1AmongMany

agency: POKE NY

How can a brand tell you what “sexy” should mean? Is it the perfect bedroom, with the curtains drawn just so? Can you narrow it down to a hair color or a specific body type? No. “Sexy” is personal – and something that only you can define. Keep Life Sexy gives everyone a chance to stand up and shout to the world: “SEXY IS _____!” This site marked a new beginning for K-Y – an effort to reach out to the world and redefine what “sexy is” on everyone’s terms. This is what it looks like when a brand stops shouting and starts listening.

After viewers submit their thoughts on what “sexy is” to the Keep Life Sexy site, they can sort through the data by age and gender, allowing them to gain a narrower perspective on what men and women in specific age groups believe sexy is. Of course, this also becomes a wealth of information for the K-Y brand to use in its development of new products and messaging. The Keep Life Sexy site is a social experiment that doubles as a research project for the brand, and its value to the end user keeps people coming back to continually add to, and explore, what sexy is.

As part of an interview process, I was given the following homework assignment:

Please take a look at the Bourbon category and imagine that one of the brands (pick any you like) is your client and that they are looking to create a major new product.

*Where do you think the opportunity is? (Describe how you uncovered this opportunity and why you think it’s a big opportunity for your client.)

*Write a short one-page product concept that brings the idea to life (be sure to include the consumer insight, the key benefits, and the reasons-to-believe in the concept).

My recommendation was the creation of Angel’s Share, a new bourbon from Maker’s Mark targeting women. Feel free to view my response below or download a copy here.

Launched in June of 2006, the Nike+ system has been called one of the most successful social experience sites on the internet. The Nike+ website offers users a method to track their personal running progress, but more importantly, it creates an outlet for people to connect around their passion.

In July 2007, I participated in the Nike+ Summit at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. I and eleven other runners from across the US were selected because we were knowledgeable, savvy, early adopters of the Nike+ system. We met with product developers and designers from Nike, Apple, and R/GA to share our insights about the positive elements and the flaws in the system. Based on my professional background, and my familiarity with the Nike+ system, I was uniquely positioned within the group to speak for Nike+ users in general, and the under 30 market in particular.

During the summit, the Nike+ team expressed an interest in becoming more relevant in the digital space, especially among the youth market. With those interests in mind, I put together a strategic document outlining a series of ideas and tactics that I believe would strengthen the presence of Nike+ in the youth market. A copy of the presentation is available for download in .pdf format here.

agency: Merkley + Partners

Our strategic specialist opened a brainstorming meeting with a lengthy introduction emphasizing the talking Mrs. Butterworth’s bottle as the heart of the brand’s essence and the best representation of the brand’s core values. The bottle “comes alive” during commercials and talks to a child who’s enjoying Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup.

Despite the intent that the meeting focus on concepting a branded online game for Nickelodean’s website, my recommendation was that the client would be better off reapportioning the substantial sum of money set aside for the game toward the creation of real talking bottles. This could easily be accomplished such that when the cap to the syrup bottle is opened, a small speaker hidden underneath the cap is triggered to sound a pre-recorded message. I also made the point that the strength of this idea lies not in emblazoning the bottles with messaging about the new feature, but rather quietly letting Mrs. B. lovers find the hidden gem on their own.

Unfortunately, this idea was never presented to the client. I was informed that, despite being the “best representation of this brand’s core values,” a talking bottle “is an exercise in package design and falls outside the pervue of our agency”.

agency: Undercurrent

Strategic stronghold Undercurrent tasked me with a concise challenge for their client, Start Mobile: increase sales. Start Mobile is a small, web based company that specializes in wallpapers for mobile devices. They have cultivated a remarkable group of popular artists such as Shepard Fairey, Tara McPherson, and David Cho, and have created a library of these artists’ works available to mobile users at the manageable price of $1.99 each.

After analyzing their strengths and shortcomings, I outlined a series of strategic opportunities for Start Mobile that combines both online and offline executions and partnerships. Tactics that allow them to capitalize on their associations with today’s brightest artists and help Start Mobile reach audiences who are both technically inclined and design-savvy.