St. Rita’s Medical Center – Multimedia Campaign

What I did: I helped make an intimidating team of heart specialists more approachable to patients in the community.

How I did it: Rather than focusing on the skill and expertise of the heart specialists, which was already well established, my concept allowed us to explore their hobbies and passions. Musicians, soccer fanatics, gear-heads, heath nuts, Chess wizards… by emphasizing stories like these, we were able to portray the heart specialists as unique individuals first and highly skilled physicians second. As a result of our campaign, patients started to refer to the specialists by their hobbies. This helped to chisel away at the intimidating physician/patient barrier.

     

St. Rita’s Medical Center – Healthy Kids Fair

Examples include: TV spot (one of three), print ad series, microsite screen-cap

            
What I did: I helped launch a new community health fair event targeted at parents and children in the community.

How I did it: My concept was to talk about the three main components of every healthy kid – nutrition, exercise and positive self esteem. Each ad focused on a different topic and offered helpful tips for parents, in addition to providing important event details. The inaugural event was such a success the Healthy Kids Fair came back for a second year.

Jackson’s Base Camp – Brand Identity

What I did: I helped a new business get off the ground in a saturated market by crafting a unique brand identity that differentiated my client from the competition.

How I did it: I started by conducting extensive research on the industry, focusing on competitors, geography and demographics. This laid the groundwork for strategic solutions that supported the client’s values while differentiating his business from the rest. My initial list of brand concepts included nearly 60 different options. From this massive list, we hand-picked our favorite 15 solutions. The example above represents the final selection, as chosen by the client. To see some of the research that went into this project,  click here.

Mack Trucks – Incentive Program Concept

What I did: I helped Mack Trucks engage with and motivate a network of salespeople from across the country.

How I did it: The Mack Bulldog Club had been around for ages and was starting to get stale. My job was to make the program more fun and exciting for participants and, ultimately, more effective for Mack. I brainstormed with the creative team and together we came up with the 007 James Bond concept shown here. Once we decided on a direction, I wrote content for brochures, webpages, emails and posters. Thanks to the fresh new voice, Mack’s salespeople participated more actively than they had in previous years. This not only translated to better bottom-line results for Mack, it also helped the company retain more of its seasoned veterans.

Healthy Dairy – Product Branding

What I did: I helped my client stand out in a crowded retail environment with fun, flavorful beverage names and eye-catching packaging.

How I did it: I got together with an art director and we both consumed a ton of these smoothies. (For science, of course). While we guzzled these things, we talked about our target demographic and evaluated the unique curvatures of countless plastic bottles. When we were finally satisfied with our research, we began working on the naming and branding process. After hand-picking a few of our favorite configurations, our solutions were presented to the client along with several other options for consideration. What you see here is how the lineup hit the shelves.

Firestone Complete Auto Care – POS Displays

What I did: I helped Firestone win new customers with creative, attention-grabbing POS offers.

How I did it: When it comes to oil changes, most consumers are shopping based strictly on price or looking for some type of value-added offer. With this understanding, I worked together with my creative team to brainstorm enticing offers that would get attention in a crowded retail space. We then brought the offers to life with eye-catching visuals and punchy, targeted headlines that made it easy for consumers to quickly understand the deal.

Doritos – Super Bowl Ad Contest

What I did: I wrote, directed and co-stared in a TV ad for the Doritos Super Bowl contest. (I’m the handsome fellow in gray!)

How I did it: I got together with a friend and we did some brainstorming for concepts that made us laugh. The concept we settled on was written by me and produced in collaboration with a local production company. Although we didn’t win the contest, I had a blast working on the project. I got to work on a well-known brand, and I got to do it in a fun, playful style that stands in stark contrast to the stuff I do professionally. Plus, I got to munch on Doritos all day. I can’t wait to do more of this.

ST&P Marketing Communications – Company Facebook Page

 

I’ll be the first to admit that there’s nothing magical about setting up a Facebook page. As far as social media goes, this is square one. But that wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was getting the page acknowledged by coworkers, many of whom don’t actively use Facebook in the first place. So, I made it my personal goal to get every employee with a Facebook account to follow the page. My thinking was that if our own employees won’t take the time to “like” the page, no one else will either.

 

Although a handful of my coworkers jumped on board from the beginning, that still left a vast majority to win over. I knew I needed to create a high-profile event that would get people talking. That event was free donuts and coffee. And at a small agency, it doesn’t get any higher profile than that.

 

Call it a bribe if you want, but it turns out that caffeine and sugar are fairly effective motivators. By the time the promotion ended, employee participation had skyrocketed from an embarrassing 23% to a respectable 70%. That’s not bad considering that of the five remaining holdouts, only two are currently listed on Facebook.

Artie & Britt Petro – Personalized Wedding Favors

My wife and I worked together with the talented designers at Frisch Creative Services to give our Pittsburgh wedding a modern Pop Art theme. I approached this project just like I would a multimedia advertising campaign. With the concept identified, I looked for creative ways to carry the theme across several different components, including invitations, programs, floral arrangements and – in this example – the wedding favors. Our goal was to capture the essence of the day while sharing fun, behind-the-scenes details about our relationship. The solution was a playful riff on Andy Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans. The hardest part? Painstakingly applying over 300 labels to blank soup cans in two different sizes.

Examples include: Soup can (front), Soup can (back)

            

More Samples

Want to see more of the stuff I do on a daily basis? Feel free to shoot me an email.