Wrote my first print ad for my mother, the deputy director and ECD of a hot little shop in the UAE that had some killer clients. Dior, BP, and Citroen among them. I was 14. Did an apprenticeship at my uncle’s little shop in London 14 years later. Canon, Research Machines, and a London travel agency I can’t recall the name of stand out. Here’s some of the stuff I did in this century.
HP was a client for almost 12 years. I wrote this headline as part of a source messaging and strategic positioning exercise. It went on to become the platform for an integrated national campaign in India featuring Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone.
I conceived, wrote and directed this spec campaign that helped Experiential & Event agency Momentum WW (NY) win the Coca-Cola shopper marketing account. That win set the foundation for their shopper marketing practice that thrives today.
Also for Momentum WW, NY and the Coca-Cola pitch.
While with OneWholeCircle, I created a spec campaign for a pitch to the guitar maker, Paul Reed Smith. Neither pitch nor campaign materialized but the idea still strikes a note.
While a lot of people play the guitar, few people play it well enough to justify buying a PRS. Conceptually, reckon the idea still holds water.
In-store poster for Silk at Target.
Inside cover of an Indian Motorcycle catalogue.
A poster and magazine spread for the Scandinavia Open World Cup Skateboarding tournament, done while with OneWholeCircle.
Also for the Scandinavian World Cup, an on-premise poster and invitation. (Copenhagen had a reputation for easy-to-get weed. Hyggelige is an extension of the Danish word hygge that, 15 years later, was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Liberator (Bedroom Adventure Gear) makes pillows that help people connect and create during lovemaking. Over the course of two years, I drafted strategy with the CEO, and wrote, co-produced and directed creative for over 30 print ads a month that helped make Liberator a globally recognized brand (and secure product placements in movies like Meet the Fockers and Burn After Reading). The Love All Ways campaign (my last) resulted in sales of over a million dollars for the month of February, 2006. That was five times what they were doing before I came on to lead creative. Liberator’s parent company went public and now owns a famous chain of adult novelty stores as well.
As co-founder and CD/writer for OneWholeCircle, an improvised, five-person, marketing and event agency in Copenhagen, Denmark, I led strategy and creative for all (three) of our clients. Tone Barker, a Danish fashion designer; Robert’s Coffee, a Finnish coffee brand, and Utterslev Kirkes Børnegård, Denmark’s first 24-hour learning and day care center for K-12 kids.
For Tone Barker, we launched a fall and summer collection at fashion week events in both Paris and Copenhagen. The summer launch included a series of live jazz concerts featuring exclusively female performers in Tone Barker dresses. They also featured as models in the catalog.
We launched Robert’s Coffee in Copenhagen, building out their brand and identity, hosting co-branded music and art events through their first summer in existence. In a city of 3000 cafés, Robert’s became a top ten coffee shop and lounge destination.The printed menu, shown below, had its visuals and specials updated weekly, was made to be taken home as a souvenir, and featured real customers and staff. ( The tagline was Really.)
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