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Brand
Campaigns
Entertainment

Size Values Matters.

Market cap is the proof.

Brand
GALLERY

Airbnb
Airbnb Adventures
Airbnb
Airbnb Adventures
Outdoorsy
Outdoorsy Brand Design
Outdoorsy
Outdoorsy Brand Design
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery
Universal
Universal
Universal
Universal
Nike
Nike
Nike
Nike
Nat Geo Wild
Nat Geo Wild
Nat Geo Wild
Nat Geo Wild
A+E Networks
A&E Networks
A+E Networks
A&E Networks
Viacom
Viacom
Viacom
Viacom
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto

Tell me your story.

Trust but verify.
and become more.

Let's tear down this wall between us.

Brain Candy

Read at your own risk.

Don't be a stranger

Don't be a stranger

In today's saturated media environments, allocating budget to build a memorable brand may seem wasteful, hopeless or both.

High-priced music, celebrities and fancy copy fight for your customer's frayed attention. And that's before Rihanna slays it at the Super Bowl.

For startups and growth stage companies, being remembered or even noticed in this context may seem unlikely–like that time you wore "fun socks" to the Met Gala.  

Better to scrap brand investment, and just buy non-branded, low funnel leads, no?

No, not better.

Your enemy is your friend

Your enemy is your friend

When building a creative campaign strategy, teams have to figure out how they're going to frame value props?

More often than not, the answer is to affirm and celebrate them. Using humor, endorsements or testimonials to highlight product benefits just feels inherently correct to most of us. And in many cases, it's the best call.

However, there is a different, grittier approach. One that goes against the grain. Using an enemy to contrast and elevate your positioning can be a smart move in certain situations.

I know this may raise some pulses, but before dismissing it, remember that enemies come in many forms.

And they have a hidden superpower.  

Your ad campaign is not your brand platform

Your ad campaign is not your brand platform

No one likes a word salad. They're packed with pretense and everyone ends up with lettuce on their teeth.

What am I talking about? Brand Platforms. Still not clear? Hang in there.

A Brand Platform is a powerful tool for businesses of any size.  It contains everything from customer segmentation, brand positioning and strategy to value props, design language and messaging frameworks.

When done well, a brand platform can drive marketing expenses down and support business activity for many years.

For it to work, you have to be clear about why you're doing it.

Why your strategy needs a creative strategist

Why your strategy needs a creative strategist

Traditional strategy is primarily about analysis—about breaking down a goal into steps, sequences, and budgets. 

Contribution margin, EBITDA, consumer sentiment, market sizing, supply-chain mapping, customer segmentation, risk analysis and financial modeling are all key inputs to this process, but what about creativity? 

Creativity applies a different lens–one that arranges all the analysis into something tangible and irresistible.

Its contribution isn’t just making something new; it’s about making something new that actually works–often in surprising ways.

You belong outdoors

You belong outdoors

We're told that startups must move fast or die. Everyone seems to know that or at least have a friend who says that. But until you've lived that, it might all seem a bit dramatic.

I worked in senior creative brand leadership roles at Airbnb and Outdoorsy through periods of hyper-growth and change, so I can confidently say that founders and early employees have plenty of valid reasons to outrun death.

Success will often come down to their ability to adapt and change to shifting landscapes.

However, there is an external factor that plays a role here. Think of it as a 'reason to wake up.'

IPO in the Time of COVID: Part 1

IPO in the Time of COVID: Part 1

When COVID struck in 2019, Airbnb's business was decimated. Global travel essentially stopped, and, in eight weeks, Airbnb lost 80% of its revenue.

By May of 2020, earnings were forecast to be half of what they were a year prior. This was considered to be a business-ending event for Airbnb, so it laid off 25% of its workforce in a gut-wrenching effort to right the ship.

This is probably not the prelude you were expecting for the biggest IPO in history.

But Airbnb has always defied expectations.