I never thought I’d join Salesforce. I was very happy as the global ECD at Facebook. But a conversation with my mom led me to reconsider. She asked me, “What does Salesforce do?,” and I honestly couldn’t tell her. I knew a little about CRM from being in the business, and I obviously knew their name. I knew that they had built a ginormous skyscraper in San Francisco and that they would take over the entire city every year for their big conference, Dreamforce. And I had seen these little woodland characters around, but I had no idea what they meant for the brand. I also knew that Salesforce and it’s founder, Marc Benioff, did a lot of good for the community and the planet, and that they were a purpose driven brand. But…I still couldn’t tell my mom exactly what they did. So that challenge, to help Salesforce tell their story to the world, was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. So I joined. And I’m glad I did. I immediately set out to create the first ever campaign for the company to define what we do. I also wanted to begin to give our brand characters some meaning. Make our icons iconic. So, this is just the start. We also tell inspiring customer success stories through beautiful filmmaking, deliver state of the art digital experiences online and at our events, and create important campaigns that articulate our values around equality, sustainability and trust. I really do love my job.

We enlisted Black Eyed Peas founder will.i.am for a one-of-a-kind mission: travel to cities around the globe and, armed with an Ultrabook, write, record, and release a new song in each city, inspired by that city. I was with him on every step of the journey writing, filming and documenting everything that happened along the way. At the same time, we developed an “experiential publishing engine” that allowed us to present content so that users could listen, touch, explore and connect with the music.

Fans could follow will.i.am’s travels, see and hear exclusive content about the songs' inspiration and production, download the music, and join the global conversation on various social networks in real time.

I had the privilege of leading a global team of talented art directors, designers, copywriters, filmmakers, producers, editors and strategists. All makers and builders, myself included. We told the Facebook story to marketers and advertisers big and small through campaigns, web surfaces, films, events, outdoor and even print. During my time at Facebook, I woke up every day excited to push and explore the boundaries of storytelling, particularly on mobile devices, where the next great creative frontier lies ahead of us. It was a great experience that taught me so much, not only about social best practices, but also how to steward through true servant leadership.

The WRITER way. This isn’t just a philosophy. It’s the foundation beneath the way we think. The way we build.

The way we show up every day. For our customers. And for each other. To do things the WRITER way, means always doing things the right way—only better.

The way everything should be done.

To challenge the status quo. To question everything. To obsessively focus on Enterprise AI, and only Enterprise AI. To relentlessly reimagine and reinvent. To rewrite the future with purpose. With people.

It’s why we get out of bed each,and every, day.

The WRITER way means we don’t just build Enterprise AI the right way…

We build Enterprise AI the WRITER way.

Halo StarScope is a web based mobile experience that allows fans of the iconic game to hold up their phone or tablet in any direction and have a 360 degree window to the heavens. As you move your device up, down and around, you see stars, planets and space vessels that can all be explored. Touch a floating 3D space station off in the distance and be warped inside of it to then have the freedom to look around and explore the ship. Again, by looking in all directions through your mobile device you can see the different rooms, the walls, the floor and the ceiling. Tap on weapons and other objects and dive deeper and deeper into the Halo Universe through layered video and additive content, and then share it with the rest of planet earth. 

is it in you?

I know it’s getting a bit old, but if anything about advertising were to be written on my tombstone someday, besides the fact that it probably killed me, it would be that I was one of the original creators of the “is it in you?” campaign for Gatorade. My creative partner and I thought the idea would be a simple, edgy way to challenge someone’s will to win as well as tell the complete story of Gatorade’s efficacy. The brand was deep into “Life Is A Sport, Drink It Up” at the time and the clients were strongly urging the agency to bring back “Demo Man.” (That really bad thermographic profile of a guy rehydrating while drinking Gatorade circa 1980-something.) The mere thought of using that thermo-guy gave us a stomach ache, so we argued that seeing real athletes competing at the very top of their game while bleeding, sweating and crying the actual Gatorade colors was a way to dramatize everyman as “demo-man.” Well, they weren’t buying it. And we subsequently presented the idea so many times that we started to piss them off. Then finally, finally, we talked them into shooting two test spots down in Argentina. After days and days of hand coloring every drop of sweat, the finished spots were put into focus groups where they became an immediate hit. Twelve years and hundreds of spots later, the campaign was finally put to rest.

The Launch

To show the breadth of the first all-in-one entertainment system, we created rich media anthems that celebrated the passions of our fans, from adrenaline junkies to movie buffs, and sports fans to sci-fi nuts. The .30 and .60 videos invited them to take part in the new generation that Xbox represents.

Then, depending on the sites fans were visiting and hanging out on, we used the rich media to send people to customized living room environments tailored to their individual passions. Consumers hanging out on ESPN were sent to a sports fanatic's dream living room. If someone was into movies they'd wind up in the ultimate cinema fan's scene. There were five different environments in all, each with a customized user experience waiting to greet them

The Experience

The experience was a combination of a virtual tour and UI demo that showed fans how the Xbox One would transform the way they would consume entertainment, forever. People found both an environment that reflected their favorite entertainment, and a visual tour loaded with passion-specific content.

#WhereWillYouTakeUs?

Everyday, millions of people all over the world share their amazing personal photos, videos and stories of themselves exploring the outside world through social media. So rather than create an aspirational film using well-known athletes or paid actors, we used what’s already out there – by holding a mirror up to the consumer to illustrate just how large and diverse the progressive explorer movement really is. The idea flipped the brand communications platform from an “inside-out” to an “outside in” approach, and in doing so, honored every man, woman, and child who explores the great outdoors as a hero. By truly embracing social media, we made it the heart and soul of a global campaign by sharing the stories and experiences of brand enthusiasts who never stop exploring. And we perpetuated it by inviting others to join in, asking each the simple question: “Where will you take us?”

“Fifteen Frames of Fame” A Social Film

We cut together hundreds of user-generated Instagram images and videos, Twitter pics, Vines, Flickr photos, Facebook posts and YouTube clips into an emotionally-powerful anthem that connected peoples outdoor adventures from around the world into a globally animated movement.

At the bottom right corner of the screen, flickering quickly along with the rest of the film, we displayed each contributor’s name/social media handle and picture along with an icon that let viewers know which social media channel the clip came from as well as a map showing it’s geographic origin. The names and icons jumped from one to the next – giving everyone involved the credit they deserve. (Their 15 Frames of Fame, so to speak.) This led to an interactive experience that allowed viewers to dig deeper and connect socially with all of the diverse postings that made up the film.

Social Aggregator

Social Print

Campaign write-up coming soon. Watch the video case study.

Searched, Not Shot.

Instead of filming a story about searchers and their individual curiosities, we thought it would be much more appropriate for a brand like Bing to search it rather than shoot it. And then we thought, why not make every single frame of the video "actionable", or interactive, so that you could go to the link that produced it.

And then we took it a step further and allowed people to enter any search term they wanted, and through a simple algorithm, we served up traditional search through video, still images, editorial and social searches, all set to music and instantly sharable.

Bing It On Challenge

We poked the Goliath Google in the eye with a direct challenge. Videos, TV spots, print ads and digital marketing drove viewers to bingiton.com, where they could conduct a blind search-off between the two search engines. In all, 20 million people took the Challenge and were surprised to learn that people preferred Bing two-to-one over Google.

State Of The Union

We built the first ever, second-screen, interactive Presidential address experience.

The Diet Dr Pepper idea was born late one night in a hotel parking lot after an off-site 7UP meeting. The client approached my partner and I and told us, quite frankly, that she was unhappy with the agency handling their Diet Dr Pepper business. She challenged us to come up with an idea within five days because she needed finished work in three weeks. Holy crap. We always brainstormed by walking around at night, and for some strange reason, we always wound up near dumpsters and garbage. Go figure. Anyway, somewhere between the hotel’s kitchen waste and the service entrance, we stumbled upon the idea that - because DDP has such a rich, decadent taste, it’s was more like an indulgent dessert or a treat than a soft drink. And the fact that it’s a diet drink gave us all the irony we needed. We quickly fleshed out a campaign and sold what became the most lauded work in the brand’s history, a cannes finalist and a favorite within the halls of Dr Pepper. Over its three year life-span, just desserts must go to a whole team of creatives who loved working on a product that, for once, truly lived up to its advertising and hopefully, vice versa.

Content comprised of many different answers to the social media question, "what was your best road trip ever?", all strung together to create one asymmetrical yet seamless journey. #up4anything

Campaign write-up coming soon. Watch the video case study.

During the 2014 World Cup, Visa connected fútbol fans from all over the world through their shared goals. Whether it was a child dreaming of stardom from a dirt pitch in a third-world country, or helping unite generations of family scattered around the globe get to Brazil to watch the games together, or even helping someone assemble the first-ever Marshall Islands national team, Visa helped enabled fans achieve all of their goals. Big and small.

Consumer Landing Experience

A fully interactive video launched fans into the visa.com/goals CLE, where they could stop and interact with the video at any time. Clickable elements in the video such as flags, players, fans or stadiums immersed viewers in all things World Cup.

Goals for Goals 

As visitors scrolled down the page they could engage in some of the many programs Visa offered like Goals for Goals, where for every goal scored in the World Cup, Visa helped a fan achieve a personal goal of their own. 

Goal Posts

Fans could also participate in a first-of-its-kind idea that used exclusive technology – developed by AOL Live in partnership with Razorfish – to update Visa’s banner ads in real-time showing their tweets, Facebook, Instagram and Vine posts. People enjoyed their fifteen seconds of fame by seeing their social posts turn up in live advertising while also helping win a social game against the competing country’s fans by out-posting their rivals.

More 7UP work coming soon.

Walter's Workshop is an explosive digital experience to launch Sunset Overdrive, XBox One's marquee title for 2015. The game features some of the most over-the-top, cartoonish, crazy-ass weapons ever imagined. So we thought it would be cool to reverse engineer these insane video game inventions into real-life, real-dangerous, real-working weapons. And then blow shit up! Visitors to the site can virtually trial the TNTeddy, the Hack n Slay, the Pyro Geyser and the Roman Candle, and choose from a variety of real world objects to "#@&!" up.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/sunset-overdrive/weapons#fbid=0jldnComAg-

Mavericks is the most dangerous wave in the world to surf. Period. If the 50-plus foot wave itself doesn’t kill you, the freezing temperatures, jagged rocks or great white sharks might. The Mavericks Invitational is the Super Bowl for big wave surfers and has become immensely popular with fans from all over the world. Being from the midwest, I’m not much of a surfer myself. I don’t have the cojones, and I really don’t want to become part of the food chain. But as a fan, I got to know the guy who runs Mavericks with legendary surfer Jeff Clark. We started to do some work together and the brand became one of my absolute favorites for obvious reasons. It was a playground for viral videos, web posters, logos, stunts, even email blasts. If you ever have a chance to catch the wave on FuelTV or see the movies Riding Giants or Step Into Liquid, you’ll see how absolutely magnificent and awe-inspiring the wave itself is and how insane and fearless the guys who ride it are. Unlike me, who only dares to surf the web, and even that scares me at times.

Now I may not have been able to surf with my Mavericks client, but snowboarding is another story. I am a card-carrying, knuckle-dragging, snowboarding fool. And Heavenly resort up in Lake Tahoe is one of the greatest places on earth to act the fool. Heavenly is known for it’s breathtaking views of the lake from its 10,067 foot elevation. It spans both California and Nevada and is loaded with casinos and wild nightlife. That’s the basic strategy for the advertising. We did work that ran in all of the skiing magazines, online web blasts, on-mountain guerilla stuff and a bunch of direct mail. The client is a bit of an old school, zen master, ski purist kind of guy. For that reason, the tone of the work is more Franz Klammer than Shawn White. I’m probably more Eddie the Eagle.

Campaign write-up coming soon. Work for both the MLB as well as the Oakland A's will occupy this page.

Floor decals and wild posting for various guerrilla tactics. Page still under construction. 

Campaign write-up coming soon. Watch the video case study.

Old-ass stuff from the late 90's.

I started carving pumpkins for my kids a few years ago. I may be getting a bit carried away.