Test drives are crucial to the car-buying process. But studies prove that people have a distrust of car salespeople. As a result, customers have avoided dealerships and test drives, limiting themselves to just one or two when in the market to buy a car. We found a way to make the Volkswagen ID.4 test drive a more comfortable, more trusted part of the car-buying experience.

They call themselves “Flat Earthers” and their movement has grown to see celebrities join, and they even have an annual conference. For obvious reasons, no respectable company has ever engaged with this “conspiracy theory.” Until 2021. One brand and its biggest distributor shook the industry by publicly declaring their mission to flatten the earth.

Awards
1 Gold Addy (Regional)
1 Silver Addy (Regional)
1 Merit Addy (Regional)
2 Gold Addys (Local)
4 Silver Addys (Local)
2 Drum Awards
1 Silver Epica Award
1 Bronze Epica Award
1 LIA Award

In Saudi Arabia, Coke is #2. So we found a way to leverage a place where it has always been indisputably #1, in movies and TV, and turned that into a commerce trigger – something no competitor could compete with.

Awards
Cannes Silver Lion

Dubai Lynx Grand Prix (3x)
Dubai Lynx Bronze (4x)

New York Festival Gold
New York Festival Silver (3x)

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.

Award
Gold Reggie

Sometimes creativity involves more than the concept, the message, and the execution. Sometimes we need to get creative to operationalize a new architecture for data migration and creative implementation.

For Mazda RGTM +, we designed a system that migrated 1st party data at the Tier 1 level to the Tier 3 level to keep potential customers within the Mazda purchase funnel.

We built a Dynamic Creative Optimization model to customize 1700+ uniquely tagged TV spots month over month. Without the ability to create unique spots accurately and at that volume was critical to the program’s success.

The results were exceptional:
• Participating dealers saw a 35% growth vs non-participants
• Mazda was one of only three auto-makers to experience growth in 2020
• Spots produced with less than .0025% error rate

This program was all about turning a unique product attribute and using it to create a campaign no one else could pull off. Remove the Cheetos name and people will still know it is Cheetos.

And the stage is as big as any. Tapping into the new aggressive rules of MLB to crack down on pitchers using foreign substances, Cheetos has a way to work it’s way into the conversation.

Castrol EDGE needed a new TV campaign. Their parent company, BP, engaged their agency in England to develop the creative and when it was delivered to the US, it fell flat. We were tasked with developing a spot that would resonate with their market in the States. When they tested the spots we developed, the scores were so high and the response so positive, the decision was made to produce all three.

EchoPark is one of the largest auto resellers in the country today. They needed a campaign that not only worked to maintain their retail momentum, they needed to build their brand as they launched in more and more new markets. We seized upon an insight that hinged on one key phrase:

"I have a new car!”

Funny things is … most people don’t care if it’s brand-new or used; nobody even asks.

All that matters is that it’s new to you.

Moms have a dark side. They are every bit the nurturing supportive loving people we all know them to be, but they definitely have a dark side. And it comes out the moment their family is threatened. Something as simple as a bug in their house turns any mom into a cold-blooded killer.

Moms Who Kill marries Mom’s attitude toward bugs, the media she consume, and a product she needs in a seamless blended campaign. An estimated 73% of monthly True Crime podcast listeners are women. The fit is so natural it almost blurs the lines between media content and advertising message.

Any Certified Pre-Owned Mazda needs to show what makes them different – the connection between the driver and the vehicle. This display of genuine affection for the vehicle not only showcases that bond, it also gives any buyer of a Mazda Certified Pre-Owned vehicle confidence to buy.

When the sound is right, the music can take a musician anywhere they want to go. Whether that means igniting the crowd or igniting their own soul, Boss Tuners make it all possible. We created this campaign to bring that sentiment to life. Because just as surely as the right sound can make magic happen, the wrong sound can make bad things happen. That’s how the right tuner makes all the difference.

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.

Awards
Cannes Shortlist
One Show Merit
PROMO Gold x3
• Best Idea or Concept
• Best Multidiscipline Promotion
• Best Promotion Generating Brand Awareness

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.

Award
Addy Best of Show – Broadcast

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. He said he sold an X5 specifically because of that poster, and the buyer liked it so much he took the poster with him.

Summer is certainly an exciting time of year. The season offers up all sorts of fun activities for families to enjoy, but the added cost of summer can leave funds depleted. That’s why Walmart and Dr Pepper teamed up this summer to give people a chance to have more FUNds to embrace the excitement of summer.

Through a gamification sweepstakes and other offers communicated via traditional and digital media, we made Dr Pepper the easy choice for summer fun seekers. Targeting Young Millennials and Shopper Parents, Walmart and Dr Pepper were able to win baskets during a highly competitive season.

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 its role in those households from mixer, to food ingredient for a variety of flavorful meals they could enjoy all year long.

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.

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.

Here are a few of my favorites from over the years. Some ran, some didn’t. But all had something special. Enjoy.