I’ve had the privilege of creating work for several incredible brands, working alongside clients and partners that I respect and admire. As a result, there have been many experiences throughout my career that have shaped the way I approach clients, projects, and challenges.

A key to great leadership is being open to growth and change which helps us lead by example.

This video series was an opportunity to share some of the lessons I’ve learned to help provide a view of the way I approach my work and to help others in theirs.

• Speaking Up

• Asking why

• Autonomy

• Considering viewpoints

CLIENT: Olive

PROJECT: Promotional Video

AGENCY: Serif Creative

ROLE: Creative Direction

We were approached by Olive to create a promotional video for their revolutionary offering for the health care industry, and to announce the first completed product – in a very short timeline.

The Olive AlphaSite is an AI powered automation engine specifically designed to reduce strain on healthcare workforces.

Olive's Founder and CEO Sean Lane wanted to create a disruptive experience to ensure that their clients knew that the AlphaSite product was something that would pull their workforce into the future.

We spent time the team at Olive, understanding Sean's vision and what he was interested in personally. This gave us the ingredients to make this a success for their business, get as much attention as possible, and reflect the Olive brand in an authentic way.

CLIENT: Serif Creative

PROJECT: Website

AGENCY: Serif Creative

ROLE: Creative Direction

Serif Creative provides a holistic approach to the client's marketing needs, ensuring that every creative production is met with thoughtful strategic consideration.

A new, completely custom website was needed to better communicate that business positioning, and provide an authentic reflection of the agency itself.

We set out to emphasize clarity, impact, and purpose to ensure that potential clients and future partners quickly gain an understanding of what to expect from working with Serif Creative. A major contributor to this is the structure of the Work section which leaned more towards a case study approach over gallery a based portfolio.

CLIENT: Genesis Healthcare System

PROJECT: Video

AGENCY: Serif Creative

ROLE: Creative Direction

I love a creative challenge, but admittedly I found this daunting.

Genesis Healthcare System asked Serif Creative to produce a promotional film sharing the exemplary level of care and access to renown physicians for its cancer patients. This would be conveyed through a patient’s recovery story.

From a purely creative standpoint, I was totally confident we would deliver for the marketing team at Genesis. However, the subject matter and the emotional responsibility this project carried weighed on me. To deliver on our client's business objective is part of the creative process, but I was very concerned about exploiting Ashely's medical condition and her family's painful struggle.

There is a great backstory about how we resolved this delicate creative challenge. It was not easy but in the end, I believe we exceeded what we hoped to achieve for Genesis, for Ashley and her family, and for Serif Creative. This is entirely due to our creative and production team's desire to honor Ashley's family and deliver something we could all be proud of for our client.

This project received the Creative Excellence Award for Long-form video in 2019 by CSCA.

CLIENT: Crimson Design Group

PROJECT: Content Strategy & Branding

AGENCY: Serif Creative

ROLE: Content Strategy & Creative Direction

Crimson Design Group are consummate experts in Luxury Interior Design. Their brand was lacking direction and needed a solid creative strategy for their content output.

The focus of our efforts was showcasing their creative services. Owner and CEO Cheryl Beachy Stauffer is a passionate creative who cares deeply for her team, community, and desire to help others. She impressed upon us the importance of reflecting that in the content strategy.

We also consulted on ways to better organize their internal/external business communications to reflect not only their creative spirit but the high level of professionalism they provide.

Our strategic and creative work for Crimson included:

• Identity audit

• Project reporting

• Content ecosystem

• Social planning

• Digital business suite

• Stationery suite

• Custom presentations

• Website audit

CLIENT: Wolf’s Ridge Brewing

PROJECT: Marketing Strategy Summit

AGENCY: Serif Creative

ROLE: Creative Strategy

Wolf’s Ridge is a successful brewery and restaurant located in Columbus, Ohio. They’ve done a great job growing their brand within the local region but were looking to grow the company in several different aspects. They reached out to Serif to take part in a strategy summit, an in-depth marketing service Serif provides.

Over several days we met with the founders and the Wolf’s Ridge Marketing team to learn about their business vision and where difficulties were to help us identify where we could consult them on opportunities for growth.

We provided their marketing team a plan to extend their brand, a strategy for product placement and growth, and a marketing plan to amplify their content.

CLIENT: Genesis Healthcare System

PROJECT: Video

AGENCY: Serif Creative

ROLE: Creative Direction

Genesis Healthcare System approached Serif Creative to create a promotional video for their Heart & Vascular department with a focus on a procedure called TAVR, a Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is a way to replace the aortic valve without open-heart surgery.

The procedure is revolutionary but difficult to explain to potential patients. Our goal was to focus on the life-changing benefits that Genesis can provide through this procedure.

Aside from the procedure itself, it was paramount that Genesis’ patients understand the high level of care they will receive extending from the moment they walk in, to the time they leave for home from a variety of staff members.

CLIENT: Nestlé - California Pizza Kitchen Oven Ready

PROJECT: Campaign

AGENCY: IBM iX (FMR: Resource/Ammerati)

ROLE: Content Strategy, Creative Direction

The Nestlé Oven Ready California Pizza Kitchen brand had been a bit stuck in a formulaic approach to their marketing and was in decline. 

The brand, under new management, was open to fresh ideas. I believed this to be to biggest opportunity to change things up. 

The insight was that consumers romanticize the idea of flavor, not convenience. I used this as the catalyst to launch the campaign "A Little Something Unexpected." 

This campaign showcased Chef Brian, the real Chef behind the CPK pizza recipes. We focused on the passion for ingredients and the never-ending search for that one ingredient that would make a recipe truly memorable. A sensorial and thought-provoking video entitled "That One Missing Element" spearheaded the campaign. 

Historically the brand never released communications without mention of an oven or an image of the box so familiar to those in the frozen pizza aisle. However, this time with the brand's trust, I pushed for the brand to release our hero video without ever showing the box or an oven. 

The brand extended the ethos of that idea into the rest of the work across all communications.  

CLIENT: Nestlé Toll House

PROJECT: Video Series / Content Strategy

AGENCY: IBM iX (FMR: Resource/Ammerati)

ROLE: Content Strategy, Creative Direction

Nestlé Toll House needed sales to grow at the shelf. The existing consumers were very familiar with the brand through its 75 year legacy and the American culture up to recent years—which was changing dramatically. We determined that there was a new audience that did not have a way into the brand in the same way that other had before.

One of the reasons that people bake is to share and express their feeling for others. We created a campaign called Bake Someone’s Day featuring a video series focused on real-life situations of self-expression that a new audience might relate to. This campaign was supported by heavy social as well.

These are some recent brands that I have created Identities for. I love to work on branding because it becomes a portrait of the brand’s DNA. Over my career, I have had the great pleasure of creating identities for many clients big and small.

KYTE WORKS - Innovation division of AEP Energy focusing on future forward consumer products and services.

REBEL WELL - Travel based yoga/health getaway service aimed at shaking up and re-energizing clients lifestyles.

BOSUN - Digital marketing agency aimed and changing the status quo of agency operation.

ROOST - Community owned real estate network providing crypto-currency based equity sharing for renters and property owners

COA - Columbus Ophthalmology Associates, an eye-care organization which preserves, restores and enhances vision.

THE GUITAR REPAIR COMPANY - Guitar repair and service providing personal service and great attention to detail.

CLIENT: AEP/KYTE WORKS

PROJECT: Campaign

AGENCY: Bosun

ROLE: Creative Direction

AEP is one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., serving nearly 5.4 million customers in 11 states. With a vision to provide progressive, environmentally conscious offerings for their customers, AEP created an internal innovation lab to ensure authenticity and clear purpose for the consumer.

We worked closely with the innovation team to create a new brand and campaign to communicate forward-thinking and mindful energy-related offerings for the AEP consumer.

The newly branded innovation group, now called Kyte Works, is responsible for making new and progressive ideas become reality. When working on an idea you have to have focus, yet allow the idea to wander and flow, much like flying a kite. There is also the nod to Mr. Franklin’s historic encounter with electricity while flying his kite as well.

We provided The brand name, logo, mission statement and initial launch website. Kyte Works first product to market was an Electronic Vehicle charger. The internal marketing team needed strategic help with bringing the new brand to Electronic Vehicle dealerships and to consumers as well.

I began work on the DSW social channels in an effort to create continuity in their content, which was lacking creativity and strategy.

I provided creative direction and strategy for their monthly social calendar that would align with their internal sales campaigns. This allowed us to create a wide range of social content that had focus, yet was appropriate for the channel it was created for.

Providing DSW with a solid creative strategy and following the analytics allowed us to gain freedoms to push their content further than they would have allowed without it, which took their online channels to greatly increased metrics and sales.

We launched their Snapchat program and their Instagram stories with a heavy focus on longer contextual stories that the single image post could not provide.

in 2011 Head & Shoulders needed to increase sales of a product line aimed at the female market by making it socially acceptable to buy and use an anti-dandruff shampoo.

We leveraged the brand’s new spokeswoman to make it okay to be friends with a dandruff shampoo on Facebook, back when Facebook apps were breaking.

The insight was that Women are not comfortable talking about their dandruff. However, there’s always at least one person she is willing to have that conversation with.

We created a quiz based experience to get the consumer to be more comfortable talking about the situations by allowing users to be “The Good Girlfriend” and share their advice.

An extension of the quiz included a digital animated pop-up style book contest in which we would expand reach by users referring their “Best Girlfriends” to the experience for a chance to win.

Within three months the experience saw over 25K interactions and 1000% increase in Facebook fans of the brand.

The program was such a success that it spawned a duplicate experience for the next product, Green Apple Scent. We replicated the quiz with a fresh take. We also introduced an interactive iPad ad for use in magazine apps.

Both initiatives were supported by digital media, social media and POP.

in 2011 Head & Shoulders Needed to Increase sales by giving men a reason to interact with the brand beyond having itchy scalp. The insight was that every man wants to be a legend in his own mind. The brand’s spokesperson was NFL superstar Troy Polamalu, a real-life legend. We leveraged his “Legendariousness” to build a campaign to “Be Legendary”. We focused on several ways that guys proclaim their male prowess in real life situations and based a Facebook contest around it.

At the same point in time, Troy’s spokesperson role was going to transition to MLB legend Joe Maur of the Minnesota Twins. We had to create a big enough splash to not lose consumer interest after Troy left. We created a head to head challenge on Facebook that would engage consumers and their friends. We gained extra attention by enlisting MLB legends of the past to do the same thing in a video series.

Both initiatives were supported by digital media and social media, POP and YouTube Media.