ways 920 truly stands out from any ordinary laptop experience.
‘ONE-IN-1’ Social Campaign
Motorola One Leans into its Name and Creates One Second Ads
Content comes at us from every direction these days, which means our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. So when Motorola was launching their new Motorola One Vision smartphone, using only paid social media, we had to think outside the box to really break through.
THE TARGET
The Motorola One Phone comes with a lot of unique, desirable features — a superior camera, enormous storage space and the first ever fully immersive 21:9 cinematic display. And since our audience spends most of their time on social media scrolling through image after image, we decided to lean heavily on Instagram because of its image-centric nature and high engagement rate.
But how could we make sure the message was received by our target? The answer: by keeping our ads entertaining, short and sweet. Emphasis on short.
THE BIG IDEA
It only takes one second to fall in love with Motorola One.
Playing off of the Motorola One name, we created the ‘One-in-1’ campaign, a series of one second social ads designed to instantly engage without providing our audience the time to skip them. With the average amount of time our audience spends on IG stories at 3 seconds, the ‘One-in-1’ series became virtually unskippable. On a platform where users swipe and tap through quickly in search of interesting content to engage with, it made our one second approach a very effective strategy.
Moto E5 Integrated Launch Campaign
We were tasked with supporting the launch of the next generation of Moto E smartphones with a new branded campaign that included a TV commercial, product sizzle videos and a full social campaign.
Moto E offers exceptional smartphone performance with the biggest screen in its class to view entertainment on, plus a big battery that’ll last all day. Basically, it was designed for people that are ALWAYS on their smartphones.
To introduce the release of one of Moto’s flagship budget phones, we zeroed in on the two key points of difference that separate the phone from its competition: extra big screen and extra big battery. We thought if ever there’s a time you want endless entertainment without worrying about battery life, it’s when you’re on a long road trip, with limited access to power. So we tapped into this relatable use case by staging an ultimate passenger bus party where the content on a large Moto E screen suddenly transforms the world around them.
Social
To amplify the Moto E product launch, we created a social campaign to tease, engage and build purchase consideration amongst their target audience across all social channels. For budgetary reasons, the social campaign had to utilize content that was captured from the TVC and product sizzle videos. The challenge was to make sure the social content felt unique and different. In order to do this, we not only used traditional formats such as GIFS and carousels, but also hacked platforms’ existing, native features to produce unexpected and engaging content. For example, taking advantage of Instagram’s grid layout and a Tilt-to-Pan Canvas to showcase the large screen size of Moto E.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Tech centric / always on phone / 16-44 years old / budget conscious
MEASURING SUCCESS: Deliver ROW targeted sales volumes activation on the total e5 franchise. Grow consideration targets for key markets.
After 6 successful years in market, Ancestry’s growth had plateaued. At that point, they approached us to develop a new TV advertising campaign that would build an emotional connection with the audience while still driving immediate action. With a focus on the fun and often surprising insights uncovered by the Ancestry service across all products, the ensuing 2015, 2016 and 2017 campaign proved to be the most successful in the company’s history, besting prior subscriber growth by 35%.
As we know, shooting real people can be tricky. It’s about finding characters that are believable, memorable and engaging. It's also a numbers game. You have to shoot some duds to find the gems. In the end, we landed on some great, break-through personalities.
They say the true mark of a successful campaign is when it gets parodied and becomes a pop-culture phenomenon. This campaign achieved such a feat when it was spoofed by Comedy Central, Saturday Night Live… and even Brietbart News.
ZipRecruiter came to us asking for a 30 second DR spot. We ended up delivering not only the hard-working spot they wanted, but also a 60 second brand spot they needed in order to stand apart from everyone else in the category. One spot addressed their "how", while the other articulated their "why."
If Water Could Talk
When it comes to bottled water, there’s Niagara and then there’s everybody else. While the other brands throw ridiculous claims, fancy packaging and high price tags at you, Niagara keeps things simple and affordable by focusing on what matters most — providing quality water at a price everyone can afford. Simply put, Niagara is water that’s the real deal.
When it came time to create the 2018 campaign — intended to build upon Niagara’s single minded message of “no nonsense quality water for no nonsense people” — we decided to give our bottles, and the bottles of our competitors, uniquely ownable voices. We created a series of videos and banners that feature two inanimate objects — water bottles that talk to one another. One is always a Niagara-labeled bottle, and the others change out to convey the variety of pretentious, gimmicky water brands available in supermarket water aisles.
The competing bottles personify the pretentious, snobby, trendy, obsessed-with-what-other people-think type of girl, while the Niagara bottle always personifies the smart, practical, no-nonsense voice of reason that always keeps it real. Additional videos in this series will be released throughout the year.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Woman, 25-49 / Moms & Families – skewing more Hispanic / Markets: Los Angeles, San Antonio and Houston / value conscious shoppers
MEASURING SUCCESS: Fan engagement on Facebook and Instagram
RESULTS
Engagement on the videos was very high, resulting in below benchmark eCPMs across all creative versions. Nearly 50% of viewers watched the videos in their entirety. This is very high for social video, which usually sees a very low comparative competition rate.
This high-profile television, print and online integrated campaign for DIRECTV NFL Sunday Ticket featuring Jimmy Kimmel, LL Cool J, Denis Leary and Peyton and Eli Manning doubled the client’s most optimistic acquisition goals... and lasted several years.
When it came to launching Bolthouse Farms' first national campaign to promote a new line of juices and smoothies, we knew this would be a special brand-building opportunity. With nearly 100 years of farming experience behind them, they’ve earned the right to have some swagger. So we created a fresh, bold voice that captures the unadulterated truth about what we put into our bodies — as unadulterated as Bolthouse Farm’s products. This grew into a full integrated campaign, which included: website, print, OOH, digital display, bus wraps, bike wraps, wallscapes and social video content (via Vine, Instagram and Facebook).
HOTWIRE HAPPINESS
There's a moment of pure joy that happens when you scoop an amazing unpublished hotel rate on Hotwire. The Happiness brand campaign captures these personal victories and celebrates the art of getting the savvy hotel deal. I worked with The Mercadantes, a directorial duo known for capturing the raw and honest beauty in people. It was a win for everyone.
Happiness was also getting to work with Errol Morris on real people interview spots for the same campaign. Known for his award-winning documentary style, Errol Morris captured stories that brought out the joy, humor and authenticity in these simple human moments of discovering a great hotel deal on Hotwire. Through the faces of real people, we watch as they discover exactly how Hotwire works and how they can use it to their advantage to beat the system and snag the best deal.
The debut of this campaign was made extra special when Hotwire decided to launch with Lucky Me, a spot about a real-life, married gay couple and their son. Hotwire's public support of equality has helped break down barriers in media and, to a larger extent, society (judging by all the positive responses). It's great to work with people that deem inclusive TV spots a non-issue. By treating it that way, the hope is it'll soon be seen that way.
In addition to new television spots, the Hotwire re-brand gave us the opportunity to update Hotwire’s identity to reflect the joy and excitement of traveling and finding great deals. We made Hotwire’s look feel happier by incorporating bold pops of color and modernizing their logo treatment.
Moto G6 Digital and Social Campaign
The challenge with demo videos is that they tend to serve up a lot of information without being visually stimulating. So when we were tasked with creating new in-store product sizzles for the launch of Moto’s G6 smartphone, we knew we had to create something more intriguing.
With a big screen, incredible camera and a long-lasting battery, the Moto G6 truly has something for everyone. The key was to somehow showcase all these amazing, specialized features in a unique and disruptive way. So we threw an unforgettable house party that played host to an eclectic mix of people showing off all the exciting features.
To make the product demonstrations more arresting, we used a creative technique known as motion control to weave a camera all around the partygoers in a super eye-catching, freeze-frame style, where the entire party is frozen in time.
SOCIAL
They asked us to create thumb-stopping social content from existing materials to amplify their existing social campaign that could be done quickly and affordably, just in time for the launch. We dissected the product sizzle content and found ways to utilize motion graphics and visual affects to change the content to feel unique and ownable to the social platforms.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Tech centric / early adopters / 16-44 years old / deal seekers
MEASURING SUCCESS: Raise the bar on the average aided awareness of the franchise
Parents are faced with an unfair tradeoff when it comes to kids snacks. If they’re good, they’re not healthy. If they’re healthy, they’re not good. That's why Bolthouse Farms created a new line of kid snacks. Powered by real fruits and veggies, healthy and fresh now means yummy and fun.
The objective for this campaign was to drive overall brand equity, reinforcing who Bolthouse Farms is and what they stand for — inspiring the fresh food revolution.
Ahead of the launch we created an interactive hub featuring the most compelling content from around the web to keep parents ‘in the know’ about kids health and food-related news. Part entertainment, part education, and all fun — the hub is an up-to-date resource that aggregates sharable content, articles and ideas on making informed snacking easy and fun for parents and kids.
Then we created The UnBake Sale, a nationwide initiative designed to inspire parents and kids to redefine the traditional school bake sale.
Bolthouse Farms sponsored THE UNBAKE SALE with the goal of empowering parents to change the way kids eat and purchase their snacks. This included downloadable UNBAKE toolkits for schools and parents, as well as socially sharable content/materials to spread awareness and engage top parent influencers and bloggers.
Bolthouse provided 100 schools around the country with starter kits, hoping to inspire other schools to follow — and it worked. So far, nearly 200 schools have participated.
Moto Z3 Integrated Launch Campaign
We had the exciting opportunity to create a 360 campaign to support the launch of the third generation of the premium Moto Z smartphone.
THE POSITIONING
The combination of Moto’s flagship smartphone + their one-of-a-kind Moto Mods creates an unmatchable premium mobile experience for less. Like all successful campaigns, we had to start with a simple, yet sticky, single-minded BIG idea that would act as the through line for all on-and-offline marketing.
THE BIG IDEA: SMARTPHONE + YOU
With so many incredible, modular features, z3 is a premium smartphone + so much more. It’s a smartphone + a projector + a camera + a speaker + a battery pack + a printer, etc. These are the features that expand your mobile experience even further… letting you build the phone that matches your interests and passions. So it really becomes a SMARTPHONE + YOU.
TVC VIDEOS
We launched the campaign with 3, 30-second TVC spots, each highlighting a different Moto Mod feature: Speaker, Battery Pack and 5G Speed. The spots show large crowds of people going about their busy days, struggling with their less-than-perfect smartphones. It feels like a sea of sameness. That is until Moto Z is introduced, bringing vivid color and excitement, into an otherwise gray mobile world. So while everyone else has just a smartphone, Moto Z is the only smartphone + personalized features that’ll connect you to a more colorful world. We also created a series of below the line videos, including in-store product demos and sizzle videos for Youtube.
SOCIAL / DIGITAL
We created a comprehensive social campaign to tease, engage and build purchase consideration amongst Moto Z’s target audience across all social channels. We used sequential messaging through all the different stages within the customer journey, from Awareness to Conversion. As a social first campaign, we created original content made specifically for our social platforms that included Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Here are just a few examples from the social campaign:
To further express the idea of SMARTPHONE + YOU, all of our social videos highlight specific use cases and personal interests of our target audience — themes include music, movies, travel, Art & Culture and Photography.
We also created a series of below the line content, including these in-store product demo videos.
Bolthouse Farms recently launched 1915 — an ultra-premium, cold-pressed, organic juice line.
In a time when consumers seek products with clean, short ingredient lists, 1915 offers unique flavor combinations such as carrot with apple, lemon, ginger and coriander, and beet with carrot, orange and lemon.
1915 — which takes its name from the first year that the Bolthouse family began their commercial farm operation — was one of those rare projects that I was involved in from the very beginning, back when the recipes were first being developed. And from my first taste test, I knew this product was going to be special.
Initially tasked with creating a corporate identity, we went on to produce a full 360 campaign, developing all branded assets (site, POS, Print, OOH, social, etc.)
In staying true to the essence of the product, I took an essentialist approach to creating the tone of voice and brand personality… having all messaging focus on what’s essential — the perfect amount of the things that matter, while eliminating the things that don’t.
The line launched in May 2015 in major national retailers including Target and Walmart.
After 10 years of campy advertising, Old Navy needed a fresh start. The Get Your Fash’ON campaign moved the brand from bargain discounter to trendsetting fashion outlet.
I had the opportunity to create a series of holiday-themed spots to take the brand campaign into a more seasonal/retail direction. The three spots — by acclaimed director Floria Sigismondi — went on to become their most successful holiday push in over a decade.
When it came time to rebrand the all-new Volkswagen Jetta --- I came up with the line “great for the price of good.” This became the positioning for all advertising touch points. One of our first ideas was to sell the Jetta on GILT, a website known for selling high-end merchandise at amazing prices. It felt perfect for the Jetta. The concept of selling one Jetta a day for three days at a rock bottom price (for charity) took the idea to the next level.
When NBC foolishly decided to cancel acclaimed series Friday Night Lights — DIRECTV came to the rescue by acquiring the rights to air three exclusive seasons. They needed a campaign that would speak to the loyal fanbase — those who knew this show was about more than just football. We came up with a campaign called “opposing forces” which exposed the adversities these characters faced off the field. As a lead writer on the DIRECTV account, I got to spend a week in Austin with the cast bringing our concept to life. It was the most creatively fulfilling project of my career.
My first project for Hotwire was a complete rebrand. The campaign we created — Map World — helped improve profits by 45%, making 2011 the most profitable year in Hotwire’s history. And in the years that followed, the campaign expanded from TV to countless digital touch points, growing Hotwire's business from #7 to #3 in the category and expanded from just one country (U.S.) to seven additional countries all over the world.
We were tasked with creating video content to combat consumers’ preconceived notions about Lenovo’s new Yoga Book tablet and redirect them towards purchase. So we came up with a fresh take on a Myth Buster series designed to confidently address potential concerns, while also inspiring wavering consumers. How? By alleviating their skepticisms in a fun, disruptive and engaging way. Every time a myth is busted, we cut to a vibrant, entertaining vignette that metaphorically conveys the idea of the myth being debunked.
PAID SOCIAL & DIGITAL DISPLAY
These long form videos were used online on retailer sites like Amazon and Best Buy, while the shorter clips were used as animated banners and paid social posts retargeted to people who have expressed interest in Yoga Book.
In the end, this educational content series helped us set the record straight about how Yoga Book stacks up to the competition, while keeping people engaged through comedy and vibrant art direction that reinforces Lenovo’s unique look and feel.
A CELEBRATION OF FRESHNESS WITH CURTIS STONE
To help promote Bosch’s new counter-depth refrigerator — with the innovative FarmFresh System — we collaborated with award-winning celebrity chef, Curtis Stone, to excite viewers about the new possibilities of using fresh ingredients in cooking and entertaining.
Knowing how passionate Curtis is about using the freshest ingredients, we came up with a concept to film Curtis Stone over the course of 24-hours as he plans a dinner party. We start with him shopping for fruits and vegtables at his favorite farmer’s market and then we see him prepping the fresh ingredients inside a Bosch-outfitted kitchen, and finally preparing a variety of colorful crostini appetizers for a very special meal.
Along the way, we see how Curtis interacts with the new Bosch refrigerator, while speaking to its innovative features that are designed to keep foods fresher longer.
In the end, we were able to edit this footage into a variety of social videos, all of which celebrate the importance of freshness. These videos out-performed all existing Bosch social assets and created a ton of organic engagement. The most popular posts within this campaign included three step-by-step “how to” videos where Curtis shows people at home how to bring mouth-watering crostini recipes to life.
When it came to top-tier car insurance providers, 21st Century was a challenger brand, not a category leader. Their message was simple: we offer the same great coverage for less. So in our first digitally-focused campaign, our goal was simply to crash the party. We wanted consumers to put 21st on the same consideration list as the giant insurance behemoths out there, because we knew their prices would speak for themselves.
These executions show our no-nonsense, non-verbal spokesperson using fun side-by-side comparisons to hammer home the main message: paying more for the same insurance is ridiculous. These premium display banners on MSNBC and Yahoo — as well as original YouTube channel content — went on to generate record site traffic numbers, huge engagement rates and all-time low CPMs.
As an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet for just five bucks, Cici’s pizza has always been a brand focused on great value. But “value” is about more than just cost. For restaurant guests, value also means choices, convenience and quality. Cici’s pizza needed to restore consumer’s trust that it still delivered on all sides of the “value” promise.
We launched a new campaign with the tagline Endless Value and created three playful, announcer-driven spots that touch on the various meanings of value. Their everyday low price along with an endless variety of menu items proved to be the winning formula, as this campaign helped Cici’s achieve a sustained boost in sales where previous campaign efforts had merely provided short-term spikes.
Tess Holliday Influencer Campaign
Driven by the desire to create beauty without boundaries, Sebastian Professional has been setting the standard in professional haircare for over 40 years. Our shared passion for creativity and artistry lead us to push the iconic black and white Sebastian branding to embody true self-expression through social and digital content.
We tapped well-known Instagram influencer Tess Holliday to represent Sebastian Professional, one of Coty’s edgier brands, as part of their “Shape Your World” campaign. The idea was simple — enlist Tess's 1.5 million followers in helping her choose the hairstyle she would ultimately wear to a social event. Styled by a Sebastian Professional stylist at Coty headquarters, the process was filmed and edited into a short instructional video. The final look was posted as a static image on Tess’s Instagram page and garnered over 20,000 likes and comments.
DIRECTV'S ANTI CHARTER CABLE CAMPAIGN
Charter Cable is one of DIRECTV’s biggest competitors. Fortunately, they’re also really bad when it comes to customer service, habitually receiving horrible scores in this category. I’ve always admired DIRECTV’s willingness to do aggressive advertising, and going after Charter Cable customers by bringing attention to their shoddy customer service was a target they just couldn’t resist. Made for some fun integrated advertising ideas.