THE CHALLENGE:
Launch a new bidet to the world that convinces consumers our bidet is an unbelievable spa-like experience everyone can enjoy, every single day.

THE SOLUTION:
Our ideation began with the fact that consumers have a lot of misconceptions about bidets. So we saw an opportunity to define bidets for them by marketing Soft Spa as an experience they wouldn’t expect: Luxurious. This led us to landing on a fresh, ownable tagline and campaign direction for the Soft Spa bidet: Unexpected Luxury.

While exploring design directions for Unexpected Luxury we knew we wanted to stop potential buyers in their tracks with the unexpectedness of our visuals. This unearthed the idea of juxtaposing bidets alongside the familiar imagery of glamorous models in high-fashion settings.

THE PRODUCTION:
A lavish casting session and swanky photo/video shoot resulted in luxuriously unexpected social posts, films, and a brand new website. Not to mention a behind-the-scenes highlight reel to prove that upgrading private time was ready for prime time.

KUDOS:

“Mortar has helped us differentiate the Soft Spa bidet from the competition and redefined the brand based on customer insights and aligned it with our marketing strategy. They brought a unique, classy and refreshing perspective to position a product like a bidet and challenged us to push creative boundaries. We had a lot of fun and we couldn’t be happier with the work that Mortar has done for us.” 

— Corinne A.S., Chief Brand Officer, Fluidmaster Inc.

THE CHALLENGE:
How do you make a science museum exhibit personally relevant and interesting enough to trigger a visit?

THE SOLUTION:
Since the Science of Sharing exhibit's aim is to provoke thought around social behavior, we decided to make the marketing an extension of the actual experience.

Each Conversation Car posed questions that were relevant to a rider's experience and got people contemplating while commuting. Do you put your bags on the seat, or at your feet? Should you just sit there, or is it okay to start talking to strangers? Is MUNI a call-free zone, or do you blab loudly and incessantly on your phone during the entire trip, annoying riders that are even three cars away? (Not that we're judging.)

We also posed San Francisco denizens with perhaps one of the most pressing dilemmas of our times...especially in a city where the dogs outnumber the children.

We launched a guerrilla-style marketing attack in the form of hundreds of pieces of fake dog poop scattered in San Francsico parks and on city streets. Each "land mine" featured a sign asking passers-by if they'd clean up after their dogs if no one was around.

The stunt was so attention-grabbing that our plastic poop propaganda pieces became collector's items as people scooped them up and carried them home.

Cannes Lion Short-List: Promo & Activation

Most pet owners know they should get their pets fixed. The problem for any SPCA organization is getting people to talk about it and take action.

So we installed machines with hidden cameras in parks that dispensed condom-shaped brochures outlining the benefits of getting pets fixed. Since our desired outcome was to increase the rate of sterilization procedures at the SPCA, the condoms (and corresponding website) informed visitors that pet condoms weren’t actually real, and that the only real fix is to spay or neuter their pet(s) at the SPCA.

Within the first 36 hours, our companion website received over 30,000 visits, 2,500+ Facebook shares and reached 166 countries. Pet condoms also vaulted to the #1 trending topic on Reddit.

In the beginning, toilets sent gallons of water down the pipes at once. Thankfully, it was always one flush, and done.

Then, the 1.6- and 1.28-gallon toilet standards came to be and reputations took a hit in bathrooms across the country. Double-flushing became second nature. Instead of conserving water, people consumed more—and grew more frustrated—with each extra flush.

Well, those days are finally over. Forget about sacrificing power to save water. Say so long to security flushes.

Kohler Aquapiston technology delivers powerful performance and bold design through and through. It’s innovative efficiency you can actually feel good about, with style you’ll be proud to show off.

Kohler Aquapiston technology. Flush, and done.

To deliver this mantra to the masses, we created a Facebook experience called Multi-Flushers Anonymous. Users watch a short video that brings the severity of this horrible affliction to life, then they’re prompted to create custom video confessionals for friends. (I performed the voiceover for all the videos.) 

THE CHALLENGE:
With Steve & Kate rewriting the rules on what a kid's day camp can be, how do we deliver a campaign that's just as bold and forward-thinking?

THE SOLUTION:
Steve and Kate's Camps wanted to really make some noise. With a summer camp unlike any other, they needed a one-of-a-kind campaign just as bold, forward-thinking and intriguing as they are.

We created a campaign that caught our potential customers off guard, made them stop in their tracks, and maybe even gasp in awe...or horror.

Sometimes moms and dads need to question their own parenting skills. We were more than happy to oblige.

Comedy Central was looking for an idea to house a new video-on-demand service for all their program offerings. We pitched them “The Comedy Centralizer” — a multi-platform app designed to deliver a laugh upon every launch.

The San Francisco office of Isobar was shut down before we got to round two of the presentations, but during round one my writing prompted numerous laughs (and a job offer) from the very funny (and highly intelligent) folks at Comedy Central.

Adidas asked us to help launch their new TECHFIT jersey that seven major NCAA football programs (Tennessee, Texas A&M, Louisville, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, Michigan and UCLA) wore at different points during the season .

TECHFIT PowerWEB is the best performance enhancing compression on the market, scientifically proven to improve speed, power, vertical and endurance (that’s what I was told and I’m sticking to it).

We enlisted Michael B. Jordan to be our football hero. The spots were geared to high school players who dream of playing for big-time colleges in front of national TV audiences. The script I wrote contained a line that summed up this thought perfectly, "Turn Friday nights, into Saturday afternoons."

Being a diehard Notre Dame fan since birth (I learned the Irish's Fight Song before learning my A-B-C's), I came up with the idea to have our talent recite each school's song as a dramatic piece. Adding in a pounding, college football-style bass drum to drive alongside Michael's spoken word interpretation really took the videos to another level (and from online comments, had followers of each school playing them repeatedly to get pumped up before big-time Saturday games).

The videos won a W3 Gold Award for Branded Content in the Business to Consumer Category.

Every holiday season is the same. The same ads. The same songs. The same celebrations. So how does an overlooked mobile phone company like Nokia cut through the usual holiday noise and get people to consider switching carriers? By turning away from what’s artificial about the holidays, and focusing on what’s real.

Leveraging the “real as it gets” imaging power of the Nokia Lumia, we created a campaign featuring a series of short films that captured the traditions of real people not usually seen in holiday campaigns. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jeff Feuerzeig was hired to direct our series.

We shot three films: ‘Canine Christmas’ documented the annual holiday celebration of dressed-up doggies and their very unique owners, ‘Hey Santa Claus’ chronicled the seasonal shenanigans of a bunch of surfing Santas, and ‘Tis The Season’ followed five extreme Christmas Carolers as they regaled their neighborhood from midnight to dawn.

A trailer for each one was produced and seeded out to social networks. We posted the films to Nokia’s YouTube channel, as well as our online holiday campaign page. A nice roundup of the campaign was featured here.

Nokia was able to stand out in a season when everyone else usually phones it in—presenting its real brand personality in an influentially unique light.

Football’s no longer a game of inches. It’s a game of ounces.

The lighter your equipment the faster you’ll be. And if you’re the best of the best, every ounce matters. We made the point that adiZero 5 STAR cleats are the lightest cleats ever made by sacrificing some other football equipment to the cause.

THE MISSION:
Heading up the movement are Coach Light and Coach Fast, our adiZero 5 STAR-inspired coaches who are our hosts of havoc.

Coaches Light (played by Eric Berry of the K.C. Chiefs) and Fast (played by C.J. Spiller of the Buffalo Bills) are firm believers in the adage, “Strength thrills, but speed kills.” So they are thoroughly pumped up by the extreme lightness of adiZero 5 STAR because they know if their players are lighter, they’ll be faster.

The coaches have come up with a new mission: Make all football equipment just as light. They have some unorthodox methods in striving for lightness. No helmet, shoulder pad, or jock strap is safe from their drive to reduce the weight of a piece of equipment.

The videos won a W3 Gold Award for Branded Content in the Business to Consumer Category.

THE CHALLENGE:
Spark the interest of San Francisco's summer tourists to visit the Exploratorium over more well-known, established Bay Area attractions.

THE SOLUTION:
We were tasked with helping the Exploratorium bring artist Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests (“Beach Animals” in Dutch) to their Embarcadero location during the global exhibition’s first tour of North America.

We drew strolling visitors in by showcasing the attention-grabbing visuals of these unique, self-propelled creatures through street banners, wild postings, outdoor shelters, and Bay area tourist buses.

In addition, print ads, digital banners, social media, and videos were produced to announce the Exploratorium’s program of live demos, artist meet-and-greets, and the opportunity to build and share your own Strandbeest.

THE RESULTS:
Summer exhibition attendance exceeded gate forecasts of over 120%.

We gather in stadiums, arenas, bars and man caves to watch games that have a winner, and a loser. Then, ironically, we’re left to debate sports issues without recourse or resolution in some unsatisfying, infinite tie.

If only there were a way to settle these debates. If only someone would step up to the plate and decide, once and for all, that I am right about the Giants, and declare that my friend Jim is full of crap with his Facebook rant on the Cowboys.

If only there were ... Grudge Judge.

Yahoo! Sports Grudge Judge won a W3 Gold Award in the Integrated Campaign – Sports Category, and also won a Silver Hatch Award in the Social Media Category, which honors creative excellence in the advertising community.

Yahoo! Sports Grudge Judge was named a finalist in the MIXX Awards: Social Marketing. Focused on creativity and impact, the MIXX Awards is the only competition that evaluates all key facets of interactive marketing, including: strategy, creative development and execution, media placement and integration, effectiveness and ROI.

We asked teens from all over the nation to send in pictures of their game faces for a chance to appear in a TV commercial alongside adidas athletes during the MTV Movie Awards broadcast.

At the adidas (not a typo, the ‘a’ is lowercase) Facebook page, we received thousands and thousands of entries and selected the best of the best—making good on our promise to put their passions in front of the world to see.

It was quite a task to secure all the rights and make these user submissions suitable for HD broadcast, but we created and produced everything in-house and adidas was mighty impressed with the results. And, so were the student athletes, artists, dancers, and skaters that received the thrill of a lifetime by seeing their still images come to life.

We also filmed Dwight Howard and B.o.B. announcing the Game Face contest and touting the experience on Facebook. 

The campaign won an OMMA award for best Integrated Online Campaign: Retail.

The EA Sports “Welcome to the Win” site is a totally immersive interactive experience giving fans an inside look at the latest game releases, pro athlete interviews, user-submitted great plays and much more.

I was responsible for copy, banner concepts, writing scripts and recording V/O talent for Epic Win and Great Plays videos found on the site and seeded to YouTube.

The entire campaign won an Effie Award. 

Cut my teeth on Grey NY's "DQ Something Different" campaign — creating billboards, writing and recording radio spots, and even winning an Emmy award for one of my TV spots ("Napkin").

The campaign was an embarrassment of riches for me.

THE CHALLENGE:
Drive "must-see" attendance for visitors and local families and remind them the Exploratorium is for adults with and without children.

THE SOLUTION:
WildCard (I named it) is the Exploratorium’s large-scale art installation that has to be personally witnessed (and walked through) to be believed. It’s a phenomenon that requires active participation. Our team took that idea to heart by intentionally making our creative marketing transport people into that cardboard reality.

Cardboard is the classic childhood medium of imagination. The playful, DIY, 3-D aesthetic of our ads honored that kid-like curiosity on outdoor shelters, street pole banners, wild postings, and Bay area tourist buses—teasing the alternate world that visitors would inhabit at the WildCard exhibit.

We also developed digital banners, social media, print ads, and making-of videos to round out how WildCard was the perfect place to partake in the melding of art and play.