Making inspiration practical

You don't have to get it to love it

People who love art museums love art museums. People who don’t go to art museums often think of them as stuffy, irrelevant, or don’t know how to interact with them.

This campaign sought to stretch nonprofit marketing dollars with an unexpected tone that fit the ad placements, all outside of your traditional arts & culture section of the paper.

It’s not enough to say “we’ll spoil you” to jaded film crews – you’ve got to prove it

The Serrano Hotel was a boutique hotel that had a good reputation for supporting film crews shooting in San Francisco and wanted to focus on that lucrative repeat business by emphasizing how they went above and beyond for them.

Ran in "Variety"
Ran in “Variety”

Ran in the LA Times
Ran in the LA Times

Slated to run in the New York Times anniversary edition (cancelled due to the events of 9/11/2001)
Slated to run in the New York Times anniversary edition (cancelled due to the events of 9/11/2001)

 

Art Director: Janny Yang

Creative Director: John Marin

 

When a last ditch effort becomes a huge success

The Pacific Palisades Hotel needed a severe boost to occupancy. They had a small marketing budget and were surrounded by big chains that had much more brand recognition. So we looked at what we could do for them. We opportunistically bought cheap, last minute ad space in the local newspapers left over when other advertisers canceled. We wrote ads that were designed to get attention by speaking to the competition, the context and pushing an edgy personality that none of the other hotels could copy in order to draw in the younger, hipper tourist. The results? An unheard of 80% boost in occupancy – and a campaign that got talked about throughout the city.

Pacific Palisades

sneaklair

Ran on Friday the 13th
Ran on Friday the 13th

Creative Director: Dan Elmslie

Art Director: John Marin

Buildpoint.com

Magazine ad
Magazine ad

Art Director: Ksenya Faenova
Creative Director: John Marin

I’ve gotten lots of reaction from ads I’ve done, but the note in which someone asked for a copy of this ad to frame as a gift for her husband for Christmas was likely my favorite.

Lipton Indooritis

Front page

Beavergram Quiz

We created a microsite to support viral videos we had yet to see. Working with the creative brief “Lipton tea can cure Indooritis” and some yet-to-be-completed viral videos, we developed a fake scientist/doctor and an activist organization (with Lipton as a clear endorser). The site included the quiz to see what kind of indooritis sufferer you were, a ’50s-style educational video, and the ability to send a friend an intervention email from the fake mascot – Betrand the beaver.

Art Director: Mike Zientara

Designer: Craig Weber