CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING, STORYBOARDING, VOICE OVER SCRIPT, FOOTAGE

BRIEF: Our client, a VP on the Nike Innovation team, said to me, "If you're not terrified of tomorrow, you're doing something wrong." He wanted to drive home this point to Nike execs at their annual innovation offsite attended by Nike CEO Mark Parker and founder Phil Knight. 

EXECUTION: I concepted, wrote and produced this Nike spot, "Tomorrow will belong to someone else." It premiered at the summit, and as an agency we were told it helped light a fire under the asses of the heads of each Nike sport category.

CREATIVE LEAD FOR CONCEPTING, STRATEGY, AND COPY

BRIEF: Sell Google hardware products like the Nest thermostat and other gadgets while highlighting the brand’s sustainability commitments.

EXECUTION: We took over Google Store NYC and on Store.Google.com for the US and UK in April ‘22 to highlight our sustainability initiatives. Every Google product tells an eco-story - i.e. how the product is built, how it saves energy, etc. Unfortunately, the story is often shelved for more techy value props, like number of megapixels. But on Earth Day, there’s no excuse. We brought copy and design together to put Google’s green efforts front and center and helped shoppers make smarter decisions about their future.

MEDIA COVERAGE: Google Store homepage now spotlights Earth Day and its more affordable products (9to5Google.com)

CREATIVE FOR EXPERIENTIAL, RETAIL, SOCIAL, AND DIGITAL

BRIEF: For NBA All-Star Weekend, Nike wanted to celebrate specific kicks that had been worn when a player had an historic All-Star game performance. And we needed to invite sneakerheads in a way that involved NIKEiD. 

EXECUTION: We launched a pop-up Nike Loft in Drake's 416 that brought Nike designers together with NBA players and the sneakerheads who love the culture of the game. I led copy efforts for the entire experience, from the specific design inspiration behind each shoe, to the larger story Nike told about customizing a piece of NBA history. 

A few NBA players showed up to give fans their design perspectives, which was a nice surprise. 

MEDIA COVERAGE: There Will Be a 'NIKEiD Loft' In Toronto For People to Use Special All-Star Edition Design Options (Complex)

Inside NIKEiD Loft, Where Designers Help You Create Custom Sneakers (Fox Sports)

Nike Set To Launch Ultimate All-Star Experiences (Freshness Mag)

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING, EXPERIENTIAL, DIGITAL AND SOCIAL COPY 

BRIEF: ASICS’ new HyperGel Kenzen is as true of an athleisure shoe as they’ve ever had, so to celebrate its launch, the brand wanted to give sneakerheads an experience they’d never forget. Open-ended briefs can be a blessing and a curse, but in this case it was an amazing experience from concepting to launch.

EXECUTION: Working as the agency partner to ASICS, we created an epic one night-only party in the basement of a diner in Union Square NYC. Featuring a live concert from ASICS brand ambassador and Grammy-nominated madman Steve Aoki, we transformed a diner into a shoe store during the day with live beats and free eats inspired by Aoki himself. Then we lit it up at night with a free concert from the man himself. So, for any fan who bought the shoe, the kicks literally became the key. And for one lucky fan, it led to a cake to the face from Aoki. 

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING, CONTENT STRATEGY, LONG FORM WRITING, ART DIRECTION

BRIEF: Imagine the possibilities for runners in NYC if Nike thought more as a service-oriented brand with innovative new partnerships. And don't imagine it in another deck. 

EXECUTION: I was essentially the Editor-in-Chief for a magazine-style deck that mimicked New York Magazine. I did everything from concept and write copy to art direction and layout. After months of collaboration, we printed a bunch and delivered them to Nike execs for presentation at an annual Nike innovation summit. The goal was to help them envision the products and services available to urban runners in the year 2020, as if it was covered by the media. Below are just a few pages from that magazine. 

CREATIVE LEAD FOR CONCEPTING, STRATEGY AND COPY

BRIEF: Create a campaign to run for three weeks in June on Google Store in the U.S. and U.K. that will sell Google hardware products like Pixel phones, Chromecasts, speakers and other gadgets that are top of mind during Father’s Day.

EXECUTION: We created a Father’s Day campaign based on the insight that no two dads look the same - in fact, some aren’t even called “dad.” We removed any mention of the word including “father” and gendered pronouns from the copy and even included two women as father-like figures in some ads. Products like the Pixel phone and others were used to help dad look look cool in their kids eyes based on the insight that all parents want to feel inspiring to their kids - they just need Google to pull it out of them. It was a great way to position Google as a culturally relevant brand that celebrates the holiday in an inclusive way for all father-figures.

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING

BRIEF: Nike took the official sponsorship of NBA apparel away from Adidas starting in the '17-'18 season. And because the last time jerseys were cool was the House of Pain and Snoop Dogg era of the 90s, Nike asked R/GA to make jerseys culturally relevant again to young NBA fans. 

CONCEPT: We brainstormed around the idea of mobile connectivity; the cell phone was kind of a pretty big invention since jerseys were introduced eons ago. I was involved in the original concepting phases for our Nike innovation client. I had the opportunity to work on the execution and launch of the jersey, but ultimately I declined. A lot of our original concepts made it, which is always nice. The connected jersey presents many exciting opportunities for the future of connected sports apparel. 

SITE: https://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nba/jerseys

MEDIA COVERAGE: Nike And The NBA Unveil Connected Jerseys...And They're Super Cool (TechCrunch)

Nike's New NBA Jerseys Are Evidence We're In The Future (Sports Illustrated)

Nike's NBA Connected Jerseys Tap Into The Game With NFC Tags (Engadget) 

Tap Nike's New App-connected NBA jerseys with your smartphone (Mashable) 

CREATIVE FOR PRODUCT LAUNCH, WEBSITE, OOH, LONG FORM COPY

BRIEF: Help people who are thinking about a life-changing move (retirement, a new city, new career) rediscover things they love and are good at and help them take steps toward something uniquely meaningful.  

EXECUTION: We launched Life Reimagined in partnership with AARP. It started as a digital suite of tools and games and grew to a subscription-based service that included live video conferencing with expert life coaches and eventually a partnership with Dr. Phil.

And who doesn't love Dr. Phil? 

SITE: https://lifereimagined.aarp.org/

MEDIA COVERAGE: How Life Reimagined Is Changing The Future For Boomers (The Huffington Post)

Mid-Life Crisis Becoming 'Life Reimagined' With AARP Program (The Washington Post)

AARP To Coach Aging Boomers 'Reimagining' Their Lives (USA Today)

AARP Helps People Old And Young Make Life Changes (Fast Company)

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING, COPYWRITING, ART DIRECTION, INSTALLATION PRODUCTION

BRIEF: LP is a billion-dollar home building products company that sells into places like Home Depot. I was lucky enough to help lead the creative team respond to a brief that essentially called for us to make sheathing and framing products sexy and tech-y. Texy?

EXECUTION: Introducing The LP Defense Lab, part of a larger “Defend Your Build” campaign for LP. Debuting at The International Builder’s Show in Las Vegas, the lab featured on-site extreme product testing and a 7-D simulated ride for home builders and architects to experience the durability of LP products against mother nature, “come hail or high water, fire or heat.”

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING, COPYWRITING, VIDEO PRODUCTION

BRIEF: Bridgestone Arena is home of the NHL’s Nashville Predators, and we were called upon by Bridgestone to show fans the Bridgestone-Predators partnership inside the arena for years to come.

EXECUTION: Introducing…THE TREADATOR. Standing 7 feet tall and weighing more than 1,000 pounds, Gnash the Treadator is a larger-than-life replica of the Predators mascot made entirely from scrap and recycled tires. It’s on display inside the arena until 2022, so share a selfie with the Treadator next time you’re in Nashville.

CREATIVE FOR BRAND STRATEGY, DIGITAL, BILLBOARD AND OOH, MOBILE APP INCLUDING UX

BRIEF: R/GA was asked by Nike to come up with a campaign that celebrates the 2.0 release of the iconic Nike Presto shoe.

EXECUTION: We created the entire Presto digital campaign for Nike.com including a Nike Presto gify generator that online shoppers could use to create a custom video of the shoe and share it on social media. 

Then last minute we created a digital billboard outside Penn Station that ended up having a bunch of my copy on it. 

And our campaign was translated into lots of different languages for a global rollout. 

Can you say Lit in Mandarin?

SITE: https://web.nike.com/xp/presto/us/en_us/index.html

CREATIVE FOR PHOTO SHOOTS, SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS, WEBSITE COPY

BRIEF: Spread the word that with the NFL Mobile app on Verizon, you can watch live local and primetime games without using any data. 

EXECUTION: We launched the "Restore Your Football-Life Balance" digital campaign, which included geo-targeted social posts for cities with NFL teams; nationwide TV commercials featuring former NFL head coach Bill Cowher; and a landing page so Verizon customers and potential Verizon customers could watch games data free. 

Yes, that’s me holding the rake. Thank you for asking. Life goals. 

SITE: Restore Your Football-Life Balance

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING, MULTI-CITY BILLBOARDS 

BRIEF: Kids today, I tell ya. No but seriously, kids do more in 24 hours today than I did in a week as a teen. They're marathon trainers before the sun rises, DJ's when the sun sets, and Museum Tour Guides (or insert Hipster job) for the 9-to-5. And political activists during lunch. ASICS wanted a big campaign that spoke to this insight...the idea that momentum is the highest form of self-expression.

EXECUTION: I worked on a series of billboards in NYC, Chicago and L.A. as part of ASICS' #IMOVEME campaign. I also handled Social for ASICS brand ambassador Steve Aoki, the grammy-nominated musician madman, and a cast of other microinfluencers. The goal was simple: Get people to move however they want. ASICS will support your every movement, whatever you set out to do. 

CREATIVE FOR DIGITAL RELAUNCH, LONG FORM COPY, CONTENT STRATEGY

BRIEF: Sometimes you don't know what you want for dinner; you just want something spicy. Or maybe your wife wants something that “tastes Greek.” McCormick's brief was basically to capitalize on this insight. 

EXECUTION: I partnered with everyone from R/GA UX designers to McCormick kitchen masters to help consumers easily discover recipes online based on how they'd describe the taste of a particular herb or spice. From a copywriting POV, it involved a lot of romanticizing the history and story of herbs and spices; it brought me back to when I was a little kid and loved the flowery language on shampoo bottles. Ultimately, this project became a deep dive into the infinite flavor pairings that people explore while cooking. I’d like to think we helped inspire a few everyday amateur chefs to try something new.

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING

BRIEF: Give holiday shoppers an innovative way to explore and purchase the newest Verizon phones from their own phones. 

EXECUTION: I always wondered what it's like inside a snowglobe, and together with my art director we sold the idea to Verizon for a TV commercial and mobile shopping experience. It aired during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and put viewers inside the globe where Verizon devices could be explored 360 full screen from their mobile device. 

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING AND COPYWRITING

BRIEF: Give Hunt Brothers Pizza a facelift on social media with a fun, playful approach. Because pizza is too good to be boring.

EXECUTION: Every week for more than a year, my team and I brought new concepts to Hunt Brothers Pizza that creatively showcased their products and invited fans to enjoy. I even became a topless Instagram model for one of the ads…truly, a career highlight. On April 1, we convinced the client to prank fans with…the world’s first no-cheese all-crust pizza. Gas station pizza never looked so good.

CREATIVE FOR CONCEPTING, EVENT BILLBOARDS AND SIGNAGE, WEBSITE COPY 

BRIEF: Make tax sexier. 

EXECUTION: Most people probably think of spreadsheets and taxes when they think of PwC. I was one of those people. But PwC impacts industries you might not expect, like agriculture or education. We launched their "With" campaign to highlight their unexpected partnerships, and their real-world impact. It premiered at The Players Championship golf tournament in Florida, which was sponsored by PwC. We had a floor-to-ceiling digital billboard and big orange modules all over the hotel on the course that explained these partnerships. Media personality Fareed Zakaria hosted a panel of experts on the future of industries that PwC consults in order to pique potential clients interest.

This was a fun project because the client was willing to take risks and do something out of their normal creative wheelhouse. And I’d rather work on these kinds of things than boring projects from sexier brands.

Hopefully taxes are a little sexier now?