Creative Director
As an Emmy-winning executive creative director and agency leader, I’ve led the charge for brands of all size at shops of all size – often at times when they needed their stories to completely change the game.
To me, that means creating a truly authentic voice that reframes what the brand already does best, while also pointing the way towards future promises. Here are a few of my favorite frames across time.
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Brewery Ommegang: Where Heaven Met Earth and Stayed Awhile
THE CHALLENGE: Brewery Ommegang is a rare one, making fine Belgian beers on some truly hallowed ground in Cooperstown, NY. But they’d never connected the dots between the source of their own inspiration and the outstanding quality of their beers.
THE CHANGE: “Where Heaven Met Earth and Stayed Awhile,” offered a sense of place that became the natural start to each story. The beers themselves happened here, so Ommegang was free to tell how each came to be – and how each pairs uniquely with life.
Microsoft Windows: Start Something
THE CHALLENGE: Windows was (and still is) the biggest desktop operating system with the most applications available everywhere. And yet, they’d focused solely on the productivity story, and seemed to cede the notions of creativity and passion to Apple.
THE CHANGE: With “Start Something,” we took a familiar launch point and showed how it could take you anywhere your passions might go. To keep the feel personal, we took a core set of stories and re-wrote, re-cast and re-shot them in a dozen languages around the world. No dubbing, no sub-titling, no sense of passion belonging to someone else.
HP: The Computer is Personal Again
THE CHALLENGE: When it came to home computers, HP was truly the victim of its own engineering success. Their line-up was awesome and powerful, yet sprawling and hard for customers to wrap their heads around. Wasn’t there a simpler way to see things?
THE CHANGE: The answer was to think of the person, not the PC, and then show how HP made the computer “personal again.” I was proud to be part of the great GSP team that developed this campaign, and I wrote this global launch spot as the first chapter in a new story.
Laws of Attraction: Agency LOA
THE CHALLENGE: When I joined a small digital agency in SF called Real Branding – small, but with some big seats at the table with Unilever, AB and Pepsi-Lipton – task #1 was to rebrand the agency itself. We needed something as wide open as our new way of thinking.
THE CHANGE: Working with Dinetz Design Studio in SF, we began to look for a new place in a digital world with its ever-changing rules. Instead of rules, we spoke to the dynamics of how good ideas & intentions naturally come together, if you let ‘em, so we can all win the prize.
Toyota: Wouldn’t it Be Nice?
THE CHALLENGE: Reliability. Safety. Power. Choice. Toyota offered core values that really mattered to drivers in the California market, but they had never really found a way to speak about them directly.
THE CHANGE: With “Wouldn’t it Be Nice?,” every value could take its place in everyday life, showing that the car you need could also be the car you they want. Breakthrough news? No. But a smart and simple shift of perspective that really broke through? Absolutely.
Cool School: Think a Little Big
THE CHALLENGE: Cool School is a collection of YouTube-based shows committed to offering kids fun, imagination and positivity in every short episode. But even with well over a billion watched minutes, they were still a bit less than the sum of their parts.
THE CHANGE: With “Think a Little Big,” we brought the essential spirit of all the different shows to the forefront in a singular way. This offered both a genuine promise that could both attract viewers and serve as a guiding light for their shows moving forward.
Arco: Straight Up Gas
Arco Radio featuring JK Simmons
The CHALLENGE: All gas is the same! No, cheap gas is lousy gas! Okay, sometimes, the truth is hard to find. But, somehow, we had to convince people that Arco gas is actually as good as premium gas blends from the big brands, which it is.
THE CHANGE: With “Straight Up Gas,” Arco just told the straight up truth in a way drivers could trust. When good gas for less cash is your unique formula, well… just say it. Finally, the value shined in their voice – which included the talents of JK Simmons on radio.
MSN: It’s Better With the Butterfly
THE CHALLENGE: Who needs a site that tries to offer you everything when the internet already offers everything and more? Many campaigns already tried and failed with the “all you could ever need” strategy, so we had to make more of less.
THE CHANGE: With our kaleidoscope of butterfly guys, we brought a mess of different services and features together as a very singular type of relationship, with MSN always here as a helpful friend whenever and however you might need.
More Brands, More Stories
Folks generally start off with their general TV reel, but I thought I end with it. Heart and humor, from across the years.
THE CHALLENGES AND CHANGES: Across my years in Chicago, Detroit, New York, San Francisco and now Boulder, I’ve been lucky enough to work with many brands facing big moments of change. Some creatives don’t like to show old-as-bones work, but if the heart, humor and brand judo still hold up, I think it just shows a nice, long history of really solving problems.
