THE ASK:
Create first United Nations social/digital campaign to mobilize a new force of activists / to combat Slacktivism and actually affect change via a wildly successful global CTA delivering on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

THE SOLVE:
Built off the foundation of our initial evergreen, youth innovator-oriented social activism campaign, It Starts With Us, this simple, shareable grassroots rallying cry, the One-Word Change Challenge, was launched at the UN General Assembly in NYC and garnered unprecedented contagious virality.

THE RESULTS:
•93MM Total Impressions
•2.06MM Total Engagements
•$1.9MM Earned Media Value
•280% ROI

THE ASK: Get America to Share an Ice-cold Coca-Cola at McDonald’s with Everyone. Bring people (everyone) together over the universal love of McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and the world’s largest sporting event on the planet, The FIFA World Cup.

THE SOLVE: Use the ubiquitous McDonald's cup as a noise maker to unite fans and share their World Cup support all the way from Russia. Make it a digital promotion where the more noise they make, the more chances to win a free trip for two to Moscow for the final!

•Reggie Winner
•Awarded and successful delivered the winner (and his dad) to the FWC Final Match in Moscow. Actually overcame legal hurdles, visa issues and general craziness in less than 4 weeks from start to finish!

THE ASK: Create a first of its kind, immersive, multi-sensory, multi-city experience that showcases four legendary bourbons, equally. Need a drink? Exactly.

THE SOLVE: That's what we created on this exciting ride: the Bourbon Legends Boxcar Tour. At sold-out stops in five cities, it transported bourbon fans to each brand's iconic distillery. It drove new appreciation and converted fans all along their bourbon journey to discover at least one new favorite bourbon. More likely two new favorites.

And when we hit Chicago, we set up bourbon station right near the ivy in the outfield of legendary Wrigley Field.

•10,535 attendees in 5 cities
•16,182 bourbon cocktails enjoyed
•37,712 bourbon samples delivered
•108,623,493 impressions (media and social)
•$39,000 in sales over two days at the pop-up store in Cleveland, OH

THE ASK: Overcome the fact that the US did NOT qualify for the World Cup and, oh yeah,

THE SOLVE: Let fans root for more than their home team based on their roots—their Fancestry.

We partnered with Ancestry DNA to champion the melting pot nature of US citizens and identity up to 4 alternative teams to root for based on their genetic heritage.

And let them create digital jerseys based on their Fancestry that are as unique as each individual’s DNA. So they can root for their teams in contemporary, 2018 style.

THE ASK: Make the ubiquitous black marker more than a black marker.

THE SOLVE: Reacquaint people, not consumers, with all the tools of self-expression Sharpie offers. Inspire, but realistically, via Print & TV. Encourage Sharpie fans to rub shoulders with fun, and each other, via a web hub. Add some hands on/markers on opportunities (with celebrity inspiration). And let the uncapping begin!
•CADM Tempo Winner
•Effie Winner

THE ASK: Create a digital-first, shopper marketing-driven, social-strong program to generate and maintain a connection to March Madness mania with every sip, all throughout the NCAA basketball tournament.

THE SOLVE: Bail out busted March Madness Bracketeers with new hope—and a new bracket—with every purchase. We play to the “So You’re Saying There’s A Chance” instincts of hoops fans who are eternal optimists and never quitters. We give away kickass prizes and keep pressing fans to have second-chance fun all the way until the final buzzer.

THE RESULTS: A gabillion impressions and engagements. Bucketloads of Earned Media and a couple of slam dunked Effies.

THE ASK: Create a Tri-State-relevant experiential program that was as B2B as it was B2C and showcased our three new models of cars that rekindled out loyalists’ fandom of Ford.

THE SOLVE: 38 City, 42 Event experiential tour that let users experience the new line of cars and get inspiration for where to go in them, provided by local tastemaker influencers in travel, foodie culture and fitness adventure spaces. Gangbuster participation, exposure and sales.

•31.4 MM Impressions
•37,925 Qualified Leads generated
•74% Purchase Consideration achieved
•500+ Fords sold. That’s real, actual sales!

THE ASK: Celebrate the first Official Bourbon of the Chicago Cubs AND connect fans with a new way to show their love for the Cubs and Jim Beam. AND, don't jinx it.

THE SOLVE: Get fans sooooo close to jinxing it there are two celebrations in each shot—#1-The shot/toast and #2-Not jinxing it.

THE ASK: Introduce a 90 proof bourbon to a skeptical audience. Get them to try it. And add it to their ever-growing "repertoire" of bourbons. Excite them!

THE SOLVE: An 90 Proof Virtual Reality Thrill Ride that lets consumers become the bourbon, from barrel to bottle and beyond. Multi-sensory, award-winning and wildly satisfying. Clients ask. Clients receive.

•29% sample-to-sale conversion rate achieved (2X the benchmark)
•11MM+ earned media impressions, with coverage from Adweek and Fortune, etc.
•Ex Award Winner
•Effie Finalist

THE ASK: Get a memorable sip on the lips of millennial males upping their game the way they’ve matured their careers and life aspirations.

THE SOLVE: Leverage an acceptably elevated male venue, the Barbershop, to authentically raise their style standards while they raise Beam’s premium extra aged bourbon, Jim Beam Black.

THE ASK: Give us a new campaign direction. Make it Super Bowl-worthy. Not at Super-Bowl costs.

THE SOLVE: Chicken is chicken, but KFC is something else. It’s a good values campaign in times that need them. It’s opening a door for, and saying hello to, a stranger. But it’s more than just that good feeling you get with the same taste after years away. It’s finger-lickin’ good.

THE ASK: Create and evolve the Think Outside The Bun campaign.

THE SOLVE: This is work from a few different campaigns as we evolved the "Think Outside the Bun" brand over the years. Yeah, it took time to develop and define. But it worked to the tune of 32 straight weeks of sales growth, throughout a recession. AND it helped get our agency in the KFC pitch, which we ate up. Nom nom!

The Ask:
Convince slightly more mature bourbon fans that Jim Beam Black is a more mature aged bourbon perfect for their stage of bourbon development.

The Solve:
Knowing that guys getting into their second coming of age—life, careers, relationships and, potentially, family—finding time to just get together with friends can be hole-in-one hard.

So we removed all the road blocks to finding time and made hanging out gimme putt-easy for 10 foursomes of guys in four major cities, complete with the perfect all day hangout, cocktails included. And topped it off with a 19th Hole After Party for them and all of their non-golfing friends.

Results:
•A helluva good time had by all foursomes for the first time in a long time.

•Well-beyond benchmark submissions in every city.

Jack Daniel's always geared up for football season. But there was an opportunity to leverage football fanaticism to get Jack's cleated foot into the tailgating arena. 

Just give football fans/drinkers a set of rules to "play" by. Get them out there at multiple touchpoints. And make them engaging from the stadium blacktop to the backyard to the bar. To allow fans to distinguish themselves from the stereotypical tailgater. And remind them what it means to be a Jack man or woman—it's more than how you carry yourself, it's how your carry your cocktail, too. 

Because no matter what your team colors, true fandom is always black and white.

THE ASK: "Beat Jack Daniels' X-Mas barrel tree."

THE SOLVE: The first ever 3-D Light Show with live 3-D Projection Mapping on their 9-story barrel house at the Clermont, KY distillery. They came in droves over the 3-week run and enjoyed holiday cocktails, ice carving, carolers, an extra large interactive light brite and all the other festivities. We raised holiday spirits and welcomed a few new members of the Jim Beam family.

THE ASK: Help put the fun back in a fun vodka. And while you're at it, inspire suburbanite women with the right vodka cocktails to unlock the playful potential of any occasion. 

THE SOLVE (YEAR ONE): Revamped the existing work. Kept some elements, released some. Reinvigorated the personality of the brand. Then we mixed them all up nicely in quarterly program cocktails of POS, activations and promotions to make Pinnacle delightfully easy for consumers to enjoy.

THE ASK:
Generate some awareness for a relatively unknown tequila in stores.

THE SOLVE:
Heavy up efforts during the biggest gifting occasion of the year, the holidays. And be honest in our approach to the target by making it the ideal gift, to share.

THE ASK: Take the No. 1 selling tequila in Mexico, a minimal budget and a US sales increase goal of 5%.

THE SOLVE: Create a transfixing identity using an authentic Mexican artist that tells the story at the heart of the brand. Then do TV in three languages, POS galore, revamp the website, create a Facebook page and a useful iPhone app that links directly back to Facebook. Plus that up with promotional events, real fan futbol experiences and more to surpass the sales increase goal by 65%. And take a brand with a social following of less than 3k and add a few zeros to it. ¡Que bien!

THE ASK: Antiguo Tequila is a tiny brand that wasn't cheap but also wasn't super high end. We needed to find its place.

THE SOLVE: We played to its mystique. And held a mirror up to our consumers' rising status and growing introspection—a consideration cocktail, if you will. That convinced them to purchase Antiguo 1-2 more times a year. Which is 1-2 the right answer.

THE ASK:
Find a way to secure off-premise real estate in large format liquor and grocery to promote a varied collection of tequilas with a diverse array of price points . And do it so one brand doesn’t outshine the others.

THE SOLVE:
Leverage the collective power of the three tequilas to keep shoppers sipping from the same family of bottles. Tap into an overarching Cinco / Summer mindset and applying distinct drinking occasions to each brand.

Results:
Sipping, sales and satisfied sighs increased all summer long.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, Ay! Do well enough with two tequila brands, get awarded a third. 

THE ASK:
Well known in Mexico but unknown in the U.S., Herradura needed to be reminded of its 135 plus years of heritage, get a brand makeover, and be backed by POS and promotional support.
New adopters in both markets? Sales increases? Rejuvenated brand with a second wind? Si. Si. Si.

THE SOLVE:
Build on previous successes with others in the Casa Herradura family and elevate the brand beyond even their own expectations. Take pride in being accepted but the LGBTQ community. And, yes, exceed sales goals, awareness, social impressions, etc. Do it right over the course of two-years. Sips, not shots.

THE ASK: Set this job-search site apart from others.

THE SOLVE: Empower the job-searchers to smile while suffering through the hell that can be finding gainful employment from a hirer who actually appreciates their talents. Do it with hyperbolic praise. Who knew? It may have landed them a few jobs and our agency the account.

THE ASK: Appeal to stats geeks’ fanaticism.

THE SOLVE: Connecting them to low cost, high-applicability stats upon stats upon stats. As simple as figuring out the trajectory of a long ball hit by a batter with a slugging percentage of .652 on a 3-1 count leaning into a flat heater. Easy, right?

We kept swinging, carrying that momentum throughout a few program iterations and extensions in TV, Print, OOH, web and digital. As the great Mel Allen would say it, “How about that, sports fans?"

THE ASK: Make our new flavor-infused Jim Beam Apple variant stand out at crowded bars where multicultural groups were finding common ground to enjoy music, culture and each others’ presence.

THE SOLVE: We served up good times in the form of an exclusive, one-time app that leveraged the refreshingly juicy taste of Jim Beam Apple as a refreshing remix on typical bourbon that had its own vibe. Then we offered friend groups the chance to define, mix and refine their very own crew soundtrack for the night, and download it with a free month of Spotify Premium. That’s refreshing in participation and an average of 2-3X sales on menu features at each of hundreds of accounts across the nation.

One free email transfer agent handles 75% of the world’s email. Not many people know that. Including the coders in charge of company email systems. So, enlighten them with the sofware that makes them look smarter than everyone else in the office.

THE ASK: Explain a new air freshening device to housewives/moms in an undeniable way.

THE SOLVE: Talk TO them, not AT them. Do it visually, and tangibly, so they see how well Oust traps the nagging gunk in your air. And her whole family breathes easier.