Forget magical sleighs and flying deer. UPS drivers are the ones who REALLY deliver Christmas every year, and they depend on their health to do the job. So CVS stepped in by donating care packages to keep them sick-free all season long. To do that, we featured a wonderful friendship between a driver and a customer on his route, both of whom had something in common. The world loved it. The In-House Agency Forum thought it was pretty special, too. They awarded the campaign a GOLD Creativity Award.

Need a magical social reminder that CVS can be your best friend during the holidays? You’ve got it.

Let’s face it. Getting healthier may be one of the hardest things known to man. But as they say, the best way to eat a whale is one bite at a time. So we did what any self-respecting healthcare brand would do and celebrated the tiniest victories with people on their roads to “healthier” with a fun social campaign.

A couple years ago, we introduced the Grand Slams For Denny's. They gained popularity beyond everyone’s wildest expectations, but even the Grand Slams episodes are just, well, videos.

You watch, maybe “like” or comment and share or don’t share and then move on to the next list or cat video or news blooper reel with nothing to show for it. But we wanted to engage consumers on a deeper level. So we started thinking. And tinkering. And we came up with a couple great ideas. 

We started by creating an episode that looks, feels, walks and talks like a QVC show. But we went further than just producing a spoof. 

We built an entire experience from the ground up. We actually created thousands of Grand Slams products: bacon scarves, temperature-sensitive coffee mugs, egg hoodies, bacon- and coffee-scented candles and pancake t-shirts. We even created actual Grand Slams skate decks, too. And we not only featured them in the episode, but following the rules of QVC, told viewers that they could actually get what they were seeing. And we created a website to do it. And the items sold out in less than 30 minutes.

Then when we sent each item, we created a letter from either Sausage or Bacon in the package so people would have a full appreciation for the rivalry between the two pork products. We asked consumers to post photos of their stuff and they listened. 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand it worked so well the first go, we made another one.

Then we went nuts during the NCAA tournament by creating an episode that showed one of the best parts of basketball: the dunk contest. And we asked viewers to vote for the best dunk. And they did.

This interactive end card allowed viewers to vote for the dunk they liked best. And five Grand Slams fans get free Grand Slams for a whole year.

These aren't just t-shirts. Each of these was stuffed into a t-shirt cannon and shot into the hands of fans during the NCAA finals by the Grand Slams. 

And occasionally the Grand Slams got to work with some pretty amazing movies. Like Independence Day: Resurgence. Needless to say, we had fun with it. But we didn't stop there. In the spirit of engaging consumers beyond the "like" button, we asked consumers to show us who they'd choose to help them defend against an alien invasion by #ing their photos on Twitter and Instagram. The prize? Seeing the Hollywood premiere in person. Did it work? Did it ever.  

We even got our message into both movie theaters AND movie theatres by hijacking the message at the beginning that tells patrons to STFU. But we replaced the talking film reel with, well, talking breakfast. Point is, we went beyond traditional YouTube engagement by speaking to our audience where they already are and offering to accept their movie tickets as coupons for late night grub after the movie.

While other mouthwashes are talking about getting close and kissing, we changed the conversation to something new: Courage. Some people have a little. Others have a lot. It's what catapults you onto an empty dance floor. It turns strangers into friends and friends into followers. It helps you make the most of yourself and make an ass of yourself. No matter how much courage you have, Scope is Courage, Encouraged. It freshens your breath and brings every ounce of your bravado out of hibernation. Below is a sampling of all aspects of our award-winning conversation with Scope's consumers.

Hope you liked the work. Some pretty important people really liked it:

Gold at 2013 NY Addy Awards: Digital/Social Media
Scope Courage Encouraged Shortlisted at 2013 Facebook Studio Awards
Scope Courage Encouraged Shortlisted 2013 Graphis Design Competition

L.L.Bean has been around since before your granddaddy was a glimmer in his daddy's eye. And they've been doing it the same way since Leon Loeonwood started out in 1912: with honesty, integrity and products that are guaranteed, no matter what. That's something that you can hang your hat on as a consumer, but as a marketer, it's perhaps an even bigger dream. Look below to see how we had fun with LL's promise. 

L.L.Bean Outerwear

Below is a mobile banner that encouraged the user to swipe away the snow by touching the screen.

L.L.Bean Holiday

And for no other reason than gratuitous Instagram cuteness, puppies. Merry Christmas, y'all.

L.L.Bean Spring

L.L.Bean Back To School

LLBean Backpacks are guaranteed to be kid proof, no matter what kind of kid you have. Outdoors kid? All good. Beach bum? Yep. Even the arts-and-crafters and paleontologists, too. So we celebrated this invincibility by showing all the kinds of kids that have L.L.Bean backpacks and all the kinds of activities that L.L.Bean's backpacks are guaranteed to survive.  

You don’t create work against a tagline like “Life Changing Medicine” that isn’t just as bold. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is a regional hospital in Western Pennsylvania whose ideas, procedures and people not only define modern medicine, but are celebrated worldwide. Only trouble is, they weren’t getting any credit for it. So we changed that.  

We started by doing something radically simple: we labeled their unique model. Uncommon. Then we built a world around their Uncommon approach to medicine, including film that was shot by the world’s best director of photography, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, and voiced by the inimitable Benedict Cumberbatch.

Then we backed it up by walking the talk. We showed how the brand puts their uncommon thinking into action by launching a content thread featuring articles, videos and interviews.

Brand

Kids

Whitening

Frye has been making boots since before the battle of Gettysburg. But it's come a long way since the early days. We had the pleasure of working with the brand to launch their Spring/Summer and Fall lines for 2015. We transformed a traditional fashion print shoot into a full-blown in-store, web and video look book for each season. 

Spring/Summer 2015

Fall 2015

What do you get when you mix Shaft, Starsky&Hutch and Bullitt all in one photoshoot? Our Fall 2015 shoot for Frye Boots. We had fun in the city shooting at a chop shop, in a rooftop pool, and in forbidding alleyways. 

The Landscape
The housing crisis was in full swing. People were losing their homes and needed some serious help. Neighborworks of America offered free counseling and real help to consolidate debt and, in many instances, stay in their homes. The product was a hotline. 1-888-995-Hope.

The Insight
People were very ashamed about their positions, so would do nothing to make their problems better.

The Work
We reminded people that when they're at risk of losing their dreams, Nothing is Worse Than Doing Nothing. This campaign line spread everywhere. It was even quoted in a congressman's speech to urge lawmakers to legislative action.

While we used print, ooh and other media to get our message across, one of the most poignant places to make the point was at people's homes in at-risk neighborhoods. We made paper door hangers that looked like the locks banks use when your home is foreclosed upon.

To further get the point across to people on the brink of losing their homes, we also made a series of radio spots that ran in key markets. This is one of them.

Square in the middle of the financial crisis, Chase wanted to offer consumers a way to manage their credit card debt. Money Issues can get pretty touchy, so we didn't feel comfortable telling consumers what to do. Telling them what NOT to do? That was more our speed.

Quaker Milk Chillers Radio

Sometimes clients are just looking for good, ol' fashioned writing based on really insightful truths. Turns out, I've got those, too.