The Lincoln Motor Company wanted to reinvent themselves. We found a perfect partner: a sweet Detroit startup called Shinola. At the time, Shinola had no brick and mortar stores. We were all left to salivate over their beautifully crafted luxury goods on a computer screen. So it was quite a thrill for attendees at the Detroit Auto Show to experience the stunning new Lincoln MKC inside a Shinola pop-up shop.
Lincoln Welcomes Dwell and Shinola to Stand at North American International Auto Show
Venn diagrams proved to be an attention-getting way to say Ford is an AND not OR company on Tumblr. So we did them by the zillions. I was shaking the bushes for an idea when my son happened to mention that scorpion venom is the most expensive liquid on earth. (Kids!)
The Arthritis Foundation asked us to develop creative around their annual fundraising event, Tribute to Excellence. Amplifying the spirit of the honoree, business and motorsports leader Roger Penske, our team created a highly-effective platform called Driving Community. Impact: One million dollars was raised, which is the highest total to date for a Tribute to Excellence event.
Graphic Design USA winner— print annual
Detroit Loves Postcards
SXSW was a great opportunity for Team Detroit to recruit talent. We created these on-site postcards to give attendees a chance to learn what living in Detroit is really like. Attendees were invited to send some Detroit Love by jotting down a quick message on a postcard. They could then pop it in to our Greetings From Detroit mailbox. We took care of the rest.
PRINT Regional Design Winner
Your Garbage Idea
We also targeted students before SXSW. The ask: help a real client —Detroit Dirt—by submitting a 60-second video to show how they would convince people to compost. Winners received a trip to SXSW on us. Our 60 seconds campaign received 32 submissions from 15 different schools in a four-week time period. Not too shabby.
Commutes get a bad name. For good reason. So we enlisted influencer Catt Sadler, a stylish, advice-giving, well-loved co-anchor for E! News to help tell our story. This social campaign was posted on Twitter and Instagram.
Changemakers is an internal program I helped initiate at Team Detroit. The goal of the program was to further define the agency’s culture through employees who are creating change in their communities. Dean Ditto, a project manager at the agency, is a veteran who served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. No longer on active duty, Dean is still part of the fight. He is committed to stopping veteran suicide.
Best of Self-Promotion —The D Show
Ford Go Further Stories was a program that highlighted owners, dealers and employees creating positive changes in the world. I've always wanted to create work that merges my passion for non-profits with for-profit work, so being part of this project was enormously satisfying.
D Show Winner — multiple categories
We stripped away the advertising gloss and talked to real people about their Fords. Production schedules were aggressive: we mined a new city every six weeks to uncover potential candidates and shot soon after. As 86% of car shoppers conduct research online before visiting a dealership, testimonial videos are a vital part of shopper marketing.
We were madly scrubbing the internet for influencers for the new Ford Edge when the planets aligned and we hit on Patrice Banks. An engineer turned mechanic, Patrice founded Girls Auto Clinic, a repair center staffed by and focusing on women. She proved to be the perfect fit for the new female-targeted Edge. As 86% of car shoppers conduct research online before visiting a dealership, influencer videos are a vital part of shopper marketing.
We noticed an interesting social phenomenon: survivors in the Warriors in Pink Facebook community were tattooing themselves with the Warriors logo and graphics. We honored them by turning their posts into a video for Breast Cancer Awareness month. And we banged the drum for extra-curricular activities for underprivileged high schoolers. It was a privilege to work on these programs.
I’ve worked on a lot of new car launches. This time the car was truely new — in fact this was the first redesign in ten years for the Ford Expedition.
I’ve been a National Public Radio fan for as long as I can remember. I just happened to be listening to The Changing Lives of Women, one of NPR’s many thought-provoking programs, while trying come up with ideas that would further connect Ford to a female audience. An exclusive Ford sponsorship of The Changing Lives of Women channel was born.
Nine Ford engineers got the ride of a lifetime. What they thought was going to be a routine Ford video shoot took a hard left turn when NASCAR® race-car driver Carl Edwards showed up to take care of the driving. They knew nothing about what was really in store for them until one-by-one, they were led out to the car with Carl sitting behind the wheel. This creative was part of a larger, integrated campaign.
Best of Show — The D Show
The FordHub is an interactive brand experience studio in the World Trade Center. Our task was to introduce the new EcoSport. By writing the copy in first person and giving this new little SUV a big personality, I was able to tell a story that a visitor might enjoy.
How do you humanize a car battery technology that speaks to both consumers and the trade — for a very conservative, very technical client? Like this.
I volunteered to be a Social Media Community Manager for The Bottomless Toy Chest, a non-profit that serves hospitalized pediatric oncology patients.
In addition to creating and managing communities on Facebook and Twitter, I pursued partners with large social followings who then became valuable influencers.
I also led our org to a $10,000 grant win in Chase Community Giving, a national voting contest on Facebook where we competed with 8,000 other local charities for a two-week period. Chase Community Giving is a philanthropic initiative of JP Morgan Chase.
