How do you pivot to make internet ads appropriate for the covid-era without in-person production? By putting customers, and what they’re doing, front and center.
Category: ads
Making inspiration practical
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.
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.
Creative Director: Dan Elmslie
Art Director: John Marin
American winemakers get authentic down under
Art Director: Steve Wasden
Creative Director: John Marin
Argent Hotel
Art Director: Janny Yang
Creative Director: John Marin
Selling tween girl games to high-tech dads
Beck’s
Art Director: Ted Zahn
Buildpoint.com
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
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