(Writer, Creative Director)
Kashi wanted to take a hardcore health brand and open it up to the mainstream. So we channeled the employees’ intense, yet somehow infectious enthusiasm for grains and turned it into a nearly decade long crusade for feeling good.
Documentary filmmakers The Malloys brought a fresh approach to real-people advertising. And their sense of adventure didn’t hurt either. Monsoons? Check. Stampeding Cows? Check.
The 360 campaign helped Kashi grow household penetration from 10 percent to nearly 1 in 4 households. Or as Kashi would put it, millions more people eating and feeling well.
(Writer)
The Girl Scouts had a problem. They were too ‘nice’.
The Northern California chapter needed to change their image to reflect who they are in today’s world. And in true non-profit form, they had zero budget. The creative had to be good enough to get a director and photographer to sign on pro bono. And cool enough to get girls to sign up in spite of those uniforms.
(Creative Director)
Bear Naked was an upstart granola brand trying to break into the energy space with active young adults.
The competition was focused on fueling high performance, so we left-turned and championed people who get active just for the gosh darn joy of it. Our hook? Mash-up sports you’ve never heard of but definitely want to try.
In markets with advertising, sales increased by 14 percent and users on Facebook nearly doubled.
CW: Ariel Lustig AD: Tonya Merke
(Creative Director)
How do you launch a new category of vitamins that taste great and melt in your mouth? With a virtual experience iAd of course.
Users submitted a selfie of their tongue for a “flavor fortune reading” and a got a specific VitaMelt recommendation. People could share their readings–and their tongues–via Twitter.
The promotion exceeded Apple’s engagement benchmark by 140% and resulted in almost 50,000 location-aware searches for product availability. It also led to several severe addictions in our creative department.
AD: Tonya Merke CW: Josslyn Mikow
(Writer, Creative Director)
Kashi was out to prove health food could taste good, not remotely like its cardboard reputation. So we issued a challenge: if consumers didn’t like the granola bars then Kashi’s food developer would eat the cardboard box they come in.
We built the story through TV, in-store, microsite, word of mouth videos, email blasts and even the sample mailer. All told, Kashi gave over a million samples, 100K people came back to the site to vote, and they had their highest sales of granola bars ever.
And no, he did not have to eat the box.
(Writer)
The San Francisco Zoo had a shiny new resident: Antoine LeBlanc. Our job was to get the word out and get ticket sales up. Renowned illustrator J. Otto contributed the dynamic type and visuals (though not the copy, to his considerable disappointment).
Free fun party fact: Antoine had to be lathered with sunscreen before going outside.
Here are a few more pieces I'm proud of.
If you are just dying to see my writing samples of sales videos, trade show presentations, 40k banners, microsites, brand videos or really just about anything else, then please, don't die. Just ask me for it.
There's more where this work came from. Plus distant cousins like brochures, sell sheets, campaign roll-out guides and all the glamorous stuff. Give a shout if you want to see something from the vault.
As Creative Director and Writer at Amazon Advertising, I've helped un-nerd the Girl Scouts, reframed Jamba Juice as a meal through a straw and defined Ravenswood as the wine that stands firmly against bland. I've helped Amazon grow from a fledgling boutique to a strategic powerhouse delivering standout creative to startups and Fortune 500s alike.
Solving puzzles is what gets me out of bed in the morning. That and donuts.
