PROJECTS THIS WAY
They say to "let the work speak for itself," which is an incredibly hard thing to do for someone whose life revolves around words. However, I've done my best to spare the gab and give our team's creations room to breathe - if you want any more deets, let's find some time to talk.
More Than a Mascot
Goodyear
One of the biggest traditions for Goodyear happens at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: Tire Art. Each year, sculptor Blake McFarland creates two statues out of tires in the shape of the mascots of the competing teams. Both the schools and fans love the pieces; the colleges keep them on their campuses and the fans line-up hours before the bowl game to snap photos with them.
In 2023, the clients asked our team to tell the story of Tire Art in a new way in order to reinvigorate fan excitement. We decided to create a “30 for 30 style” content piece that focused on what the pieces represented, rather than just how they were made, because we believed it would add an emotional connection and resonate on a deeper level with our fanbase. We built storyboards, wrote a script, and ultimately produced the following spot.
New Market Campaign
Buffalo Wild Wings
Your favorite stop for wings challenged our team to come up with unexpected messaging to disrupt their usual communication flow. Knowing that the best way to the heart is through the stomach, we won over new fans in the community with tasty offers and clutter-cutting copy.
Live For The Ride
Cooper Tires & PBR
Cooper Tires, as an official sponsor of Professional Bull Riding (PBR), asked us to write a :15 second ad to run in arenas. So we did…and we did it so well that they decided to extend it to a :30, run it on CBS, and adopt the line “Live For the Ride” as their official tagline for the partnership.
Chili'n With Legends
Chili's Grill & Bar
Game time is best served with a side of skillet queso, washed down with a Presidente Margarita®. Us Chiliheads (yes, I’m an Awesome Blossom O.G.) know this, but getting other sports fans to huddle up with us was the challenge.
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Chili’s asked our team to remind fans that “when football is on, happy hour is on” and that their deals were elite (just like their chicken crispers). However, Chili’s couldn’t rely solely on their great offers, as many competitors were also hutting happy hour discounts into the hands of eager consumers. We learned it wasn’t what we were offering, but rather who was offering it.
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We enlisted the help of regional pros and influencers to surprise consumers with free meals, merch, and even tickets to upcoming games. In Dallas specifically, we worked with Marcus Spears as our guest to serve up deals and good vibes during a Cowboys game. This content was shared across channels, encouraging fans to visit their Chili’s for a chance to meet a local legend.
Marcus also served me my first wings ever at the shoot. We are now besties, no need to ask him to verify this friendship.
Adult Recreational
Sports Sponsorship
Buffalo Wild Wings
In order to make themselves synonymous with sports, BWW wanted to integrate more fully with adult recreational leagues in key markets. From on-prem offers and at-field signage to t-shirts and discount coins, our team delivered homerun creative to drive athletes to locations after their games.
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Margarita Like a Pro
Pernod
You want taglines? Oh, I can give you taglines (x 100)! The brand went back and forth internally on hierarchy of messaging for their new no-mix margarita and portfolio, but we met them every step of the way with new headlines and subheads time and time again.
LikeMeat
LikeWings & Rose Bowl
Meatless chicken is not usually the MVP at the big game watch party, but LikeMeat wanted to change that. So, how do you get sports fans hyped about plant-based wings? You go where flora and flowers reign supreme and hungry fans are countless: the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade.
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Our team created a fully-immersive sampling greenhouse in the middle of the action where consumers could try three different flavors of wings, cementing that LikeMeat pairs perfectly with football. To amplify, we even had members of the ESPN panel sample during a segment.
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Try January
Pernod
Many consumers like to start the new year off with Dry January: great for health, not so great for alcohol brands. Pernod challenged us to create a way to still be relevant during the New Year timeframe, a period when spirit sales are at their lowest.
With research, we discovered that the main reason people stop their New Year resolutions is because they are not sustainable. With this human insight, we concepted an idea called Try January, which encouraged consumers to flip their mindset from “taking away” to “adding alternatives” - creating a more maintainable lifestyle.
Try January introduced recipes for lower ABV cocktails and encouraged sugar-free mixers through a partnership with Fever Tree. Taking it a step further for a more holistic approach, we also wove in a buy-get for MasterClass-like classes around hobbies and skills so buyers could make the most of Try January on multiple levels.
Bring the Boos
Pernod
Halloween is one of the biggest drinking holidays of the year, which means every spirit brand is eager to have a prominent spot in-store. With that in mind, Pernod asked our team to come up with a way to win the floor and stand out from the kitschy plastic skeletons and spiders used by every other brand during this timeframe.
After much exploration and competitor analysis, we learned that the way to attract attention was to lean in where others were afraid to play: full-spooky, full-creepy, and fully unexpected.
We created a program called “Bring the Boos that featured our products with a severed hand and eerie (not cute) Jack-o'-lanterns, all together in that at-home consumption occasion. We also leaned into the established tradition of “Halloween Booing” (leaving treats on neighbors porches, ringing the doorbell, and running away) for the tagline and buy-get. Consumers who purchased were able to unlock a Drizly code to send our spirits to a friend, who would then get a coupon to do the same - ideally creating a chain of “Bringing the Boos” to doorsteps across the nation.
For Those Who Know Milk
Promised Land Dairy
Don’t cry over spilled milk…unless it’s (biasedly) the best milk on the market!
Promised Land Dairy, aptly named, produces flavored milk that can only be described as heavenly. Consumers are hooked once they take that first sip; however, the problem for the brand was that “the first sip” wasn’t happening.
PLD asked us to simply get people to believe in their products and try them. So we asked ourselves, what gets us personally to try something new? Why do we deviate from our routine and add something different to our carts? The answer in the room was unanimous: an endorsement from someone we trust.
Please meet our PLD Milkman. Who better to lead consumers to our milk than someone synonymous with the category itself. We created a character and concepted a campaign around him and his crew of milk-knowing experts: creating in-store POS, facilitating experiential milk drops to doorsteps, writing social media video scripts and posts, and more.
The Wendy City
Wendy's
Fasten your seatbelts, Wendy’s is headed to the Chicago Street Race to promote their Baconator!
Our team was tasked to come up with an experiential activation that resonated with the locals attending the race and the pun opportunity was too good to ignore; we created “The Wendy City”, playing off of Chicago’s nickname “The Windy City”. Wendy’s-ifying iconic city monuments and attractions, we built out a burger and fry-filled city for fans to interact with and sample at. The experience was also featured during the CBS broadcast.
House of FRYght
Wendy's
When the clock strikes Halloween, consumers want spooky…and there’s NOTHING scarier than wet and soggy fries! During the timeframe, Wendy’s wanted to build awareness of their “hot and crispy” fries and increase sampling in a way that seemed organic to the season.
We put on our favorite Party City costumes and started brainstorming, ultimately deciding to build “Wendy’s House of FRYght” - our take on a haunted house. Inside, consumers were met by all the scariest of things like our competitors, “restaurant closed” signs, and cold and soggy fries. Once they made it through, participants were rewarded with a container of hot and crispy french fries.
From Garage to Glory
Goodyear
Goodyear asked our team to find a way to better connect with their fan base outside of sports, wanting to lean into a space unexpected but still relevant for their brand. After diving deeper into their target’s affinities and understanding the “why” behind their likes, we decided to move forward with finding an idea in the “music” space.
We concepted a full 360° program called “From Garage to Glory”, where up-and-coming musical talent would compete for the opportunity to move from playing in the garage to performing on a main stage in front of thousands of fans. Once found, our winner would play at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Fest in Cleveland, open at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, and receive $10,000.
With in-arena signage at Cleveland Cavaliers’ games, radio sports, and paid-media on social channels, we spread the word and received a huge influx of submissions almost instantly. After narrowing it down to three finalists, we invited consumers to visit our microsite to vote for their favorite performer. Ultimately, we declared our winner and were able to make her dreams a reality.
Sakura Cherry Blossom Launch
Yankee Candle
Yankee Candle challenged us to drive awareness and trial of their new Sakura Signature Collection and Cherry Blossom scent - but to do so in ways that authentically celebrated Japanese heritage.
To be authentic, we recognized that this wasn’t our story to tell. Instead, we made room for others to share their own experiences and memories of the annual Sakura Cherry Blossom Festival - where the scent originated.
STEP ONE: Create a space for Asian Americans to tell their own stories around this celebration by working with AAPI influencers
STEP TWO: Work with the Japan-America Society of Washington DC to come up with innovative ways for the brand to support the celebration on-site at the Cherry Blossom festival in DC (scented tattoos).
