This was my first foray into the automotive world. And what a great brand to start with. The only TV spot I ever worked on that went all the way from the first presentation to execution without changing at all was the Repeat Buyer BMW spot. Lots of awards followed that one. 

But one of the greatest thrills of my career was when a dealership in Florida called my agency looking for a reprint of the poster. His call was directed to me rather than a print producer for some reason. He said he sold an X5 specifically because of that poster, and the buyer liked it so much he took the poster with him.

This Hyundai project was an interesting journey. Plenty of challenges presented themselves along the way. Shooting footage in California and Alabama over a span of a couple of months. Dealing with Korean factory managers who weren't interested in the perfect angle and lighting for the shot. Realizing that California brush fires that are upwind from your location will create a dense, smoky haze in the shot unless you find a new location pronto. And finally, a CMO whose mission was to centralize the entire Hyundai Dealership Association's media budget.

The last one on that list is the one that pulled the plug on 95% of the media buy for this $6,000,000 shoot. Many of these spots only ran for a short time.

But they can be enjoyed forever right here.

Nissan was launching the brand new, fully re-engineered Nissan Titan at the State Fair of Texas – the biggest truck show event of the year. They needed to make a big enough splash to overcome the truck-driving world's preconceived notions about trucks that don't bear a Chevy, Ford, or Dodge badge. Nissan had to get attention and drive home toughness and strength. The Nissan Titan of Texas Challenge answered the call.

Competitors came from all over the country to compete and see if they also had a full measure of toughness and strength. And with celebrity competitors competing, the spectators turned out as well. This award-winning campaign campaign drew a crowd, and delivered a strong message.

Clamato had an opportunity to accomplish several important goals for itself and for Walmart. Prior to this program, Clamato was viewed primarily as a mixer and was merchandised exclusively on the juice aisle. But Clamato is also an outstanding cooking ingredient, particularly for seafood dishes. Lent presented a perfect time period to roll out this new usage as Hispanic shoppers are searching for solutions throughout this season. This campaign helped Walmart achieve a priority objective of owning non-traditional seasons. 

Clamato saw a massive increase in household penetration and expanded it role in those households from mixer, to food ingredient for a variety of flavorful meals they could enjoy all year long. 

I've worked on Dr Pepper at two different stops in my career. As the Creative Director at IN Marketing, I oversee programs for all retailers, all channels and all brands from concept through execution.

With Circle K, we created a program designed to create loyalty in a channel where loyalty is hard to come by – convenience stores. We became the first brand to ever be allowed to integrate into the Circle K app. We drove thousands of app downloads, and users scanned an average of 10 qualifying Dr Pepper purchases.

During my time at Square 1, I single-handedly held down the creative end of the national promotions for Dr Pepper for 18 months. The concepting, writing, design and art direction all were on my desk. It was fun working through college football promotions, partnerships like with Southwest Airlines, Nintendo and Spider-Man, and blue-sky asks like the one that became the Ginormous Mini Cooper Giveaway. 

How do you take a major national campaign and drill it down to the masses as effectively as possible? The Lay's Do Us a Flavor campaign was an award-winning case study on driving a huge brand idea all the way through to huge sales. 

We built a comprehensive shopper program that pushed customized Do Us a Flavor overlays into more retailers than Frito-Lay had ever been in before. Walmart got an exclusive single-serve 6-pack to offer. Kroger got a Free for All program that echoes to this day through their Free Friday Download. Target had an exclusive celebrity-driven promotion. And 16 small retailers, collectively 3x stronger than the largest retail grocery chain in the U.S., received a customizable program for them to place in their stores.

IronKids bread noticed a trend. A lot of women were buying their bread – not for their kids, but for themselves. They decided to do a marketing test run on this insight. They bought an insert and we concerted the first ad here. Then 24 hours before the shoot, someone realized that the insert needed a second side. (Apparently, magazine pages have two sides. Who knew?) So we scrambled and came up with the answer – an answer from a coworker. Christy and Karen's little squabble resulted in a bunch of awards.

Nestea was rolling out tea in a brand new form. It was Nestea Liquid Concentrate. We got the standard brief that talks about how good it tastes. At the first shareout, my copywriter and I showed something that was off brief. Simply put, taste is the most distrusted claim in advertising (along with "peace of mind"). We focused on the other attributes of the product. The campaign that we came up with was light-hearted, fun and brought to light the three things that people can believe from a print ad: it's instant, it's refreshing, and it's all natural. Taste is something they will decide through sampling and trial.

Thanksgiving time is the Super Bowl for brands that sell turkeys. And Honeysuckle White set out to remind everyone that at the center of the entire holiday feast was the bird. The holiday has a nickname. And there's only one thing mentioned. It's Turkey Day.

Then a funny thing happened. In my career, this ad generated more hate mail than any other. Seems some people took umbrage that we would suggest the Turkey is more important than the "Thanks" part of the deal. So what does a client do under these circumstances? Do they forge ahead standing steadfastly behind the creative that they believed in and produced? Or do they fold like a cheap suit. Unfortunately, they caved. So what you see here is the rarely seen before, unedited, unrated version of the spot. 

Jewelry stores are hard to separate. It seems that they all sell a range of jewelry and the only way to make them feel different (super high-end stores like Tiffany's excluded) is for them to show that they understand you. But how do you do that while elevating the brand? Bailey, Banks & Biddle has a long tradition. We wanted to use that truth to show that we understand why people buy jewelry. It's rarely the object. It's the emotion. And that emotion is usually tied to a reason or a moment. We built our campaign using the "Since 1832" tagline. Since that's what resonates with people.

What do you say in an ad about a brand whose name is so descriptive? Well, all you need to do is make it stick. Make it memorable. The spin on these classics give people the wink and smile to help them remember the name. Sometimes the simplest ads are all that's necessary.

Comcast was always an exciting adventure. A lot to say, but only a standard-length tv spot to communicate it all. We found that by profiling these fictional businesses, we got to say a lot while bring entertainment value along the way. They ware shot by Rob Pritts, who (I am sure I don't need to tell you) was the director of Corky Romano, Chris Kattan's film about a quirky son of a mafia boss who is conscripted to work for the FBI.

So here's a fun project to work on. Cast iron skillets. Lodge already has the best known name in the business, but in the eyes of everyone, it's cast iron. How much difference could there be? So let's have some fun. Let's give Lodge a bit of a voice. There were a lot of laughs pulling this one together.

The biggest giveaway in Oklahoma Casino History! The Osage Million Dollar Elm casino was giving one lucky winner $1 million. We needed to get the word out. We spoke to people in a way that they could relate to. "How will I fit in with other millionaires?" "How will I act?" "What will I need?" This was the essence of the campaign. People preparing for the new lives they will have. It was complete with TV, print, interactive, guerrilla, and innovative media placements. And the response was overwhelming from both the casino patrons and the awards shows. 

Addy Best of Show – Broadcast

Not every assignment we get is a full-blown campaign, right? Here's a few that were one-offs, but still did a great job of showing off a product benefit in a memorable way.

Along with being a sports fan, this is one of my hobbies. This is the same shot Steve Mizerak hit in his famous Miller Lite commercial from the early 80s.