In the age of COVID-19, Lincoln needed a way to launch their facelifted 2021 Nautilus that would allow media and consumers a chance to explore the vehicle virtually, with a focus on exploring the reimagined interior. However, the launch date was close to the US Presidential election, and breaking through the news cycle was a true challenge… as was a very short lead time.
Amidst one of the noisiest news cycles ever, we looked to turn the traditional world of car launches (with their loud music, bright lights, and frenzied video) on its head by going in the complete opposite direction: we crafted the world’s calmest vehicle launch. This was perfect for Lincoln, and for the Nautilus in particular, as the interior of the vehicle (its main update) was considered to be ‘a sanctuary’: a place to find and enjoy a moment of peace and quiet.
Guests were invited into a photorealistic 3D sanctuary to explore the all-new Nautilus: a space designed (visually and acoustically) to convey a sense of calm, mindfulness, and serenity. Once immersed, they could explore the car inside and out, with hotspots drawing their attention to the latest features, technologies, and design updates.
Our main consideration was that ‘calm’ is subjective and personal, so we gave media and consumers the chance to personalize their sanctuary, choosing from four environmental settings, and four peaceful soundscapes.
Our experience was fully integrated into the broader launch campaign, supported by social and traditional media.
To experience this Sanctuary for yourself, head to https://nautilus2021.com/
LEGOs latest product, DOTS (a pattern-based play experience) enjoyed a massively successful launch, becoming one of the fastest-selling product in LEGO history, despite going on sale at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (which saw our launch experience in SXSW cancelled, along with the festival).
However, as North America began to loosen lockdowns and citizens began to reexplore their cities, we partnered with LEGO to create surprise and delight installations across the continent.
In keeping with the broader ‘Dot the World’ campaign, we looked to playfully reimagine well known public artworks and landmarks, popping up overnight to maximise joy. These socially-distanced experiences lived in Toronto, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, with each installation creatively inspired by its location.
1,602,301 Dots tiles used.
1,487 build hours in total.
700k+ people engaged with our installations.
Google wanted to use their holiday pop-up stores to reinforce its position as a hardware brand. So how do you tell a hardware story? By building a Hardware Store. Inspired by mom and pop stores, we conceived, designed and built two Hardware Stores in New York and Chicago, designed to immerse people in not only the products but the possibilities they provided. They also engaged the local communities to experience the products (including the Pixel 3, Slate tablet and Google Home range) in contexts relevant to the city they were in.
Each store was open for three months, driving buzz and sales for Google during the holiday period.
To help adidas rerelease the iconic color blocked ‘adicolor’ range with retailer PacSun, we created the adicolor Street Fair in downtown LA.
The audience lives their best lives on their Instagram feed: they use it to showcase their personal style, as well as inspiring FOMO about the experiences they attend. What better way to showcase a story about color than designing an LA Street Fair through the lens of Instagram from the ground up, letting the audience document the experience from start to finish?
The adicolor Street Fair invited guests to explore engaging, interactive ‘stalls’, each designed around a single (adi)color. The hook was that to earn currency to spend on their experiences, they needed to share, share, share: social currency became the actual currency to unlock the experiences and drive audiences from the fair to in-store.
Our program generated over 28 Million social impressions, and the product sold out across PacSun retailers in LA.
As North American Strategy Lead for Carat on OREO, I led an integrated agency team (including Weber Shandwick and 360i) to create the 'My Oreo Creation' campaign. Working alongside creative, strategy and planning directors, we created one of the most successful campaigns in Mondelez history, encouraging all OREO fans to participate in the world’s largest digital brainstorm.
We took over social with influencer and creative content, as well as crafting unique media touchpoints like the interactive ‘Wondervault’, real time animated social replies, interactive OOH in Times Square and the surprise and delight excitement of having your submitted flavour made and sent to you by the OREO test kitchen.
We finished by launching the ‘Mystery’ OREO, before revealing the $500,000 winning suggestion: Fruity Pebbles. The campaign was such a success, it has run every year since.
GMC vehicles are known for their quality, which exists in its most pure form on their flagship range, Denali. To bring this level of quality and attention to detail to life, my creative partner and I created an anthem film that united precision focused visuals with a world-first multi-channel audio soundscape, created using the sounds of the vehicle range.
This film premiered at the Detroit International Motor Show on the GMC stand, where we also created 15 additional minutes of content to speak to the full GMC range. It went on to be used at global motor shows for over a year.
Please put your headphones for the full experience.
Password: GMC
Porsche wanted to use the 50th anniversary of their iconic 911 to help raise awareness of the cars history, and to help instill a sports car culture in China. We created a through the line campaign that drove awareness of the milestone digitally, driving online audiences to share the 911's story to win tickets to an unprecedented birthday party.
For the final step, we created the Party of the Year for the 911, culminating in an incredible mapped projection on the most sacred building in the Forbidden City: the Temple of Ancestral Worship.
Our live experience was then shared online, receiving over 3 million views, and generating over RMB400 Million worth of exposure for the brand.
The event was named by influential premium marketing website jingdaily.com as one of the 10 Best Events in China in 2013.
In 2019, my team and I helped Google empower their key partners to be advocates and deliver a strong POV to the industry by giving them the stage at Advertising Week NY. We created ‘Google Stages’, a pop-up destination in Chelsea that comprised a diverse range of presentation spaces as well as a huge ‘Digital Playground’ interactive experience that immersed guests in Google and YouTube’s creativity, product offerings and latest tech.
To tell a story all about comfort and for the global launch of Vans’ new sneaker technology, we reimagined life’s most uncomfortable environment: high school. ComfyCush High included a VIP locker rooms, a live marching band, fully functioning science classrooms & a performance for Lil Wayne. ComfyCush High dominated the sneaker and fashion media’s attention, giving Vans’ biggest ever launch the excitement it deserved.
LEGO® approached us to help engage boys aged 6-12 with an activation that gets LEGO® back on the holiday wish lists. We designed and delivered Create Your Escape, the world’s first LEGO® powered escape room.
Our key insight was simple: we needed to engage this audience via key passion points, and the way they engaged with one another. At this age, boys connect through competition: they are driven by challenges, and often operate in hierarchical groups. We tied these two elements to their core interests: e-sports and the culture of ‘clans’, both hugely influential passion points for this Gen Z consumer.
To achieve these goals, we designed and built ‘Create Your Escape’ , a LEGO® powered (but not overtly branded) escape room experience that saw kids team up with three friends and compete against rival SQUADs, as well as the clock.
Inside, challenges deliberately focused on group problem-solving and collaboration skills, bringing together the worlds of LEGO® with the passionate interests of the audience age group.
This experience travelled to both Minneapolis and Los Angeles.
Engaging China’s most fickle consumer audience with a world-first technology experience.
To build anticipation of the all-new Porsche Macan before it’s grand launch, we created the world’s first automotive Oculus Rift experience, bringing to life the feeling behind the new car’s launch platform ‘Life, Intensified’. This breathtaking experience was housed in a cutting edge installation that was deliberately positioned where we knew the target audiences had downtime: shopping malls, as they waited for cinema sessions to begin.
We identified virtual reality technology Oculus Rift as the perfect tool to bring the car’s vibrant spirit and philosophy to life; additionally, the technology was a honey pot for our experience hungry consumers. To develop the experience, we partnered with leading video game developers, environmental designers and an orchestra to create totally unique content, in the process redefining what was possible in terms of content development for the platform.
We took our experience on the road to five cities across China in just under six weeks.
During this time, we generated 19 million + social impressions with zero media support; we generated 1700 ‘hot’ sales leads; we increased foot traffic into targeted dealerships, and (amazingly) we sold 150+ Macans before the car had launched. This was an extra bonus for Porsche, who had expected zero sales from our program.
Our Oculus Rift experience lives on as a point of sale tool in Porsche dealerships across China.
Video password: jack
The Wall Street Journal CEO Council is a invitation-only event that brings together the world’s most powerful CEOs and political leaders for a 24-hour networking and thought leadership experience facilitated by the editorial management at the Wall Street Journal. We redesigned not just the look, but the entire experience, helping reinvent an unmissable forum for the world’s most powerful businesspeople.
In 2018 we built a new strategic platform on which all C-Suite Council activity could hinge: we positioned the WSJ as the essential providers of context to business leaders. This manifested in a subtle new design language focused on ‘the frame’: a visual device that allowed us to focus in on the most important information, relationships, touchpoints and people.
In 2019, the goal was to encourage interaction between the audience and guests on the stage. We did this by reshaping the stage to lower the barriers to the audience: additionally, our design was crafted to mimic a talk show stage, allowing for three camera angles to create a broadcast-quality live stream.
With Washington D.C.’s most influential powerbrokers both in attendance and speaking on stage, we were able to meaningfully connect the world’s most important business leaders to the world’s leading politicians and strategists, all thanks to the editorial focus of the Wall Street Journal.
Under Armour is recognized as one of the most explosive brands in the world, dominating a previously stale marketplace with an audacious urge to challenge the status quo, and make waves in new and established markets.
To build momentum for Under Armour Basketball in Asia and connect fans to one of the games true superstars, Under Armour embarked on their largest-ever public brand experience, taking reigning NBA Champion and MVP Stephen Curry (as well as Under Armour Founder and CEO Kevin Plank) on a whirlwind tour across three countries and five cities in five days: Tokyo, Manila, Beijing, Chongqing and Shanghai. And not only was Asia treated to an extravagant roadshow, they also got a world-first sneak peek at the highly anticipated 'Curry Two', Stephen Curry's signature shoe.
Part concert tour, part training camp, the UA Roadshow feat. Stephen Curry mixed skills clinics with genuine creative showmanship to bring Asia their first taste of UA Basketball, and the power of the SC30 brand. Completely socially led, this campaign touched millions of fans and impacted billions of onlookers across all major social and real-world media, having a real impact not just in Asia, but in North America as well.
This project set new high water marks for impressions and shares across all Under Armour social media channels (across Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Weibo and WeChat)
Accrued over 1 million new fans for Under Armour and UA Basketball across Instagram, Twitter and WeChat in just 5 days
Exceeded retail sales targets by 74%, with over 90% sell through on Curry Two in just 3 days
60,000 participants across three countries
1.6 Billion Global Social Impressions
4 Billion Global Media Impressions
Dominated the conversation around basketball in Asia, eclipsing Nike’s LeBron ‘Rise’ tour, which was in market at the same time
To help Oath (now Verizon Media) stand out at CES, we created an exclusive networking and meeting space to position Oath as thought leaders in the mobile-first media world. At the heart of this experience was ‘The Helix’, an interactive screen sculpture designed to immerse guests in Oath and a range of their media brands. Completely controlled by the guest, this experience won an Event Marketer Award in 2018.
