Social posts and posters created for the United Nations open brief and posted on Instagram @hunkeringdown. It’s not often communications can help save lives. This is one of those times. #hunkerdownhelpdoctors
In 2019, I helped rebrand Shutterstock.
The line came after we found only the most striking images on the site, curated them and hung them all on a wall. It didn’t look like stock. It looked like art.
“It’s Not Stock. It’s Shutterstock.”
Our strategy became to simply demonstrate that Shutterstock could challenge your bias against “stock” and be a creative partner with every brand action. One of those actions: the award-winning viral sensation “Fyrestock”.
We used the buzz around two dueling documentaries (thanks Netflix and Hulu!) about Fyre Festival to build an exact replica of their promo video using only stock for a fraction of the price. People really liked it. It got a lot of press. Google it.
We started using stock to play off of all kinds of things…
We even kind of predicted the ending. Spooky.
(No spoilers.)
See? Stock can be creepy.
This campaign was one small step for stock. And one giant leap for Shutterstock sales. Interestingly, organic search shot through the roof, especially among our target audience of influential creatives.
We worked with Weight Watchers for years. It was a great experiment in customer co-creation, making users feel like part of the brand itself. In that time, the stock went up more than ten times in value, they tell me. Authenticity is money. (Sadly I didn’t invest. Sigh emoji.)
We didn’t have the time or budget for a shoot, so we invented a new way to capture testimonials. We called it The SELFIFESTO.
Oprah created a spot where she declared “I LOVE BREAD”. It resonated with people so we asked our members to make their own spot declaring their favorite foods. And, yes, Oprah loved it too. :)
We sent a shooter with a handheld to spend the day with the members we loved most. The result was intimate stories of weight loss and courage.
Including me! :)
Attendance at Boo At The Zoo, the Bronx Zoo’s annual Halloween event, had been dropping. We needed to make the event famous again. So we created an excited little girl dressed as a Flamingo and set her loose in Washington Square Park, asking people, “What are you going to be for Boo At The Zoo?” Of course, we brought hidden cameras too. We also created the Zoo’s first-ever experiential pop-up space, appealing to the creative influencers in NYC. Attendance increased 13% compared to the previous year and the Bronx Zoo saw a 20% increase in total revenue — the highest in six years.
Hey New York! What are you gonna be for Boo At The Zoo?!
A character families and hipsters can get behind? Check.
The campaign lived in digital, print and outdoor in NYC.
A pop-up experience in the LES for the Bronx Zoo.
Ever wonder where the people with all the answers get all the answers? Launched this campaign for Marcum that is still running.
To hardcore traders, Tradestation was the end-all-be-all. But they wanted to attract a new, younger audience. So we gave them a fresh new logo and look. Then we built a working barbershop in the Oculus in NYC and gave everyone a fresh new look, turning heads and portfolios.
Who says you can't build a pop-up barbershop for a financial services client?
What does a “trader” look like? Tradestation was built for any kind of trader.
Tradestation SALUTES is the first trading platform built for veterans and first-responders.
The Bronx Zoo wanted a big idea for their Spring event. So DiMassimo Goldstein created Boogie Down At The Zoo, a celebration of Bronx culture, including Hip Hop, Italian food, latin dances and graffiti. To promote the event, we got legendary Bronx graffiti artist John "Crash" Matos to paint a 1980 Chevy Caprice Taxi Cab. Then we put Crash, the notorious rapper Melle Mel (of Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five) and the original lyricist Grandmaster Caz into the Boogie Down cab for a special ride to the greatest zoo on earth.
How to make your very own Boogie Down promo: 1. Paint a cab. 2. Fill it with Bronx heroes. 3. Bring lots of cameras.
Three Bronx legends. Four if you count the cab.
We put a little boogie in the entire zoo experience.
The great thing about a credit union is that your money stays in the community. We worked with real Affinity Federal Credit Union members to use their COMMUNITY CONNECTED to co-create a campaign based on real member stories. It gives an authentic, human face to the largest FCU based in New Jersey. And it gets people talking.
Co-created with our members using the SELFIFESTO process we developed.
We saw a post on Facebook that we got a new member because his neighbor was “the chicken guy” in an ad he had seen. So we made an ad about that. And they sang our tagline. Yay!
We had an opportunity to buy some space on Hulu. So we thought it would be fun to let our members recommend some tv show ideas. And, of course, our awesome mortgage product.
We found out a bunch of our members were musicians. So we wrote a song with them.
We wanted to demonstrate to Fat Cat bank customers how painful their fees could be. Did we go too far? ;)
Co-creation isn’t just less expensive. It’s fun. :)
Budweiser wanted to do a campaign for the troops. Our idea was to get one soldier home from Iraq or Afghanistan and surprise him or her with a ticker tape parade in their home town. (I had remembered ticker tape parades from the 90s when my friends came home from the first Iraq war but learned that, due to modern deployment, those didn’t happen anymore.)
We worked with the Department of Defense to identify a soldier, then we worked with his unit, his family and his hometown VFW to plan a parade he’d never forget, including, of course, the Budweiser Clydesdales.
I have only cried in earnest on one shoot. And this was that shoot. They were tears of joy. I’ve never felt such pride in my craft. And such humility in the knowledge that my job is easy compared to what every soldier i met that month went through. Thanks to Anomaly, Budweiser, the VFW and all our men and women in uniform for letting me play a part in this.
The Budweiser Super Bowl XLVIII commercial where we helped make one soldier's homecoming unforgettable.
“Many people have never read our words either.”
“Here’s to another 100 years of great times.”
Bloomberg was founded on the concept of helping their customers see what others can’t. We decided to demonstrate that in real-time. So we made data visualizations that connected Bloomberg data into a story. Each was made in a day, so that the information was always as fresh as the news itself.
FedEx was a fun client to write for. Eric Silver was the reason these are so funny. He made us write a LOT of scripts. In fact, I still pull out ideas from the pile now and then, even today.
This was the spec idea. Ted Melfi directed. I love making stuff.
Here’s a classic from my BBDO writer days. The guy on the right is Art Carney’s son. He was in a Geico commercial later.
Another classic from the 1900s. I thought the casting was too broad. I was WRONG.
Working with the actual Cliff Freeman was a dream come true. Working with Cliff on Quiznos still strikes me as something that approaches perfection. The $5 campaign was conceived during a Monday morning phone call with the client who needed an answer to Subway’s Five Dollar Footlong asap. He approved the concept right there and then we wrote scripts, flew to L.A., shot it, flew back, edited it and got it on-air in just 8 days. And it worked. Although i did gain twenty pounds in the process. (Those sandwiches are really tasty.)
Insight: Subway’s five dollar footlong tastes like a five dollar bill.
Or five one dollar bills. More filling, just as tasteless.
Quiznos delivers.
Quiznos had just lowered the prices on their sandwiches. Even prime rib. This spot wrote itself.
Stride gum lasts a ridiculously long time. They had a campaign that featured Stride executives using a ram to try to get people to spit out their existing piece and chew another one. Normally, when you take over a campaign that good and weird, the only place it can go is less good and less weird. I think we took it to another level. But you be the judge. Also, ironically, I saved the head client’s life by using the Heimlich maneuver at lunch one day. How weird is that? (True story.)
Perhaps the most messed up ad for chewing gum ever filmed.
Stride is famous for saying "Chew another piece already, or we'll find you." In this Facebook app, we used a Google Maps mash-up to take this to a whole other level. Type in any U.S. address and watch the famous Stride van pull up outside a Street View image of YOUR house, ready to upgrade you to new Stride 2.0, whether you're ready or not. The app also included a store finder to help you upgrade and the first 10,000 people to enter their addresses got free packs of the new gum.
To drive people to The Stride League of Ridiculously Long-Lasting Records, we conceived of a banner ad that would test the limits of mankind's ability to click a mouse and hold it. The results, a click-through rate that is currently at .9% (the industry standard is .07%) and one young gentleman who held a click for twenty-two minutes.
Stride was coming out with a Mega Mystery flavor. What did it taste like? We did this misinformation campaign. Eat your heart out, Russian hackers.
The jingles were supposed to reveal the secret flavor of Stride Mega Mystery. Only they didn't. (Insert evil laugh).
To 1-up Stride’s already tight relationship with the gaming community, we created the awesomely retro shooter game from the future: Cowbots 2010! The game's mission was two-fold: 1) Save the McMooley's farm from herds of mad, robotic cows 2) Save the foundation of modern gaming as we know it—the classic video arcade. The arcade that ultimately racked-up the most fan-donated points was awarded $25k (in quarters of course).
Versus was a cable television network dedicated to “manly” sports. It eventually became NBCSN. Our strategy was to make work that was real and raw and showed the deep competitive nature of the athletes themselves. Got to meet lots of NHL players and bull riders. And the work still holds up.
Do not underestimate Michel Briere.
Shot on a red camera at 300 frames per second or something like that. I love it when the spur breaks the rope.