In between briefs I had a thought. That became an idea. That became a partnership with Google. That became an award-winning experience. TL;DR: while a day at Legoland Florida is super duper fun, the ride to Legoland Florida (with excited kids trapped in a moving vehicle for hours at a time) is quite likely…not. The result was the first GPS made entirely for kids—filled with Legoland-themed games, trivia, and real-time landmark pop-ups to make the drive super duper fun, too.

You’re welcome, parents.

Recognition:
Silver Cannes Lion: Mobile Entertainment / Brand Experience
Silver Cannes Lion: Mobile Innovation / Brand Experience
Bronze Cannes Lion: Digital Craft Native & Built-In Feature Integration
Bronze Cannes Lion: Mobile Activation by Location
Bronze Cannes Lion: Design Graphic Design
D&AD Wood Pencil: Digital & MobileGraphic Design
One Show Silver Cube: Interactive: Apps / GPS / Location Technology
Webby: People’s Choice Games: Family & Kids
Webby: Mobile Sites & Apps / Best Use of Location Technology
Silver Jay Chiat Award: Strategic ExcellenceProduct / Service Creation
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Creative Data Use Of Real-Time Data
2 Cannes Lions Shortlists: Outdoor Travel & Transport
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Design App
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Entertainment Excellence in Partnerships
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Digital Craft Data / Storytelling
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Digital Craft Innovative / Use of Technology
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Entertainment Digital & Mobile Games
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Mobile Data / Insight
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Creative Data / Data-Technology
Communication Arts Mobile Winner: Annual 58
AIGA Winner: tgold cl Mobile Games / Apps
Gold Ciclope Award: Digital Craft App
Gold El Ojo de Iberoamerica Award: Better Experience / Use of Data
2 Silver El Ojo de Iberoamerica Awards: Mobile Games / Use of Data
The A-List Awards Shortlist: Interactive Games
Silver London International Awards: Digital Apps

Metro wanted to keep the Nada Yada Yada-ness going for another campaign, and we created just the guy to do it: the Nada Yada Yada News guy. Who else?

Led and won a pitch for T-Mobile’s 2023 holiday project. And they gifted us with a challenge: help them spread some extra holiday joy. So we partnered with pop culture icons and comedy-music trio The Gregory Brothers to create a custom holiday song. The new classic got 4.3 million views, very merry KPIs, and praise from TikTokers who don’t typically respond well to ads in their feeds.

Feast your ears on Tech Genius On The Holidays.

Metro challenged us to take their new brand positioning—Nada Yada Yada—and do something YouTube native-y. We accepted, and delivered. Introducing Yada Yada or Nada Yada Yada, the first game show created specifically for YouTube that asks, “Are you getting screwed by your wireless provider?”

This work performed insanely well on the platform—thank you, YouTubers.

Fans of AMC Network’s Into The Badlands turn to social media in between seasons. So before the long-awaited third season, we kept the fandom going in the form of the first miniseries created only for Instagram Stories. Each episode featured custom storylines that never aired on TV—turning mindless tapping into life or death decisions. For the first time, fans could enter the Badlands and control their favorite characters—and their fates—to see if they had what it takes to survive the Badlands.

To make it possible (since we had no access to the stars of the show), I transcribed every episode from the first two seasons and strategically pieced together VO from The Widow that sounded like it was actually recorded. Along the way, I learned how to speak like an oil baron who led an army and murdered her husband.

All in a day’s work.

Recognition:
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Social & Influencer / Brand Storytelling

How do you train retail employees across the globe on a new product launch that isn’t ready to launch yet? Introducing Beats Tempo: a highly dynamic, universal retail training platform that can scale to a global salesforce overnight. It launched in 20+ languages, trained over 600,000 employees worldwide, and fundamentally changed how Apple brings new product initiatives to market.

Recognition:
D&AD Graphite Pencil — Design Transformation / Operational Transformation Category

D&AD Wood Pencil — Digital Design / Service Digitisation Category

Best Visual Design Webby Nominee — Aesthetic in the Apps, Mobile, and Voice Category

FWA of The Day

ORB was a new vitamin company targeting people who wanted to perform better in all aspects of life. With SKUs like Mental Focus + Mood, Sleep Complex, and Smooth Energy, orb-shaped packaging, and time-released formulas, it struck me during the kickoff that these are the vitamins of the future. And that anyone who takes them is on their way to becoming…Future Human.

Come on Future Human, let’s go on a little tour, shall we?

Once upon a holiday season in Ad Land, my elves and I were given the gift of creating a YouTube native campaign that encouraged viewers to ditch their wireless provider’s yada yada, and switch to Metro.

Meet Metro’s Little Helper:
part magic,
part mischief,
part cute little elf,
he has too much to do to sit on a shelf.

During a break in between meetings, our Legoland Florida client asked me to give some thought to how we could advertise their new luxury hotel for kids as a 5-star hotel when it lacked some amenities necessary to legally do so. My immediate response: Do exactly what a kid would do. Introducing the world’s only 5-Gazillion Star Hotel.

Nanny nanny boo boo, lawyers.

Havoline ProDS didn’t have millions to sponsor Nascar and Formula 1 drivers like their competitors did. How could we do anything that made them seem equally impressive? I suggested Havoline ProDS become the official sponsor of #EverydayDrivers. The official sponsor of commuters, wander lusters, entrepreneurs, third-shifters, love birds, and sunrise seekers. And our clients gave us the green light.

We took instagram celebrity Theron Humphrey and his adorable coonhound Maddie, refitted their favorite old truck with a new engine powered by Havoline ProDS, and sent them out on the road to discover what drives the most important drivers out there.

The theme park built for kids had a currency for kids, and no idea what to do with it. So we partnered with Travelex, the foreign currency exchange experts, enabling families to trade boring old adult money for Legoland Dollars, at an exchange rate of 1:1. Exchanges of $50 or more resulted in coupons for use in the park, putting kids in control, yet again. 

Kids rule, parents drool.

Recognition:
Silver Cannes Lion: Media
Cannes Lions Shortlist: Direct
4A's Partner Award: Brand Partnership / Large Agency

Forget about egg nog and sugar cookies. Fitness enthusiasts find their merry in a wintery workout. I ran the Peloton pitch, Firstborn won the business, and my team and I jumped immediately into holiday mode— adding storylines to Peloton’s typical storyline-free vids (and creating so many different unique assets from the footage your mind could explode).

If only working on the Bike burned as many calories as working out on the Bike.

THE LEGO MOVIE 4D: A New Adventure was set to premiere at Legoland Florida. The experience featured kids’ favorite characters from the original movie, along with a new shady villain: Lord Business’ brother Risky Business (voiced by comedian Patton Oswalt).

Risky Business had a secret evil plot in the movie, so I thought it would be fun to create a new subplot to his evilness for our 360 campaign. Leading up to the premier, we made it his mission to hypnotize the world into watching his big debut on the big screen.

That’s a lot of evilness for a little yellow guy. I mean, all hail Lord Risky.

We brought adult snack packs into a world typically reserved for dinner. Introducing Snack Theater: three unique performances inspired by Hillshire Snacking’s three most popular flavors.

“Koi out of Water” inspired by Chicken Bites with Teriyaki
”The Fiery Italian” inspired by Hot Calabrese Salame
”Tune of Tuscany” inspired by Wine-infused Salame

Please enjoy.

Legoland was building a hotel for kids with pirate, adventure, and kingdom themed rooms. I figured these decked out rooms would serve as great inspiration for epic stories imagined by, and starring, the kids who stayed in them. These scripts were LOVED by the client, but unfortunately remain un-produced due to their desire for more RTB-heavy spots. They are, however, a good example of the kind of whimsy and craft I pride myself on.

Scroll to the end to hear the spot they ended up buying instead. I had fun writing that one too, but ya know, it didn’t win any awards.

Legoland was adding a new ride based on the Lego cartoon, Ninjago. The gist of the ride was for kids to use their hands as weapons to defeat different villainous characters. The problem was, kids were scoring really low points, and getting super frustrated. After riding it ourselves, we determined that there were specific hand movements that worked the best. So we created a new martial art similar to the cartoon’s Spinjitzu and Airjitzu, which I named Handjitzu. This campaign taught kids the moves before they got to the park, ensuring that they would be successful in killing The Great Devourer once and for all. We even got KidzBop in on the fun.

We ain’t sssscared of no ssssnaaaakessss.

Oldies but goodies from back when we got to make radio and print ads…