There’s only one Christopher Walken and only one BMW i5. The rest are just imitations. This doesn’t mean, of course, that people don’t keep trying to imitate both. Our Super Bowl LVIII spot with GS&P was voted #1 in the New York Times and Esquire Magazine polls, #1 Most Liked spot in Ad Age, and ranked #7 in USA Today. Not-a too-a shabby.
Somewhere along the way, TV got complicated. It started costing money. Too much scrolling looking for something good to watch. For our Super Bowl spot, we created and documented a functioning couch potato farmto celebrate Pluto TV dedication to making TV as it should be - free and easy.
Previously “radio-station” only, Pandora was about to offer their listeners the ability to create playlists for the very first time.
And so, our #SoundsLikeYou integrated campaign was born, with a launch film directed by none other than Michel Gondry, whose genuine love of music was on full display in the visually stunning way he brought this story to life.
Simultaneously, we asked close to two dozen of today’s top musical artists to create their own playlists, giving fans a unique perspective into their artistic journeys and influences. We then teamed up with Colossal, a collective of street artists, to bring this all to life with large-scale, hand-painted murals in major cities. When Pandora subscribers held their phones up to the murals, the artist’s playlist was instantly triggered.
Our work drove Pandora’s subscriber numbers through the roof, while going on to win industry accolades at Cannes and the Clios.
Prius had more than a new tagline it had a whole new philosophy. “Harmony between Man, Nature and Machine.” And we wanted to introduce it to the world biggest way possible.
Nascar was looking to create a Super Bowl spot that could shift the focus away from football for sixty seconds and remind people that there’s an even more exciting sport out there. So, we got Nick Offerman involved, wrote a song for him, put a guy in American flag thong, and the rest is history. It became a massive viral hit with millions of views in the first week alone, then went on to win awards at the Emmys and Clios.
The California Milk Processor’s Board was looking for a commercial to remedy an unexplained slide in milk sales. Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein were looking for a spot that could sit with the likes of the classic Aaron Burr, the spot that kicked off their storied era of Got Milk spots ten years earlier. In the end, we were proud and relieved to accomplish both, while going on to win a Gold Lion at Cannes and numerous other accolades including Adweek’s Best Spot of the Year.
Bubly was having a name recognition problem. Lucky for us, Michael Bublé was not.
Working with the team at GS&P, we kicked off our integrated Bubly vs. Bublé campaign with a Super Bowl spot that hit #7 on the USA Today Ad Meter. The day the spot hit, we kicked off a massive social campaign that quickly took on a life of its own – with fans, stores, and even other brands getting in on the “Bublé-ing” action. PR was off the charts, including a segment on Ellen that went viral.
In the end, the campaign received over 7 billion impressions and tripled Bubly’s growth in the sparkling water category. Now that’s something to croon about.
Idorsia Pharmaceuticals brought their QUVIVIC sleep medication to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in search of a different take on the pharma campaigns out in the world - work that put even those with insomnia – to sleep. So we teamed up with Lindsey Vonn and Taye Diggs to create 360 campaigns that successfully brought a tiny bit or humanity and humor to a category that was long overdue.
Grandma’s Cookies is fortunate to have the best name a cookie could ever hope for. However, with the exception of a picture of a grandma on their package, they’d never done anything to connect their brand to the nostalgia and warmth that actual grandmas make us feel. And after over a hundred years of making cookies, we thought it was high time they did.
So, we created a series of pre-roll videos that put the Grandma in Grandma’s, and quickly racked up millions of views on YouTube.
When Universal Pictures was getting set to release the movie The Devil Wears Prada, based on Lauren Weisberger’s best selling novel, they came to me to create an iconic poster to generate excitement around the movie. I was told that since Meryl Streep was starring in the movie we would eventually have to put her face on the poster and that my original design would be used as a teaser. As the story goes, Meryl loved the iconic image so much she actually told the studio it should be the main poster and it would be a mistake to put her image on it. Well, Meryl was right. The poster became so popular that it was eventually used on book covers, DVD’s, soundtracks and over fifty International posters.
TD Ameritrade has a simple investing philosophy; Don’t focus on the big, long-term goal way off in the future, but rather on the small everyday steps that will ultimately lead you there.
When TDA became a sponsor of the Olympics, they asked us for an integrated campaign that celebrated their athletes, while also infusing that investment ethos into the work.
As it turned out, the mindset of an Olympian had a lot in common with that ethos. Their focus wasn’t on making it to the Olympics, but instead, on their daily routines, workouts and competitions.
Our 360 campaign told the athlete’s stories in TV, digital, social and TDA branches. We created a wildly successful social program, #ItAddsUp, opening up brokerage accounts for tomorrow’s athletes and inviting others to chip in, to further illustrate our campaign promise that every little bit helps gets you closer.
There are thousands of scientific studies about quitting smoking. All of which, we felt, could be boiled down to two very unscientific words; It sucks.
With Nicorette, we had an opportunity to speak honestly with smokers about quitting for perhaps the first time in their lives – to tell them that despite what other companies might have them believe, there is no magic bullet.
Our campaign promise was simply that quitting will, indeed, suck, but that we can help it to suck less. And further, that the difference between sucking and sucking less can mean everything when you’re trying to quit.
In support of this idea, we created a 360 campaign of TV, print and digital that centered around our Suckometer machine and app, which allowed quitters to log their mood, track their progress, and get tips and support from others smokers in the Nicorette community.
The results were huge, which on a project like this, felt pretty gratifying. Getting Johnson & Johnson to use the word “suck” felt pretty good, too.
It’s been a long road for plant milks. While the industry was exploding, many people still assumed that drinking alt milks meant sacrificing taste.
But Califia knew that their line of milks was so delicious, it would only take one sip for people to realize that the days of sacrifices were over.
We worked with Harold Einstein to bring those first sips to life in a series of films featuring unsuspecting people trying Califia and experiencing unexpected moments of discovery, AKA, Calilujah moments!
Kevin Durant spent many years in Oklahoma City playing for the Thunder, where Sonic happens to be based. So it seemed to make sense to get them together for a spot. What didn’t totally make sense was KD fantasizing about Sonic’s new candy slushes and what life would be like as a farmer living on a Jolly Ranch. But it sure did crack us up.
Tostitos Cantina chips and dips are inspired by the authentic flavors of Mexico. So to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, we produced our own “spicy” Mexican telenovela series, Botanas del Cielo! (Snacks from Heaven!) and hired Pitipol Ybarra, one of Mexico City’s most revered telenovela directors, to film it in Spanish in Mexico City.
Each episode centers around characters who live unusually dramatic lives while eating lots and lots of Tostitos. The campaign included a dramatic trailer, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and a “telenovela yourself” app that allowed fans to GIF themselves right into the action.
The PR surrounding the launch was massive, as were Tostitos sales during Cinco de Mayo - their highest numbers to date.
In an effort to help the NBA to dethrone the NFL as the viewership king on Christmas Day, we enlisted the help of Santa to rebrand Christmas as, ‘XMS: The Official Holiday of the NBA’.
In our 360 campaign, Santa gave some of the NBA’s biggest stars a one-of-a-kind platform; his lap. During the weeks leading up to the big day, he was everywhere; broadcast, social, ESPN in-show appearances, music videos, and more. The results were huge - a 39% increase in ratings, the network’s biggest in ten years.
Pacific Bell was one of the first Telcos to enter the world of cable internet. In order to be successful, they needed to communicate their unique advantage over cable companies - faster service through a dedicated line that wasn’t shared with your neighbors. Through the fictitious utopian neighborhood of Laurel Lane, we created a campaign depicting all that can go wrong when people share a cable line.
Subscriber numbers went through the roof as the campaign went on to win awards at every major show, including a Gold Lion at Cannes, a Gold Effie and the distinction of Advertising Age’s Campaign of the Year.
I’m the co-owner of Bald Guy Greetings, a humorous line of greeting cards I’ve been illustrating and designing since 2008. We’re in thousands of stores all over the country and are currently the #2 selling greeting card company in Target.
You can check out more of the cards at baldguygreetings.com.
