A Little Bit Metal
Turns out exclusively watching music videos and belting out lyrics in oversized band merch as a teenager led to my proudest project to date, writing a metal song that goes one louder than all the other tourism ads.
Tourism in the Yukon suffers in Winter, but despite getting below 40 degrees most days, you still have the cozy modern comforts making the holiday destination hardcore-ish at best, or you could say...a little bit metal.
We dialled the rest of the campaign up to eleven with merch, posters that acted as itineraries, and temporary tatts.
So I'll see you in the pit, or rather, the Hot Springs.
Recognition:
Clios 2024 | A little bit of Bronze metal
Applied Arts 2024
Campaign Canada Mighty List 2024
Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon
RMH faced a huge problem, everyone thinks they're funded by the big Golden Arches, when in reality, they’re not.
To mark their 40th anniversary and kick-off the next 40, we took to a category that has no trouble getting big brands, and turned the charity into a football team with a jersey calling out for sponsors.
Recognition:
Marketing Awards 2024 | Merit
Applied Arts 2024
In anticipation of the launch of Xbox’s Sea of Thieves, we sparked a gold rush of global proportions where gamers raced across the digital and physical world for a chance to win a bunch of custom-made 18-carat gold bananas worth £80,000.
30,000+ players participated by solving clues – designed by myself and Andy Dawes – that were revealed via a game character we brought to life in live action content.
This project means that I now know my onions…about golden bananas.
Arrrrrrgh you kidding me with another pirate project?
For the newest instalment in the Sea of Thieves video game franchise we gave voice to some of the overlooked objects that inhabit the game. Sure, we’ve heard from swashbuckling pirates and scurvy sea dogs, but what would a lowly bucket, a cannonball with main character energy, or a humble tankard have to say?
Fun is Back in Fashion
With a budget that was more high street than haute couture, we made adrenaline the hottest new style for Summer 2022 with fashion-based FOMO for Playland Vancouver.
Everyday Canadians confidently show off their dopamine-laden drip, and flex their thrill-made threads which are styled from the high speeds of the rides.
We turned a Sea of Thieves game update that was as dry-as-a-landlubber's-drawers into something a little more epic. Delivered by inimitable talent of Matt Berry who gave us comedy gold that any pirate would envy.
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Mad Cow
DIRECTOR: Freddie Waters
OUT OF OFFICE
I love a music festival. It isn’t reserved only for watching bands, it’s prime time for people watching.
Everyone's wardrobe choices in the 'real world' are somewhat reserved, colourless, and lacking the flair that says “I am a individual”.
At a festival however, their true colours come out… It’s just that, for men, they’re the same colours, a ‘wacky pattern’ on a not-so-original Hawaiian shirt.
To honour that, I designed and made my own shirt where the pattern is guys wearing the very shirts that "set them apart" from the crowd.
And I guess Coors Light & Pizza Hut were #Influenced (several years later)
For the launch of Halo Wars 2 which had a new game mode where players had to make split-second decisions to survive. We upped the ante by hijacking a global media event, and testing the mettle of gamers and critics to see if they'll crumble like a coward, or become an instant hero.
To deliver this, I learned Halo lore and wrote a 6,000 word script, catering for 32 different ‘life or death’ phases of action, with 16 possible endings in an intense 'choose your own adventure’. All of which were performed in live sequence by actors as the action unfolded.
Holla at me if you need a ringer for a Halo based trivia night...
PRODUCTION COMPANY: 1st Avenue
DIRECTOR: Bob Partington
Ontario sports fans weren’t heading to the track to watch half-tonne beast charging towards glory with a man on their back, they were choosing to watch Basketball, Baseball, or Hockey …yawn.
To show what they’re missing out on, we slowed the intensity of a race, showcasing the majesty of the muscles, the beauty of the beasts and penning some epic prose to describe the electric atmosphere of equine entertainment.
Shot by Kevin Foley.
Asbestos, more like AsWORSTos…I'll get my coat.
Worksafe BC enlightened us with the fact that Asbestos is the Number 1 killer of Canadian workers.
Due to there being no legal requirement to test your home, we needed to tap into the empathy of Canadian homeowners and land the message that workers lives are in their hands.
Set build and stop motion by the Affolter Brothers.
Captured by John&Bill via Boldly
SOUNDS OF HOME
Research shows 92% of international students suffer from homesickness, which affects their studies.
So we helped HSBC create a series of evocative, soothing soundscapes recorded by influencers and released on Spotify and home assistants to transport students back to their homelands.
Recognition:
Creative Circle | Bronze
Shorty Awards | Bronze
Sabres EMEA | Brand Animation Winner
Creative Moment Awards | Finance Sector Campaign of the Year
Canadian Nurses Foundation
Remember that period in 2020 where people the world over clapped in support of front line workers? For me, this felt like virtue signalling at its finest, and friends in health care felt the same.
While the claps had some morale boosting value, I wanted to see if it could achieve real value in cold hard cash. So we made a track and put it on Spotify to get royalties through its playcount.
Not defeated by the lack of awareness, we remixed it for National Nursing Week in 2021.
The new track is live on Spotify & Apple Music and part of an ongoing experiment to see if people are willing to actually do less to do more, by just clicking play to raise money for Canadian Nurses.
