work happens

2010-09-16T09:35:00.001-07:00

THE WIFE

2010-09-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

Admittedly, this is an odd piece to include in my portfolio. But I'm gonna roll with it. The client? My wife. The situation? Her birthday. The problem? Due to work, I wasn't able to be with her on her special day. The solution? I created the world's first Facebook Birthday Gift Opener.

Experience the future of gift giving HERE.

BEST BUY

2010-05-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Best Buy asked us to come up with a campaign for their partnership with Universal's first animation motion picture, Despicable Me. Instead, we developed the world's first mobile application designed to be used in the theater to enhance the experience. We called it, Movie Mode. The first installment is known as The Minionator. It translates the gibberish spoken by the loveable little yellow minion characters from the movie.

As an industry first, it definitely picked up some attention. Here's the latest Twitter buzz. But what I've found to be the most amusing are the debates going on about how the application works. Shhh. It's a secret.

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Best Buy sells the majority of their laptops during the back-to-school season. This year, they wanted to sweeten the deal by including six months of free Geek Squad support with every laptop. In other words, buy a laptop, get a Geek.

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Most people aren't aware that one of the country's largest retailers of consumer electronics is also one of the largest recyclers of consumer electronics. With electronics currently slated as the fastest growing waste stream on our planet, Best Buy wanted to create awareness around their program.

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These days, smart phones are more than multitasking communication devices. They're also social status badges. The new sports car if you will. And with Best Buy's amazing mobile department, nobody should have to live with the shame and embarrassment of an inadequate phone. In other words, nobody should have to live with phone shame.

In addition, we created a site that allowed people to send a customized ShameTone (shameful ringtone) to their friends to match their shameful phone. Twitterville lit up with #phoneshame.

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Geek Squad wanted to promote their new remote support service. Basically, they can take over your computer and resolve your issues while you watch. We created a simple banner to illustrate the magic. Put your cursor in the Geek's hand. He'll take care of the rest. SEE BANNER HERE

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Best Buy wanted to promote their new Buy Back Program on the Super Bowl. So we did.

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Best Buy wanted to promote their video game trade-in program. The key advantage is that, unlike other game trade-in stores, you get a gift card good for anything in the store. Which is perfectly great unless you're the one getting traded in.

GUITAR HERO

2009-04-07T21:44:00.001-07:00

For a while now, Guitar Hero has reenacted the Tom Cruise scene from Risky Business to promote their titles. We were asked to follow suit for Guitar Hero Metallica. So. We did.

Additionally, we were asked to do another Risky Business spot featuring four famous NCAA coaches. The spot was scheduled to run during March Madness. But, it also needed to feature Metallica. Talk about a mind bender.

SEAN KIMMERLING TESTICULAR CANCER FOUNDATION

2008-12-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

This is by far the most immature thing I have ever done. BUT, it was for a good cause so that makes it okay, right? The Sean Kimmerling Testicular Cancer Foundation wanted to spread awareness about Testicular Cancer and to motivate men to self exam. Or, at the very least, to create an interest in learning more about this very common and deadly disease. The budget did not allow for a traditional broadcast buy, so we created a series of online videos about the "sensitive" subject in hopes of generating some momentum.

DOMINO'S

2008-02-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

In August of 2007, I took on creative leadership duties for the Domino's Pizza account. Here is a smattering of work that I've produced since then.

*Note: I was actually the VO talent for Pasta Dude in this spot. By accident. Clearly.

A bunch of YouTube remixes have since surfaced. This one is my fave.

In addition to broadcast, we developed some web apps to make ordering from Domino's more fun and easier than ever before. The BFD Builder was a simple tool that let people build their very own pizza, name it, then officially register it on Dominos.com. To launch the app, we held a contest - five hundred bucks to whoever built the most popular pizza. I registered the SteveHappens, nothing but onions and cheese. I didn't win.

The blog world was a fan.

In the early research stages, we learned that Domino's had a very detailed data collecting system called Pulse. Basically, as a pizza makes its way through the prep, bake, box and delivery stages, buttons are pressed to log the individual times into the system. Pulse was developed to foster hustle in the organization. We thought it would be great to give this technology a consumer face and let people watch their pizza every step of the way. And thus, the Pizza Tracker was born.

This random guy on the internet likes Pizza Tracker.

See what people are TWEETING ABOUT PIZZA TRACKER right now.

Domino's decided to get into the sandwich business. And what better way to announce that than by giving a free sandwich away to everyone named Jared. What? It's harmless and innocent. Jared was just a random name pulled out of a hat. There was no significance at all. Swear. Obviously, the stunt caused a little ruckus.

AWARDS: The above work picked up some awards. Gold Pencil. Gold Lion. Bronze Integrated Lion. Clio. And some other stuff I think.

VOLKSWAGEN

2007-08-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Volkswagen needed a spot to showcase their product involvement in the new Bourne Ultimatum movie. This seemed like a great way to bring the two stories together.

Volkswagen Marketplace asked for a spot to promote their VW Sign and Drive Sales Event. Immediately I was confused as to why we would suggest that folks sign while driving. My confusion led to this.

UTAH DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

2007-02-23T13:38:00.003-08:00

People with diabetes can drastically reduce the risk of major and irreversible health complications by having their A1C level checked regularly. This is the message the Utah Department of Health wanted to get out to the diabetic community in the area. I created a spot that required the talent to learn his lines in reverse so that when we played the film backwards (to simulate going back in time) we could still understand his message.

In addition to the spot running on television, the raw footage as well as the final spot were both posted on the department website where they drew thousands of views. Incidentally, reverse English sounds a lot like a alcohol-influenced Russian. Who knew?

Here are some press links:
Adfreak.com
AdJab.com.com
AdArena

RAW FOOTAGE

FINAL SPOT

NOVELL

2007-02-23T13:38:00.001-08:00

Computer tech giant, Novell, needed a direct mail piece to invite tech writers and analysts to attend their annual BrainShare conference. Knowing how busy these people are, I decided to provide a complimentary stand-in. More specifically, an inflatable stand-in. Apparently that’s just what they needed as the mailing drew a 92% return. But perhaps more impressive was the fact that I found a male blow-up doll that wasn’t anatomically correct. His chest hair, however, was spot on.

STEVE BABCOCK PUBLICITY STUNT

2007-02-23T13:37:00.001-08:00

Back in 2006 I wanted to see if I could do anything to stir up blogland. So I decided to put an auction up on ebay for my right brain. Ebay pulled the auction after just three days, unfortunately, as I believe they thought I was literally selling my physical right brain. The following are a few of the links that surfaced before ebay ruined my fun.

TrendHunter
Gush Magazine
Luxury Launches
China Daily
Adfreak
China Economic Net
Digg.com
US Auction Info
AuctionForums.com
Ebayyer.com

There were 78 bids at the time ebay pulled the auction. And only two of them were from my wife. I swear.

UTAH OFFICE OF TOURISM

2007-02-23T13:35:00.000-08:00

Just like every other state’s tourism office, the Utah Office of Tourism wanted to attract more visitors. To do that, we simply showcased it's best asset - the diverse outdoors.

TOTALLY AWESOME COMPUTERS

2007-02-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Who would name their company, Totally Awesome Computers? The same guy who calls himself “Super” Dell Schanze, that’s who. Super Dell was the overly animated and ridilin-refused owner and spokesperson of Totally Awesome Computers. For years, he made his own commercials by simply setting up a camera in one of his stores and acting stupid in front of it. Perhaps charming at first, eventually people began to loathe him, and therefore his product. He needed help. His business was failing. He needed to change his marketing tactics to start moving computers.

Instead of simply launching a new campaign sans Super Dell, I decided to have a little fun with it. Since the public hated him so much, why not give them what they wanted? Why not have something bad happen to him? So, during what appeared to be a normal commercial, he was violently abducted. This launched a full-scale missing person campaign (complete with print, mail, t-shirts and outdoor). Meanwhile, a site was set up with video updates from the abductors and a community forum to fuel discussion and theories. Incidentally, store traffic drastically increased during his absence. Hmm.

"ABDUCTED"

"BIZ AS USUAL"

"VACUUM"

"WEB MOVIE"

UTAH ADVERTISING FEDERATION

2007-02-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

"RESTROOM"

UTAH YOUTH RUGBY

2007-02-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

The Utah Youth Rugby Association needed a campaign to increase awareness and boost enrollment. After scouting a few games, I quickly realized that youth rugby was no ordinary lil’ tyke sport. These kids get down and dirty.

HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL

2007-02-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

To be honest, while this band was rockin', my career in advertising was nothing more than a job to pay the bills. It wasn't until the Summer of '05 when Clive Davis flew us out to do a private audition that my perspective changed. He crushed my dreams of being a lucrative musician by telling us that, "while the music is great, the age of the band is an issue." Yes, that's right. He thought we were too old. That coming from an 83-year-old dude. Bless his black and blue heart.

Long story short, that really took the wind out of our sails and ever since then we have been rockin' it hobby style. Why am I including this in my advertising book? I guess I feel it's all about creative form, regardless. And to me, nothing has been more creative and worthwhile than making music. The good news, however, is that I have never been more focused on my ad career than I am now. At least until Clive calls back.

To check out the jams, follow these links:
HudsonRiverSchool.com
Myspace.com/HudsonRiverSchool

POWER IN YOU

2007-02-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Power In You is a peer-to-peer mentoring program spearheaded by Utah’s First Lady, Mary Kaye Huntsman. The program is designed to eliminate the misunderstanding and intolerance that often exists between diversity in middle schools. They have programs to help everything from teen pregnancy to physical disabilities to racial issues. She needed to get the word out about her program and generate community involvement. In her words, “I just want people to know about this.” After talking with several middle school kids it became quite apparent just how rough those halls can be for someone living with a challenge.

I wanted to conduct an experiment to see if I could make the entire community feel that sense of discomfort and unease, and then perhaps they’d be more inclined to get involved and do something about it. Over 100 “labels” were posted all over Salt Lake City. Instantly, the curiosity and discomfort began to grow. The billboard company reported more phone calls than any other posting. Four weeks later, we arranged a press conference with Mary Kaye Huntsman where she publicly removed a giant label and encouraged everyone to do the same and to get involved. By that time, the mystery campaign had been featured on virtually every Utah news outlet, as well as USA Today.

In addition, a series of back-to-back, 15-second teaser spots were aired. Once the billboard labels were removed, a reveal spot aired.

TEASER ONE

TEASER TWO

TEASER THREE

TEASER FOUR

FINAL REVEAL

US SKI TEAM

2007-02-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

The US Ski Team needed a campaign to position them in a similar ballpark as the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc. I decided to play off the patriotism of the organization by repurposing the lyric, “Home of the Brave” for the campaign tagline. I then featured a different MVP in each ad, much like you would see in any of the aforementioned sports organizations. The campaign was featured in Advertising Age. My mom was super stoked.

ADVANCED RESTORATION SYSTEMS

2007-02-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

ARS is a small home cleaning and restoration company in Logan, Utah. Essentially, they are the people who come to the rescue when your home suffers damage from flood, fire, and other unsightly elements. I gave them the company mantra of, "If it's bad for a house, we'll make it pay."

View production shots and commentary HERE.

CALLE SOCCER

2007-02-23T12:55:00.002-08:00

Calle is a street soccer company based in Provo, Utah. They sell custom products designed specifically for soccer on the street. For example, the Primero (soccer ball) has just the right amount of bounce to keep it on the street and still allow for crazy foot tricks. They wanted a campaign to help them tell their "Anytime. Anywhere." story. The solution came by way of a magazine insert. It was a simple sticker sheet of calle soccer balls that instructed the reader to peel them off and place them throughout the magazine wherever they saw fit.

SALT LAKE RUNNING COMPANY

2007-02-23T12:55:00.001-08:00

Salt Lake Running Company needed a TV spot. They had about $50. This is what I gave them.

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2007-02-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

NOTDOGS

2007-02-23T12:44:00.001-08:00

I include the following for sentimental value only. About ten years ago, I was a starving student going through the film program at the University of Utah. A local advertising agency announced an advertising scholarship contest. All I had to do was submit a portfolio of my work. The problem was I didn't have any as I was going through the film program not the advertising program.

To make a long story short, I spec'd up a bunch of ads and submitted them. I won. The agency then offered me a job as a copywriter (even though I thought my book was an art director's submission). At the chance of having a "real" job, I accepted the offer and never told anybody. This campaign for Notdogs was the first one I ever created. (I know, I know, the art direction blows.)