Every Stop is a Story
Train travel had a perception problem, too often it feels like a chore not a choice in a category dominated by price and practicality.
So we cranked up the emotion, to inspire people to explore the South East of England. Tugging at heartstrings like an overzealous monk in a belfry, we created delicate, personal vignettes.
Y’know, like a giant whale to reconnect with kids, or chucking a bloke in a canal to meet the love of his life.
A Little Bit Metal
Winter Tourism in the Yukon is a hard sell to the less adventurous. But despite it getting below 40 degrees, you still have the cozy mod-cons making it hardcore-ish at best, or you could say...a little bit metal.
It turns out exclusively watching metal music videos and enjoying my fair share of ‘wall of deaths’ as a teen naturally led to creating the world’s first tourism campaign disguised as a full-length metal song.
We made sure it went ‘one louder’ than all the other tourism ads, with band posters disguised as itineraries, merch, and tattoos (temporary obviously)
So I'll see you in the pit, or rather, the Hot Springs.
Recognition:
Clios :: A little bit of Bronze metal
WCCA :: A little bit of Bronze metal
Applied Arts
Campaign Canada Mighty List
Webby Finalist
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 | Promotional Collateral
Applied Arts 2024 | Charity Advertising
Xbox were launching Sea of Thieves, so we channeled our inner pirate and 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 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 an under appreciated bucket or cannonball with main character energy have to say?
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 penned some epic prose to describe the electric atmosphere of equine entertainment.
Shot by Kevin Foley.
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 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 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 the people 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
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 and lungs 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? Imagine if that actually did so good.
While the claps had some morale boosting value, I wanted to see if it could achieve real value in cold hard Canadian cash. So we made a track and put it on Spotify to get royalties through its play count.
The track is still live on Spotify & Apple Music.
