I'm an experienced copywriter who's worked for more than 15 years in big ATL agencies like JWT and GGT, and for the last 7 years in top notch digital outfits like Dare, SapientNitro and Saint. I'm a digital settler rather than a native, but am very happy here - considering myself both tech savvy and in possession of zippy writing and strategic skills. Normally I work as half of an idea team, but I write both long and short copy and have filled a Head of Copy role too. This is my folio.
PS: it's 3 pages long so click on at the bottom.
A Rude Robin Redbreast
For Grand Union’s Christmas “thing” 2012 we
built an animatronic robin redbreast to spew a stream of ribald drunken twitter
tweets during the party season. We integrated staff party photos (shot from over
head height) to build a party animal twitter persona. He perched in GU’s
reception, where arduino/servo innards let him burp, fart, swig, and play
Christmas videos on his ipad to anyone tweeting #commands to him.
Beautiful "Gameisodes" For Carlsberg
An idea which won the "That calls for a Carlsberg" digital account for SapientNitro, causing considerable celebrations in Spitalfield. "The Beautiful Game" is an interactive online film. shown in episodes, about a South American football prodigy coming to Europe to face a series of tests of his moral character.
We called each episode a "gameisode" because each one ends with a different challenge - eg his mother is in town the same night the owner asks him to come for dinner. What should he say? - and fans are asked to pick how he should react. Their choices are scored against those picked by a real online Carlsberg panel, and they can compare their results with friends'.
Drivers to the films include live cinema challenges with the audience asked to vote with their phones. And interactive banners, such as the one below where the fan has to shout a pet's name at a certain volume and with a certain frequency to stop the fluffy blighter peeing in the manager's pool!
We called each episode a "gameisode" because each one ends with a different challenge - eg his mother is in town the same night the owner asks him to come for dinner. What should he say? - and fans are asked to pick how he should react. Their choices are scored against those picked by a real online Carlsberg panel, and they can compare their results with friends'.
Drivers to the films include live cinema challenges with the audience asked to vote with their phones. And interactive banners, such as the one below where the fan has to shout a pet's name at a certain volume and with a certain frequency to stop the fluffy blighter peeing in the manager's pool!
A Bullish Viral For Sony'sTwilight Football Event
This viral job was won in direct competition with Fallon. It aimed to raise awareness for a football event which to be held in 7 global locations at twilight, to promote Sony's low-light camera lenses. One was a Spanish bullring. When Sony saw the script, they tripled the production budget.
It won a BTAA Bronze in 2010 and was shared on over 3000 sites. Ole!
It won a BTAA Bronze in 2010 and was shared on over 3000 sites. Ole!
A Magical Microsite For GHD
Fitting into GHD hair stylers' twisted fairy tale campaign, this website uses a simple combination of webcam and image-flip tech to allow girls to fix their hair using their screen as a magically powered-up mirror.
The "magic" features are highly functional: girls can photo and view their hair from different angles, compare their live image with saved looks from previous occasions, and split-screen with tutorial videos. Social too, of course: girls can get ready as a group, live chatting or vid conferencing with friends before meeting IRL.
The "magic" features are highly functional: girls can photo and view their hair from different angles, compare their live image with saved looks from previous occasions, and split-screen with tutorial videos. Social too, of course: girls can get ready as a group, live chatting or vid conferencing with friends before meeting IRL.
Castrated Hamster App For Freeview
Freeview wanted an end-of-year digital thing for their ad campaign, which featured customers levitated by helium balloons . We came up with a mobile app that converts your voice into the time honoured helium squeak. 10,000 downloads in the first 4 weeks showed castrated hamsters taking the Xmas party season by storm.
Bitchy Facebook App For LG
This bitchy little Facebook app runs a nosy diagnosis of your profile and allocates melodramatic roles to your friends depending on how they've interacted with you. The one who comments on your status the most? She's your Stalker, dude! And so forth. All part of LG's push to sell their social networking phones to savvy young folk.
A Serious Playlist
A simple idea created to help fight the distressing rise in knife crime amongst the young.
Online ads pretend to announce a new music compilation of urban music A-listers titled "The Toughest Ever". The ads nudge people to sample it on Spotify.
But the playlist they reach is made up of songs actually played at the funerals of 10 victims of knife crime over the previous year, used with permission of the families and artists. Each song can be bought, with proceeds to go to the charity of the family's choice. The Spotify link is easily shareable to spread the message.
Online ads pretend to announce a new music compilation of urban music A-listers titled "The Toughest Ever". The ads nudge people to sample it on Spotify.
But the playlist they reach is made up of songs actually played at the funerals of 10 victims of knife crime over the previous year, used with permission of the families and artists. Each song can be bought, with proceeds to go to the charity of the family's choice. The Spotify link is easily shareable to spread the message.
An Idea About Ideas For Rizla
Adam and Eve asked us to add digital sparkle to their Rizla line: "Paper: where ideas begin". So we invited people to float a paper message in a bottle across the internet.
The "bottle" = a custom "riz.la" link;
The "message" = an image of a bottle containing paper on which something is written;
The "floating" = any sharing of the link, by RT, post or attachment. One share = one internet mile floated.
Each paper message is someone's worthy idea in search of funding. The bottle that "floats" furthest, wins the cash to make it a reality. All bottles can be tracked on a website.
The following nano-site is a stand-alone gag set up by the teasing URL: "www.WhereTheInternetBegan.com"
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Launching The Kopparberg Kult in London
How do you help a niche Swedish cider sell more without sacrificing its cult status?
You give it some cultural capital by setting up cool offline events, so you can position it to the mainstream as the choice of the discerning.
In association with Vice we launched the "Kopparberg Klash" a quarterly urban festival of cutting edge film, music and fashion. The idea of searching out things of value then became a powerful association with the drink. Pitch winning work. Refresh page to see the ads in all their glory.
You give it some cultural capital by setting up cool offline events, so you can position it to the mainstream as the choice of the discerning.
In association with Vice we launched the "Kopparberg Klash" a quarterly urban festival of cutting edge film, music and fashion. The idea of searching out things of value then became a powerful association with the drink. Pitch winning work. Refresh page to see the ads in all their glory.
An Unusual Queue For Sony
Sony asked us for something entertaining to launch their whizzy new entertainment-focussed S1 tablets. We gave them a world's first: a long queue people would actually enjoy!
To be one of the first to get their hands on the tablets, people had to compete to stay in this Facebook virtual queue for the required 3 week period. Competing involved anything from answering simple entertainment quiz questions, to cute social challenges such as asking a Facbook friend to "bring" a flask of hot soup. Pre-launch press releases were leaked as "rumours" passed down the queue by wall post.
To be one of the first to get their hands on the tablets, people had to compete to stay in this Facebook virtual queue for the required 3 week period. Competing involved anything from answering simple entertainment quiz questions, to cute social challenges such as asking a Facbook friend to "bring" a flask of hot soup. Pre-launch press releases were leaked as "rumours" passed down the queue by wall post.
Potted Banner Sports Histories For LG
We took a small LG TV banner brief for the Talksport site. But the concepts we produced were so well received that they were taken up globally by all LG markets.
The Power Of Partnerships for Olay
In Olay's "Duo" moisturiser and serum combine for better anti-ageing performance. (Well that's what the bullshit says). We dramatised this with a live social game: women team up with a friend so they can move their avatars to block rival shoppers from getting sale items in a 7 floor store. Fastest team to grab all 7 items and get to the top wins a jolly trip for two.
"E-tail" is neatly integrated - players can buy Duo for real at the cash registers on each floor, with every floor completed earning them a further discount.
Social gaming is huge in the target (30-50yo women) and this idea sailed to the top of the Olay's global decision-making monster, only to be derailed by Clarins releasing a similar product first. Doh!
"E-tail" is neatly integrated - players can buy Duo for real at the cash registers on each floor, with every floor completed earning them a further discount.
Social gaming is huge in the target (30-50yo women) and this idea sailed to the top of the Olay's global decision-making monster, only to be derailed by Clarins releasing a similar product first. Doh!
Daring To Play With Martini
Social media work for RKCR which brought to flirty life their pitch line: "Dare To Play". Research showed that aspirational 20-something Europeans tend to use their "aperitivo" moments to mingle heavily (as opposed to getting spannered). We devised a slick virtual space, the "Martini Terrazza" which revived Martini's legendary VIP bar culture and allowed these darling creatures to interact digitally in a flirting test. Top performers won passes to real world events and product discounts.
Play And Pause Buttons Go Wild!
This took the coloured shape graphics from an excellent Vodafone music microsite and brought them to life to carry a series of event messages. In the second banner, you slide the image of the excited fan from side to side and click on the band photos to hear music snippets before you decide on your vote.
Alice In A Digital Wonderland For Sony
This pitch winning idea (against Fallon and Profero) spearheaded a national, multi-media campaign to launch Sony's new e-book, the Reader.
The Alice character appeared in banners, press ads and POS. We commissioned beautiful rotoscoped animations of her and other literary characters to demonstrate the Reader's functions on a microsite.
The Alice character appeared in banners, press ads and POS. We commissioned beautiful rotoscoped animations of her and other literary characters to demonstrate the Reader's functions on a microsite.
One very expensive TV commercial
One of three commercials I wrote to launch Italian chocolates Baci in Britain, all filmed in Italy with real life Italians but irreverently positioning them as the latest desirable Italian brand which happened to end in "i".
And one made for tuppence
Another pitch winning campaign. Funnily enough, the rickshaw character we devised as a little end frame gag grew bigger than the ads themselves. He became known as "Mr MO" and was later developed into a fully fledged 3D animated brand icon.
Two very big posters
Two of a series of very big budget posters that peppered London one spring, featuring real Sri Lankan elephants and Brazilian natives. The line was designed to intrigue tourists and Londoners alike so that they travelled the extra few yards to find a pub serving this excellent tipple.
They didn't run it but they sure as fudge should have
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