2019 Shorty Award Winner in Television 🏆
2019 Shorty Award Finalist in Integrated Campaign 🏅
Role: Social Strategist
truTV has aired the opening rounds of March Madness since 2011, yet every year, sports fans feel the need hone their comedy chops on Twitter, with truTV as the butt of their “jokes.” “It’s that time of year again!" "Does anyone watch truTV the rest of the year?”
In 2015, truTV decided to clap back on social. With a mix of self-awareness and sarcasm, they flipped the script, posting thousands of snarky-but-smart responses along with clever creative that raised brand awareness, entertained existing fans and even won over some haters. The snark continued in 2016 and 2017 with the award-winning #FunnyCauseItsTru and #truTVIsAThing campaigns.
In 2018, we created the PSA-style truTV Awareness Month, expanding from truTV’s past social response activations to also include linear spots, extensive free offerings on truTV’s apps, custom VOD messaging, hundreds of clever videos with our talent directly addressing basketball fans, a targeted trade push, and a strategic paid social media plan.
During March, we published 1,418 posts in support of the #truTVAwarenessMonth campaign. The campaign utilized an Always On activity layer for the entire month, linking #truTVAwarenessMonth posts to promotion of new episodes. This was coupled with targeted new viewer outreach, a social war room reactive/response peak effort during the first round tournament week. The entire campaign was mentioned nearly 30k times across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The posts we published generated 132,584 social engagements (likes, comments, shares, and link clicks) for an average of 94 social engagements/post. The social war room campaign targeted new viewers during the tournament week focused on responses and reactive tweets to drive significantly higher engagement.
The vast majority of our reactive tweets were direct replies, meaning only people who followed both accounts involved could see our tweets. Even with that limitation, we achieved 1,505 impressions per tweet thanks to a very high engagement rate. Our reactive tweets generated an exceptionally high engagement rate of 2.63% as well as a 23.95% view rate, more than double the baseline campaign rate. For comparison, #truTVAwarenessMonth tweets published outside of the reactive campaign week generated an engagement rate of 1.81% and a view rate of 11.53%.
2018 Shorty Award for Instagram Presence 🏆
2018 Webby Nominee for Film & Video: Individual Performance 🥈
Role: Creative Strategist
Misty Copeland. Natasha Hastings. Jessie Graff. Alison Désir. Zoe Zhang. They’re all athletes. Not female athletes—just athletes. That’s a critical distinction we made with “Unlike Any.” For creative, we picked athletes that have, in one way or another, shattered expectations and challenged the status quo in their respective playing fields. We then set out to give these athletes the recognition they deserve – outside of gender roles, labels, and conventions.
To highlight Under Armour’s athletic roster, we produced campaign films in partnership with director Georgia Hudson of Agile Films. Georgia captured 360-degree rotations of their athleticism from every angle. These gorgeous performance pieces broke down perceptions of female athletes as lesser to their male counterparts.
The campaign was released and supported in a wide range of global markets, particularly in the US, Europe, and China, further cementing Under Armour’s commitment to supporting athletes of all levels from all over the world.
“We’ve built the women’s category at Under Armour on a foundation of innovative products and storytelling that champions her athletic performance. We will continue to break new ground with our women’s business by consistently recognizing the ways in which women are re-defining the athletic experience and by creating great product that meets her evolving needs”
— Pam Catlett, SVP & General Manager of Women’s, Under Armour.
From Fintech into Femtech
2019 Shorty Award Nominee for Best Of Social Media: Financial Services 🥈
Role: Creative Director
Financial powerhouses aren't exactly known for making bold branding choices. We've all seen billboard-perfect images of suburban families painting their houses, washing their golden retrievers, or simply folding their arms in stoic confidence.
Our goal with Penn Mutual was to create the complete opposite — a partner brand rooted in radical vulnerability that could appeal to women on a mission to financial wellness. Finances are messy, but they're nothing to be ashamed of, so creating a voice that could instill confidence and empowerment was key. We broke down our demo into two core audiences: women between the ages of 18-34 and 35-60. Both ad sets reflected women experiencing moments intense change including nailing their first job, handling divorce, saving for retirement, and navigating widowhood.
We worked with Advisor Connect and Wimze Digital to hone myWorth's voice and create a simple, elegant aesthetic. Influenced by Refinery 29, Hims, and Everlane. We knew there were creative choices we could make with a proven track record for connecting to their desired demographic. As predicted, Penn Mutual found a new audience that was eager to enter a conversation about financial literacy with them, once they were spoken to in a way that felt profoundly human.
2017 Grand Clio Award for Brand Awareness Campaign 🏆
2017 Shorty Award Finalist in Mid-Range Media Buying Strategy 🏅
2017 Webby Award Nominee in Brand Awareness Campaign 🥈
Role: Social Strategist
Perceptions are hard to shake. Especially if you're an underdog comedy channel hosting the biggest NCAA tournament of the year. In 2017, I (with the help of Movement Strategy) launched an award-winning campaign to strike back and win over the hearts of basketball fans worldwide.
We worked closely with Twitter to review the activation details and ensure our media approach was optimized for reach and awareness. Starting on March 13th and continuing for the next 7 days, we put on a full-court press. Our team was listening in real-time throughout the week – creating over 800 pieces of custom content as we engaged with fans and haters alike to steer the conversation in our favor.
We set out to be seen, heard and appreciated. The biggest win was not the overwhelming amount of impressions the campaign generated, nor the volume of conversation or the substantial press pick-up, it was changing the audience’s perception about what the network was.
As the campaign took off, so did the press. With the campaign gaining momentum and the snark on full-blast, press mentions began to roll in. Articles covering the campaign were published throughout the week and into the weekend. Press mentions include, Uproxx, SB Nation, MassLive, SportingNews, NJ.com, Detroit News, Awful Announcing, College Spun, CBS News, CBS Sports, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, The Drum, ProMax, Slate, USA TODAY, The Wrap, Barstool Sports and many many others!
Demystifying the condition and democratizing the solution
Role: Creative Strategist
Despite the prevalence of migraines, medical expertise and treatment continue to fall short.
Cove seeks to create simple process for migraine-suffers, starting with a secure virtual consultation and staying connected through ongoing progress tracking. Our creative team, which also launched the successful hair loss drug Keeps, sought to apply powerful storytelling techniques to relate to better serve this chronic condition.
The irony behind marketing a migraine brand is that a lot of tried and true methods actually aggravate migraines. Loud music in restaurants pings the brain’s sympathetic nervous system, stressing us out and making us eat and drink more. If we were going to market a migraine medication in a way that felt fresh, it had to tiptoe around the triggers of sufferers.
In Q4 2018, we recorded video ads with an ASMR, relaxed feel. We positioned Cove as a soothing oasis that helps sufferers see clearly and forge their own path forward. Plus, we got to fill up a hammock with puppies, how cool is that?
“Keeps helped incite a conversation online about how millennial men think about their hair.”
— Fast Company
Role: Strategist
With hair loss, it’s easy to see there’s a problem, but harder to find a solution. Though only a few products have proven results, the internet is crowded with scare tactics and snake oil. Left to their own devices and anxieties, many men delay taking meaningful action until it’s too late. Keeps set out to fix that, creating a straightforward, enjoyable experience in a category tainted by stigmas and misinformation.
With Keeps, we built a brand identity around the idea of proactivity, focusing our efforts on motivating men to take charge of their hair loss, as early as possible. With an incredibly bold approach and a bit of wit, we were able to create a rallying brand that urged every customer to become a man of action.
We recorded several network television spots, making the strategic decision to refrain from mentioning the generic medication involved with Keeps (Finasteride, Minoxidil). As a result, we were able to escape the confines of pharmaceutical advertising. Making snappy, 15-second snippets to connect with Keeps’ core audience (Men between the ages of 18 and 40), no fast-talking side effect V/O required.
“We started with an ambitious goal and a lot of unknowns. The team delivered a final product well beyond our expectations.”
— Steven Gutentag, Co-founder
