Giving it my all for Canadian Mist
Canadian Mist is a well-made, easy-drinking whisky offered at a great price. While it can’t compete with bold craft bourbons and their steep price tags, it’s perfect for someone looking to enjoy a lighter, mixable whisky. Unfortunately, these days “lighter” whisky is often conflated with being of lesser quality—a problem we had to address head-on.
Our research indicated that for our target consumers, quality-to-price ratio—or perceived value quotient aka “bang for the buck”—was a key purchase driver. The brand needed strong messaging and distinctive visual assets to help drive home Mist’s unpretentious quality and engage with both legacy and recruitment consumers.
In addition to developing the tagline and key messaging, I created the new core design elements; developed the brand voice standards; wrote the website, social content, in-store promotional copy, and spots for broadcast and digital; devised the highball drink strategy; and composed original music and sonic branding for the new spots.
(Please note: I’m not a control freak. There was just something about this underdog brand that spoke to me and I just couldn’t stop making stuff.)
Canadian Mist :15 "Ginger Ale"
Canadian Mist website
Hilliard Lyons :15 "Generations"
Bringing Hilliard Lyons to life
164-year-old investment firm Hilliard Lyons was due for a refresh. With their CMO ready and willing to run with a variety of fully produced executions for testing based on core brand messages, I conceived and wrote integrated TV and pre-roll, digital, print, and radio. Nashville's Fivestone Studios did a lovely job (on a very tight turnaround) bringing the ideas to life.
Hilliard Lyons :15 "Complexity"
Hilliard Lyons :15 "Path"
Hilliard Lyons :15 "Path"
Trash talkin' with Shaq and Drew
A super fun and silly social vid with two sports legends. Shaq's always good, but who knew Drew Brees could act? I wrote and helped direct their lines on this one. Also, I had to fly to San Diego for the Drew bit, filmed near the ocean. Later, there were fish tacos. The things we do for art.
Making Korbel Shine
Faced with the surging popularity of prosecco brands like LaMarca, America’s top bubbly Korbel California Champagne was losing market share and relevance to a newer generation of sparkling wine drinkers. Our agency had done a lot of great work for the brand over the years, but in this new climate Korbel decided to send out an RFP for a full-scale rebranding campaign.
Our scrappy 50-person Louisville agency went up against Arnold, Carmichael Lynch, and FCB——and won. Leveraging our experience in the category and knowledge of the consumer, powered by deep insights, and working in concert with the tenets of Byron Sharp’s How Brands Grow, we created five fully realized campaign concepts for client consideration and consumer testing.
The winner: “Make It Gold.”
Korbel :45 "Gold"
An assortment of work for Hershey
My work for Hershey was always varied, interesting, and fun. It also enhanced my understanding of the rapidly shifting retail landscape. As a category leader, Hershey’s insights into path-to-purchase, shopper journeys, and retail storytelling proved especially valuable.
Projects included:
• Internal brand storybooks for retail activation and content creation, including manifestos, key messaging, headlines, hashtags, and merchandising copy
• Writing/editing the Hershey Solutions website portal for retailers (VIP product launch info, product ordering, retail insights, retailer rewards)
• Digital/social for artisan brands Dagoba and Scharffenberger
• A range of digital and print trade advertising
• Concepting/retail storytelling for Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, PA,
and Times Square
• Video/motion graphics edits, both trade-focused and shopper-facing
• World travel retail executions like duty-free signage and creative for seasonal displays
Subway poster for Times Square
Louisville Zoo :15 "Screen Time"
Louisville Zoo gets some "get up 'n go"
For years the Louisville Zoo had relied solely on bland punning ("Come have a wild time.." etc.) and no compelling unifying brand message. Based on research that pinpointed millennial and GenX moms as key decision makers looking to get their kiddos out of the house and off devices, I helped devise a new integrated campaign. Encompassing TV, radio, Pandora, OOH, digital ads, SEM, plus fundraising materials like the zoo's annual report, the campaign portrayed the zoo as an antidote to the artificial digital world and the stagnation created by screens—bolstered by a strong CTA tagline: "Get up, get out, get to the zoo!"
Building a better GE Appliances
Like many companies in the manufacturing sector, industry leader GE Appliances was having a difficult time recruiting and retaining a pipeline of skilled workers, especially for their hourly positions on the factory floor.
My agency was called on to totally reimagine GEA's recruitment marketing message and to help reshape the job application experience into something streamlined and engaging. The solutions we presented were multilayered, but they all evolved around the mantra I devised: I Built This.
The messaging focused not only on GE Appliances being a great place to build a career, but also on the exciting renaissance of American manufacturing at large, one driven by innovation, technology, and pride.
I helped create a new hiring microsite, a range of digital and printed career fair materials, a Junior Achievement “storefront” exhibit for 8th-graders, a "virtual field trip" delivered to thousands of middle schoolers, and much more.
Little Brownie Bakers "One Delicious Century"
Earning my Creativity Badge for Kellogg's
Girl Scout cookie division
As the AOR for Kellogg’s Girl Scout Cookie division Little Brownie Bakers,, we were tasked every year with creating a new theme for cookie season, along with all the various assets and collateral–digital features on the LBB website, blog updates, sales rally videos, rewards catalogs, etc. to help make each new season even more engaging and successful.
2017 was an especially big year–the 100th year of the cookie sale. What’s more, LBB was releasing a new cookie, Girl Scout S’mores. My team and I were pretty busy, and the results were great.
I devised a theme——“Built By Girls”——that at once spoke to the 100-year history and the ongoing ingenuity of Girl Scouts. I also wrote an animated storybook video which featured my original “campfire song” and managed to celebrate 100 years of the cookie sale while introducing the new S’more cookie. The video was awarded a Bronze Telly.
clip: second half of "Twyla's Cookie Adventure"
A bit of this 'n that
A few other projects and executions for your consideration. (I also have work I could show for home generators, an HVAC company, a water utility, a credit union, a regional bank, a digital bank, a university, and pie, if you're interested.)
Thank you for stopping by.
Korbel pre-roll "Random Acts of Romance"
Looking to avoid the clichéd vibe of much Valentine's Day content in the sparkling wine space, I wrote and edited these fun little vids for Korbel.
Korbel Valentine's Day YouTube pre-roll
Finlandia Vodka Oaks Day/Kentucky Derby promotion
When Finlandia wanted to devise a tie-in with their signature Oaks Lily cocktail and “Derby fashions” for Oaks Day and the Kentucky Derby, I recommended focusing on hats. We recruited Louisville’s most stylish milliner, Olivia Griffin, and created range of executions and content: digital, in-store, PR, social, and on-premise at the track. It was a big success for “the Official Vodka of the Kentucky Derby.”
Nilfisk U.S. launch campaign
Known widely in Europe, Danish commercial cleaning equipment manufacturer Nilfisk was looking to make new inroads in the US. Our agency was tasked with developing a range of branding tools, including messaging pillars, design elements, video content, digital and print ads, and trade show materials. I conceived the initial visual and copy strategies together, working with the ideas of depth and multiple angles to communicate a more thorough, deeper clean.
Presentation Academy rebranding campaign
Louisville’s original Catholic high school, founded in 1831, the all-girl Presentation Academy has a storied history, vibrant downtown location, and preference for enrolling truly unique, independent-minded girls from all socioeconomic classes and from all over the region.
But for many potential candidates, as our research showed, the downtown campus was seen as “old” and in a “scary part of town,” and the school tended to be “where weird girls go.” Enrollment was steadily dropping.
Tasked with reinvigorating the "Pres" brand, my team and I focused on truths: that the school is a uniquely accepting place, a place where every girl’s true self truly belongs.
Through our integrated "Now Accepting" campaign——digital, outdoor, radio, print, and collateral, etc.——we helped power those truths. The enrollment slide was stopped, and it looks as though (God willing, of course) Presentation Academy will belong to the future.
Sponsored content for Switcher Studio
Sponsored by streaming video start-up Switcher Studio, this piece for Inc. was ghostwritten—the byline belongs to the influencer, but I conducted the interview with "Chewbacca Mom" and wrote the piece.
The one that got away: Early Times campaign
My ECD and I collaborated on what I thought was going to be a big hit with the client——taking a different angle on Early Times's "All-American Whisky" positioning by incorporating the idea of American myth and folklore. Alas, maybe the notion that the greatness of Early Times might also be a myth felt too risky. It was a learning experience, but I still dig the approach and the copy was fun to write.