John Hart

OBJECTIVE: 
Morton Salt offers a full line of culinary salts, but also produces pool salt, water softeners and ice melters. In the past, these separate lines of business—and even products within each business—were marketed independently. Plus, while the Morton brand has iconic status, and one of the most recognized and beloved logos ever, consumers think of the company primarily as a table salt producer. The brand needed a single, confident voice to match its leadership position.

SOLUTION: 
To best capitalize on overall brand equity, we featured the iconic logo, color palette and typography across all lines of business. The brand was personified by the Morton Umbrella Girl, who became the expert on everything from meatloaf seasoning to swimming pool maintenance—with subtle visual cues to match. Traditional media was complemented by digital banners, on-site promotions, and an incremental website redesign—all reinforcing the brand’s breadth of offerings in a fun, contemporary style.
 

OBJECTIVE: Create sponsored video content for KFC, to appear on satirical news website The Onion. Reflect site’s irreverent tone, while maintaining KFC’s brand attributes. (Produced via internal agency Onion Labs.)

SOLUTION: Emphasize the size and variety of KFC’s Favorites Bucket, by parodying traditional “sitcom” style family life.

OBJECTIVE: After lukewarm results in 2009, the venerable McDonald’s Monopoly promotion needed a boost. Executional considerations included a myriad of prizes, multiple corporate partners (notably Walmart and Ford), increased menu items and day parts, and the best-ever odds of winning.

SOLUTION: Traditional media was split into live-action :30s, which stressed the excitement and anticipation of game play, and graphic :15s, which promoted specific prizes, partners or menu items. This approach achieved maximum message and media flexibility, while delivering more than double the amount of creative executions for the budget. In conjunction with offline efforts, the campaign website (via partner Tribal DDB) also allowed users to play online.

RESULTS: Reversing the prior year’s setbacks, this promotion was widely cited as a major factor in a same-store sales increase of 4.4% for fourth quarter 2010.

OBJECTIVE: Syneture, a leading maker of sutures and wound-closure products, was created through the merger of U.S. Surgical and Davis & Geck—both venerable names in the industry. Along with announcing this new organization, Syneture needed to communicate a reaffirmed commitment to innovation, empathy, and partnership.

SOLUTION: Positioning Syneture as “the thread between science and healing,” this four-color trade-print campaign reimagined healed wounds as timelines between medical challenges and successful human outcomes.

RESULTS: Along with a successful industry introduction, this campaign was also recognized in The One Show Rx awards.

HEADLINES:

Crisis ---------- Closure

Critical ---------- Stable

Hope ---------- Health

COPY:

Introducing Syneture. A new beginning. A new philosophy. A new company, built on the foundation of USS/DG. We are on a mission. To work with surgeons and clinicians in a collaborative spirit. To hear their concerns. To do right by patients. To build a talented and passionate team. To make quantum leaps in the technology and practice of closing wounds. The work we do is important. Because Syneture is more than a new company. We’re the thread between science and healing.

The holiday season can be wonderful of course, but it can also be, well, a lot. We could all use a little more relaxation, a little less stress, or a little more energy. Fortunately, that’s exactly what Lipton had in mind when they created their Wellness range of herbal teas.

To promote the Wellness line during the holidays, we changed their names to reflect how they can help during the holidays.

We called them Lipton RealiTeas, promoted them on social and digital platforms, and gave them away on the Lipton website. They sold out. (“Dealing With Relatives,” a.k.a. Lipton Stress Therapy Herbal Supplement, was particularly popular, for some reason.)

OBJECTIVE: Promote OfficeMax’s annual “Power to the Penny” sale, which offers back-to-school essentials (e.g., rulers, crayons) for 1 cent.

SOLUTION: Enlist comedian Matt McCarthy to tour New York City, trying to buy everything from groceries to a Lexus, using only pennies. Cut the hidden-camera highlights into online films, and promote via YouTube. Cut 30-second versions for TV, driving to YouTube channel.

RESULTS: The campaign garnered over 2.6 million views on YouTube alone, and “Jewelry Store” and “Used Car” were shortlisted at Cannes Lions in Internet Film. Even the infamously snarky Gawker liked them!

OBJECTIVE: Introduce McDonald's new Buttermilk Crispy Tenders—a premium, 100 percent white-meat chicken tender made with no artificial preservatives, flavors or colors, and no MSG. Promote new signature dipping-sauce recipe. Target busy families and younger professionals as a premium-quality dinner entree alternative.

SOLUTION: Create a campaign centered around the concept of family dinner—whether with a literal family or a close circle of friends. Reinforce the flavor and quality of Buttermilk Crispy Tenders via product messaging and visuals. Reach targets via broadcast, social (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), digital banners, website, and point-of-purchase executions.

OBJECTIVE: Reinforce core products and brand virtues as quick-serve restaurant
(QSR) menu options continue to expand.

SOLUTION: Stress Dunkin’s no-nonsense, hard-working sensibility with a campaign for coffee and donuts directed by Noam Murro.

RESULTS: These spots both earned One Show merit awards, while the brand continued its core-product dominance, along with same-store sales increases above the overall QSR category average.

OBJECTIVE: In a crowded marketplace, Capital One Home Loans needed to emphasize its expertise and customer focus, while demonstrating to consumers that the brand offered more than just credit cards.

SOLUTION: Use Capital One’s signature humorous tone to emphasize the service and expertise Capital One offers versus competitors.

RESULTS: "Children" was awarded a Wood Pencil by British D&AD in Direct TV and Cinema.