The OnStar "Amazing" Campaign

Problem: How does a brand that was once the first of its kind, stand out amongst a sea of competitors?

Solution: Remind a technologically-desensitized nation to stop and smell the amazing.

Role: Digital Creative Director / Art Director / Copy Writer

To be honest, there were several problems that needed solutions here. One of those problems was how could we achieve our goals without TV?  Our answer? Digital video content, a smart online media buy to spread it around, and a content heavy experience waiting for those who clicked through.

With the help of some extremely talented people we created four videos that did our best to explain the many faces of OnStar in a simple and amazing way. This digital video content became pre-roll, rich media banners and three-frame standard banners.

The destination for the campaign was OnStarConnections.com.  OnStar Connections is a dynamic and  responsive content hub that meshes the rational and emotional sides of OnStar together to create one very compelling story. And OnStarConnections.com is just the tip of the iceberg.  The Connections publication includes Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.

You can see all the videos here:

"Dream"

"Joyride"

"Sandman"

"Crash"

OnStar FMV Product Launch

Online Media

Problem: How do you announce that OnStar is now available on most vehicles on the road when the world thinks it's only available on GM vehicles? 

Solution: Let them know that OnStar now comes in a box. 

Role: Digital Creative Director / Art Director

The campaign direction was dubbed the "Power of the Box." The concept for our online media was that every banner was a "box", and in each of those boxes the services of OnStar lived. We created real-life stages that were proportionally correct for each of the three standard banner sizes - 300x250, 728x90 and 160x600.

In each of these stages we filmed actors representing the key services of OnStar passing a multi-sided sign between each other denoting what service they represented. The banners all started out with the lid of the box opening to reveal the characters, and then closing 15 seconds later to reveal the product. 

The FMV Experience

Problem: How do you not only announce a completely new way to get OnStar, but also inform a public that thinks OnStar is only about Safety about it's other relevant daily uses?

Solution: Create an experience with digital video content explaining how you can use OnStar in your daily life and drop it absolutely everywhere.

Role: Creative Director / Writer / Art Director

We partnered with This Moment who have a platform that allows you to deliver a consistent experience across YouTube, Facebook, Mobile and Online Media. Wherever we found our viewers, we were able to offer up our content. Our content consisted of 4 made-for-digital videos that covered the basics of what OnStar FMV could do for you. I wrote and art-directed the videos with the awesome people at the Mill. There was also a real-time commenting system that allowed comments from anyone at any one of the experiences locations to be seen in all experiences...even the expanded banners.

Launch of the all new Chevy Camaro

Online Media

Problem: Let the world know that the Camaro was back in a big way.

Solution: The biggest Online Media blitz I've ever been a part of.

Role: Digital Creative Director

Launching the all new Chevy Camaro online took a coordinated effort between strategy, account and digital. This might sound like a no brainer, but for an online media campaign - this kind of coordination was rare in those days. Behavioral targeting was still fresh and we tackled it with gusto. We had identified 6 mindsets to work against and had copy written that was relevant for each. We pulled out all the tricks we had learned over the years for making great banners - we had everything from video to expanded panels that were more microsite than they were banners. The above image is just a taste of all the executions we ran for that launch.

The Launch Site

Problem: How do you answer a humongous online media blitz?

Solution: With a microsite that brings the banner's promise to life.

The Camaro launch site was a big experience that the Camaro itself guided you through. Driving from section to section the site design got the heck out of the way and let the Camaro shine.  The centerpiece was a configurator that let you build your own Camaro from the ground up.

Rise of the Chevy Autobots

Problem: Chevy wanted to use the release of the first Transformers movie as a way to reaffirm it's place in popular culture. 

Solution: Let people become Chevy Transformers online. 

Role: Art Director / Writer / Game Designer

This is, and will always be, my favorite baby. After I presented the game to Steven Spielberg he gave me two thumbs up and said "Very cool!" 

This was a social game before their were social games. Facebook was still a minor player and Myspace was king.

This was a 3 month story that put you into the role of a Chevy Transformer. The experience was a fighting game wrapped within a story that played out through blog posts from Bumblebee himself. Bumblebee was recruiting Autobots here on earth to help fight deceptions and needed your help. He would send puzzles that needed to be solved, which opened new abilities for the game.  Some of the puzzles took players to Chevy.com to find codes, or to actual Print pieces in publications. 

When you first joined the game you "built" a bot from one of 7 Chevy's. Your bot would have powers directly born from that vehicles features. You could then level up your bot by sparring with other players in a simple strategic game. You would select 5 moves and send a challenge to an opponent. When that person logged in they could answer the challenge by selected 5 moves for their own bot. You both would then see a replay of the fight and the outcome. 

At the end we had 280,000 players signed on.  One lucky fellow won a trip to the Premier of the movie and we have hundreds of thousands of visits to Chevy.com. 

GM E85 Alternate Reality Game

Problem: GM wanted to seed the idea of using E85 gasoline as a cleaner alternative to gasoline. However, they didn't want to spend a lot of money in the broader public arena.

Solution: Wrap the message in an unbranded interactive story that used viral nature of the web to gain momentum. 

Role: Art Director / Designer / Writer (concept)

My creative director at the time came to me and said that he'd sold the idea of doing some sort of viral thing around e85 and all he had used was an overlay of the Ethanol molecule diagram over the Renaissance building (GM HQ) - which fit almost perfectly. He asked me to figure out how to go from there. That was one of the best moments in my career. 

I came back and said we should make it an Alternate Reality Game and I had a story about a man named Benjamin Stove and it was inspired by Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Sold!

WIBS was social before there was social. We created a forum, two blogs and had shareable art when shareable art was just a glimmer in Myspace's eye. We weren't just online though. We hid messages in books in 6 major cities around the US. These messages were found by the community within a day or two of the puzzle's releases.

In the end WIBS had over 1200 active participants, a news story in the Des Moines Register, and a community created wiki.  

Insist on Olympic Launch Site

Role: Digital Creative Director

Art Direction: Adam Ball

Copy: Rod Weston

Production: CE

I've done or been involved with a fair share of microsites over the years.  This one was a stand out because A. It was just pretty. We shot all the art for ourselves. and B. It was the first one we did in Javascript and CSS. We wanted to inspire people to use Olympic paint/stain and in the process learn about the product. This was a full-screen scroller that took the visitor through the interior and exterior of a home painted and stained with Olympic. 

2008 Chevy Silverado Launch Site

Role: Art Director / Information Architect

Production (Site): Speedshape (CG/Video) / Driftlab (Design/Flash Execution)
Production (Intro Video): Sway (CG/Video) / Pink Noise (Sound Design)

The 2008 Silverado Launch site was a pretty heavy affair. The experience started with a video that showcased 6 models of the Silverado starting with the very first. In anticipation of the first Transformers movie, each of the models transformed into the next.  Once you were in the site, the showpiece interaction was handing the reigns to the visitor to transform their own 2008 Silverado. Basically it was a video configurator that allowed you to select everything from color to wheels to a tonneau cover.

Here is the Intro video that opened the site:

2007 Chevy Avalanche Launch Site

Role: Art Director / Information Architect

Production: Speedshape (CGI/Video) / LitFuse (Design/Flash Execution)

This was the first microsite I completely owned. In those days we didn't have Content Strategists or Information Architects, and I used to walk 5 miles in the snow to work everyday. It was a full-video virtual walk-around of the Avalanche in a one of the locations from the broadcast spots. It was made up of 50+ videos, and had this great zoom-through sequence that would take you through the guts of the vehicle from the keyhole out the exhaust pipe. Ah, still a great site.