Pat Quinn, one of the OG creators of the Ice Bucket Challenge, gave an impassioned speech at a press event in Boston commemorating the 5th Anniversary of the Ice Bucket Challenge. His speech came through his electronic communication aid. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. What was remarkable to us all was how uplifting it was. We were so moved that we took the speech and turned it into a long form piece of content that would serve as the kick off and inspiration for the ALS Association’s brand campaign for 2020. This being an agile idea, we had no budget for a fancy shoot. We just patched together stills from Pat’s Facebook feed with a few pick-up shots we grabbed in his apartment in Yonkers.

Creative Directors: Jill Applebaum/Megan Sheehan

This October, we brought Halloween fanboy, Neil Patrick Harris together with Halloween favorite, Reese’s to bring the first of its kind interactive haunted house to Facebook and Instagram. The real treat? The audience would get to choose the tricks and treats all month long through a series of prompts across Instagram story polls, question stickers, and poll ads in Facebook feed, inviting people to weigh in on how the haunted house would come to life.

Creepy clowns or a vampire dentist with a rusty two headed drill? Would the Reese’s treats be served by an angelic choir or a blessing of unicorns? On October 24th, we invited several groups of wiling victims, who were also chosen by the audience, to experience the actual house as the audience watched along and controlled it even more through interactive LIVE polling on Facebook. Things got pretty scary. In fact, this was the only project I’ve ever worked on that had a “safe word.”

Creative Directors: Jill Applebaum, Chad Johnson, Addie Marino

Pampers is a legacy brand, but needed help to connect better with younger moms. We discovered that 9 out of 10 moms worry they're not doing a good enough job. We wanted to inspire and help them change that mindset.

Building upon existing platform behaviors around “affirmations” and a proven behavior change technique of writing notes-to-self on mirrors, we created a virtual toolkit for moms that would easily fit into their busy lives. We then worked with Creator moms and built an eco-system of assets to drive the story. The campaign surpassed business objectives to raise brand affinity and consideration, but best of all, it helped helped millions of moms feel better about themselves.

Chevy came to us with the ambition of doing something big and global around New Year’s. We analyzed over 700MM conversations to learn that the single most popular New Year’s Resolution is just to keep one’s resolution. Using a suite of Facebook products, we created an innovative and comprehensive program to help 5 people from around the world stick to their audacious resolutions and then scaled it to help people at home.

Creative: Jill Applebaum/Addie Marino/Keenan Pridmore

Producer: Maria Soares/Rich Rosenthal

Production Co: M ss ng P eces

Always has a long history of doing purpose driven work. One of their global initiatives is to end period poverty because a staggering number of girls can’t afford period products and are forced to miss school or make do in uncomfortable and ineffective ways. Our idea was to inspire Gen Z women to join the cause and to understand that by purchasing Always, they’re helping girls everywhere.The campaign not only surpassed the donation goal, but also broke all CPG norms for brand affinity, purchase intent and sales.

People who experience deafness or hearing loss often are “in the closet” about their difficulty. It’s invisible to the world. And many people feel shame and therefore avoid getting tested and treatment. I know this firsthand as I was born with barely baseline hearing and it’s been downhill from there which is why I raised my hand high at the opportunity to work on this project.

In partnership with our client, the inspiring advocate and community leader, Paula Pfeifer, who calls her community Cronicas da Surdez (Chronicles of Deafness.) For Hearing Awareness Day in Brazil, we asked: how might we use Instagram to bring visibility and pride to this issue, the same way we showcase pride for other communities? Who said hearing aids can’t be blinged out?

We made a suite of Instagram Giphy Stickers, an Instagram ad driving people to them and an influencer kit to offer sample messaging. The campaign was featured in 12 local and national Brazilian news publications.

Creative Directors: Jill Applebaum/Megan Sheehan

Designer: Frances Smith

Artist: Ali Mac

Winner of the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix

In honor of the brand's 100th Birthday we created print ads that took a nostalgic look back. There was so much fanfare around them that the brand team challenged us to take the power of the idea and make it even more social. That's where Daily Twist was born. We committed to pushing out 100 pieces of content in 100 days. I led the team that came up with the idea, assembled the newsroom infrastructure with the clients and their legal team and executed an idea every single day. The brand added a million Facebook fans in the 100 days of this program.

The program kicked off on June 25th with what has come to be known virally as the Gay Cookie. The conversation was picked up by virtually every news medium including The Huffington Post, Gawker, Ellen DeGeneres (unpaid), Fast Company, BuzzFeed, Jimmy Kimmel, the Today Show, Bill Maher, etc. It was given three minute of air time on The Colbert Report (unpaid) along with all of the trade pubs including Creativity Magazine's Pick of the Day. It was written about in the Harvard Business review. It was spoofed all over the internet. Petitions were drawn to create the cookie for real. Memes were created and countless videos were created by the masses and uploaded to YouTube. And that was just Day 1. 

Creative Team
Partner: Megan Sheehan
Copy: Noel Hamilton
Art Directors: Jackie Anzaldi, Mike Lubrano, Jared Isle

We created new video content to encourage social media audiences to reconsider their biases based on gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion and age.

The idea was to prove that the “average American” you picture in your mind when you hear a certain name isn’t always accurate. And by even forming that image we all bring bias. John Smith is the most common name in America. We set out to bring 20 of them together to challenge our audience to confront their implicit bias. Given the political climate that we’re living in today, messages encouraging acceptance are more important than ever. I am incredibly proud of this project.

This video was created for Facebook in partnership with Ad Council.

One of the most fun projects I’ve had the chance to work on was the mini relaunch of the 90’s flop come cult favorite, Crystal Pepsi. Millions of people around the internet were asking for it and it was our pleasure to make their (very important) dream come true. We created the 92nd Floor. A place where the dedicated Crystal Pepsi employees have been working diligently since the 90’s. The project was talked about on CNBC, Fast Co, Time and won a film shortlist at Cannes. It also has over 2 million views on YouTube and counting. Supported only by our own digital ecosystem, we ensured a crystal clear future for Crystal Pepsi. Booyah.

Group CD: Jill Applebaum
ACD: Tucker Loosbrock
Copywriter: Emily Sheehan
Art Director: Claire Manganiello

As longtime customers curb their soda intake, Pepsi needed to attract the next generation of cola drinkers. The target? Millennials, a fickle, fun-hungry group notoriously immune to traditional marketing.

Enter Pepsi Pass, an experience-based app for iOS and Android, that rewards you for not only drinking Pepsi, but also having fun with your friends—all of which you can then cash in for even more fun experiences. And it’s super easy. Just install the app and hang out with your friends like your normally do, and earn points that give you access to awesome events that only Pepsi can provide, like concerts, sports games, festivals and more.

My role was to oversee all product updates and new ways for users to stay engaged such as the launch of  “Friendies,” a play on selfies, which enables one to take photos with friends earning more points the more people one could squeeze into the shot.

Within 6 months of launch, Pepsi Pass has over 1MM downloads and five stars in app store.

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Tom Christmann about how I got my start in the ad business. I can’t listen to the sound of my voice but if you can, you’ll get to know me a little bit.

To tease the limited re-release of Crystal Pepsi, we created The Crystal Pepsi Trail. The game was launched on CrystalPepsi.net, a geocities-inspired website full of webrings and marquees. The game celebrates the "journey" our fans embarked on to bring back Crystal Pepsi, incorporating key elements from the 1992 Oregon Trail. By partnering with The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, who owns the rights to the now-defunct Oregon Trail game, we were offered offered access to official assets and rights to use the name and likeness from the original game.

Throughout The Crystal Pepsi Trail, users were presented with challenges and milestones similar to that of The Oregon Trail, but with a 90s twist. For example, on The Crystal Pepsi Trail, your trail guide is Marc Summers and you might find that "your Tamagotchi has died of dysentery." We partnered with a number of brands - including Hasbro, Tamagotchi, Furbee, JNCO Jeans, Creepy Crawlers, and Bedazzler - who allowed us to leverage their official names and likenesses within the game design, adding delightful authenticity to our 90s references.

To promote the game, we recreated our own social media assets in the same style as popular memes playing on the original game, such as "You have died of dysentery." Users were also able to share these assets to their social channels from within the game as they reached each milestone. Additionally, we created two game trailers released on Pepsi's social channels and key media outlets to tease the game, building anticipation prior to launch.

Agency: Barbarian

Creative Director: Jill Applebaum

Art Director: Claire Manganiello

Copywriter: Emily Sheehan

Design: Mike Ma, Caelin Cacciatore, Alex Lang

Dev: Dan Nichols, Christian Clifford, Charlie Hoey

Pepsi, long renown for giving fans exclusive access to sports and music, is the title sponsor of the Superbowl Halftime Show. This year, in honor of Superbowl 50 we wanted to do something big and it had to be something that wouldn’t take eyeballs off of the show itself.

Our idea was called #UpForGrabs. With a “like” or “retweet”, you were automatically entered into a sweepstakes for a chance to win items from the real halftime show. 

As an added challenge, the NFL was super secretive about their run of show. We had to get our posts ready and in chronological order which was difficult to do without a set list. It was in our newsroom at the Twitter office where we sat ready to hit upload as fast as humanly possible when one of our items appeared onstage. 

#UpForGrabs received 682 entries per minute and helped the brand achieve #2 overall share of voice. And some lucky person somewhere is now the proud owner of Chris Martin’s sweaty denim jacket.

Creatives:
Tucker Loosbrock
Michael Tseng
Joel Lundblad

Graphic design:
Alex Lang

Having not even lost all of my Oreo weight yet, I was asked by Nestle Toll House, the nation's leading baking brand, for a social playbook that would blow the dust off of the brand in the social space with an effort toward engaging more Millennials. So we thought, instead of writing our social updates, why don't we bake them?

Bakerisms are short, fun, bite-sized mantras that telegraph the brand's philosophy about baking. Because of these posts, Facebook changed it's 20% text rule. After a lengthy challenge, they acquiesced saying that in this case the "text" was in service of art, thereby, enabling us to sponsor these posts.

Creative Team
Copy: Carl Mallia
Art Directors: Jordan Young, Bianca Guimaraes

LG brought good news to Times Square through an interactive billboard that allowed me to flex my muscles in technology, character design and improv comedy.

We created a character, named Gil (Life is Good spelled backwards) who lived on the board and fed on good news. Good news came through an RSS feed, SMS capability and via Twitter. Gil also worked in "Puppetmaster" mode, meaning that my partners and I would go up into the meat locker where the board was controlled and communicate with people on the street in real time.

Creative Team
Partner: Phil Jungmann
Copy: Erica Pressly

To honor the 100th birthday of an iconic little cookie, we looked at iconic moments of the last 100 years and gave them an Oreo twist.

Creative Team
Partner: Megan Williams, Megan Sheehan
Designer: Yego Moravia

My partner and I led the pitch that won the SeaWorld business. We then got to spend more than our fair share of time bonding with dolphins and sea otters. The account had both  brand and retail components. 

We had the help of a phenomenal team of freelancers, Ashton Rose (CW) and Michael Bae (AD), who you can check out here: http://baeandrose.com

We took a very simple approach in launching the world’s largest capacity washer.  TV was shot by Ne-O where we combined an in camera approach with CGI to show Guinness Book-sized garments hanging in unexpected places. Print was shot by Nick Meek and we partnered with VML to create the website which won web pick of the day by Communication Arts. A washer that promises fewer loads of laundry? This thing practically sells itself.

Creative team
Copy: Amber Casey
Art Director: Dan Hubert

A revered little niche brand, Burt’s was making its debut in CVS and Walgreens. They wanted to go mass without pissing off their cult fans. We used a quirky offbeat voice to educate people on the benefits of natural ingredients. I spearheaded everything from a print campaign that was recognized by Archive and in the trades, a complete website overhaul and some PR ideas which included having the CEO eat his products to prove their made from the earth. We also created Burt’s Bill, a petition for Congress that would require the FDA to regulate the word “natural.” Many brands that use that word are far from it.

Since part of the Burt’s Bees strategy was to communicate that the products are made with truly natural ingredients, we asked the Burt’s Bees CEO, John Replogle, to quite literally put his money where his mouth was. We served him a delicious lunch made exclusively of Burt’s Bees shampoo, face cream, and body lotion. And he survived to talk to the press about it.

There are currently no guidelines or labeling standards for using the term “natural,” so products that have as little as 1 percent natural ingredients can claim to be ‘natural.” My idea? To allow the consumers’ voices to be heard. The Burt’s Bill would be a way to petition Capital Hill and the Natural Products Association to give meaning back to the world ‘natural.’

We were given three weeks to launch the web site that would synch with the brand’s new messaging. I personally wrote copy for each of their 120 products. We also told the history of the company through a flash “book” that a photo real bee took you through. Since the brand had such ardent fans, the site provided the perfect spot for brand advocates to meet, share stories and alternative uses for the products. Pardon the cliché, but we called that area “The Hive.” 

A campaign shot by Dante Ariola for a new LG TV. Unfortunately I had to miss the shoot in Thailand. I was so pregnant that I weighed more than the elephant.

This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to sell naming rights to the new Atlantic Yards stadium in Brooklyn. Our idea was to offer our target audience that consisted of 15 CEO’s a once in a lifetime chance to “own a landmark.” We had the rare opportunity to interview Frank Gehry on his original vision for the project. We created an invitation to a cocktail party come sales pitch, shot a brand film, and we even crafted a coffee table book about Brooklyn highlighting the storied history and recent Renaissance. We also designed a Sales Center on the 44th floor of the New York Times Center to sell 170 VIP Suites. It was a true immersive brand experience. I’m proud to say the arena is now called the Barlclay’s Center.