Every bench press, every wrist shot, every fist pump—Bauer hockey players own every moment of the game. This brand campaign had kids embracing the message in ways we never expected. We found the tagline I wrote was tattooed on someone's back as well as shared between inspirational notes between the Canadian Olympic men and women's gold medal teams.
It's been said that nobody likes advertising. So where does that leave bank advertising? However, people do care about their own lives. So, to refresh the Commerce Bank brand, we focused on the beautifully complex aspect of people's life stages and how Commerce will focus on the daunting financial aspect so that you can focus on the good stuff.
The Minnesota Wild asked us to grow and engage their fan base for the the 2017 season. What we did is something that goes beyond advertising—something that would make people be fans regardless if the team wins or loses. In the land of 10,000 lakes—lakes that freeze into rinks in the winter, we developed a deeper bond with the community by asking them to contribute water from their lakes, ponds and backyard rinks to create the ice surface that the team skates on at the Xcel Energy center.
We set out to create a :30 for Best Buy and I wrote a longer format spot we kept in our back pockets. When I gave the script to the actors on set, neither guy had ever heard "Sister Christian" before. Nonetheless they totally nailed it. After seeing the popularity online, Art Director Matt Maly and I created a website as if designed and written by our dweeby little brother.
It's a rite of passage. It's a once in a career opportunity. It's an all-consuming, thankless project with absolutely no time or budget. It's The Show. Playing off the idea that the ad industry is a soap opera, we created our own Minnesota version, "The Passive And The Aggressive." In this campaign I worked as one of the writers poking fun at our ad community with OOH, pring, overdubbed video and Twiiter responses to RSVPs—all in that familiar passisve aggressive tone.
How do you get people to watch ads before a feature movie? Create ads that look and sound exactly like real movie trailers. This campaign for AMC theaters and their "Silence is Golden" program ran during actual trailers, encouraging people to silence their cell phones. Also, promotimg the idea, Brian Williams as art director an myself as writer, created a video that I can proudly say went "viral" with 12 million views. Please don't ask me to make a viral video though, it doesn't work like that.
Hockey kids live on their phones. It's the most crucial channel to engage with this audience. And we've done just that, creating content that kids and influencers like ESPN and The Hockey News share and repost by the millions. Here's a handful of that Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat content.
When Easton released their Synergy GX stick, it was a perfect match for LA Kings, bad-ass defenseman Drew Doughty. Rather than selling tech and spec we focused on what kids care about—attitude. Through print, video, social posts, and even a Snapchat filter, we didn't explain who this hockey stick was for, as much as who this hockey stick was not for.
At Modern Climate we relaunched GeekSquad.com. With help from my trusty sidekick Tristan Jimerson, we wrote every section, every page, every nerdy FAQ.
Hockey players have their own language, but they’ve been shut out without any hockey emojis. By creating the Bauer Keyboard, available in the iOS app store, we’ve allowed hockey fans to chirp their friends, brag about their goals and light the lamp with a full set of emoticons and gifs.
Most people don't love thinking about financial planning. We made it more fun and engaging with one of the first interactive apps for the tablet. This simple game makes the process less overwhelming, educating people along the way and in the end, getting them closer to building their financial foundation.
As a writer at Best Buy's in-house agency, I worked with multiple teams helping Best Buy advance their position in the marketplace by touting not only the largest breadth of technology solutions, but the expert "Blue Shirt" advice to get people exactly what they need. From Night Ranger to Michael Jackson's elephant and even an epic David LaChapelle page meltdown (that I still think may have been staged) we pulled out all the stops in this campaign.
Golden Gopher football was moving to a new outdoor stadium and art director Matt Maly and I used nostalgia, fresh air and irreverent college humor to encourage season ticket sales. Goodbye Metrodome, hello sunshine.
Like Got Milk for the California Milk Processing Board, Discover Boating is an association funded by marine manufactures to raise awareness and sales for boats. Over the years we helped them do that through digital advertising, earned media, influencer partnerships and more.
With the parody between beer marketing, it’s important to keep your beer top-of-mind. To push summer sales and get rural midwestern guys talking about Keystone Light we created the most ridiculous product ever. Introducing the ultimate vacation vest, helping you lug around every hiking necessity you didn’t know you needed. Except for one: a sixer of Keystone Light.
