CASE STUDY: Ready For Your Close-Up?

Client: Starwood Hotels, Hawaii
Project: Room Renovation Sales Videos
Scope: 8 Properties, 1 Tiny Budget, 0 Room for Boring

The Ask:

Starwood Hawaii needed a set of renovation videos for its eight very different properties. Unlike their cookie-cutter business-travel-focused siblings on the mainland, each Hawaii resort is unique. The typical approach? Nap-inducing walkthroughs with no story, no actors, and no audio. Just a visual yawn of renovated rooms, lobbies, spas, gyms, and restaurants that left sales teams clamoring for something 

The Idea:

Treat each property like a character and make it the star of its own short film that couldn't take place anywhere else. In exchange for working with extremely modest budgets, local production companies got creative freedom, and Starwood Hawaii got high-concept, high-impact films.

The Results:

Starwood Hawaii’s sales teams had their best year ever, exceeding occupancy goals far ahead of schedule. Word of the campaign traveled to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who personally called Starwood’s CEO to compliment a blockbuster performance.

Fun Fact:

We premiered the films at a nightclub in Honolulu’s Chinatown, with red carpet, cast, crew, and mai tais. It was fabulous.

CASE STUDY: The Catwalk Meets the Boardwalk. On Segways.

Client: Hilo Hattie
Project: Drive Store Traffic (Literally)
Scope: 1 Warehouse, 1 Trolley, 1 Big Turn Around

The Ask:

Hilo Hattie—Hawaii’s legendary general store—needed to boost foot traffic and drive sales. But the store sat outside Waikiki, off the typical tourist trail. Fewer visitors were renting cars, trolley costs were climbing, and the advertising budget was shrinking. A once-iconic brand was at risk of fading from view.

The Idea:

If visitors wouldn’t come to see Hilo Hattie’s island fashions, we’d take the fashions to them—on Segways. Models suited up in aloha wear and glided down Waikiki Beach like a rolling runway. The mobile fashion show turned heads, sparked conversations, and converted beachgoers into shoppers.

The Results:

The Segway fashion parade stopped people in their tracks—and then sent them straight to Hilo Hattie. Local media jumped on the story. Tourists shared the spectacle across social platforms. Store traffic soared, and online visits spiked globally. Sales? They doubled.

Fun Fact:

It was the first fashion show ever held on Segways—and it made Hilo Hattie look better than it had in years.

CASE STUDY: Going Head-On For Maximum Impact

Client: Salesforce
Project: AWS Annual Contract Renewal
Scope: Tens of Millions of Dollars at Stake

The Ask:

Salesforce’s “Big Bet” sales team was facing a stalled contract renewal—and the clock was ticking. Senior leadership needed a presentation bold enough to jump-start a complex sales motion and compelling enough to convince Amazon that Salesforce could drive the next wave of transformation for a company already famous for transforming retail.

The Idea:

Rather than selling Salesforce as a tool to help Amazon’s famously independent teams ricochet through a complicated internal speedway, like bumper cars in search of an exit, we proposed taking a very different route. Amazon didn’t need better bumper cars—it needed a better traffic management system. Salesforce could deliver the maps, the lanes, the signals, and the rules of the road to bring order, speed, and scale to the chaos.

The Results:

Contract renewed. Additional revenue secured. By refusing to just buckle up and go along for the ride, we achieved a high-speed, high-stakes win.

Fun Fact:

In Q1 2025, AWS led the global cloud infrastructure market with a 29% share—maintaining a strong edge over Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. While we can’t say we put them on top, we like to think we made the trip a little easier.

CASE STUDY: The Art Of Mixing Paint And Pixels

Client: Toyota
Project: Lucas Oil Stadium Logo Refresh
Scope: One Very Big Paint Job

The Ask:

Simple:update all Toyota branding in Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Idea:

Sure, we could do that. But what if we went the extra mile and made something spectacular? Indiana’s pro football team is the Colts. What if we painted a mural of wild horses stampeding towards you, almost like a football formation? We include visual triggers for augmented reality content and design digital animation overlays that football fans can see on their cell phones. We could transform the horses into a fleet of Toyota’s brand new trucks or SUV’s, create interactive games and contests, and transform a flat wall into multi-dimensional, immersive experiences.

The Results:

While extremely popular with the vast majority of Indiana’s Toyota dealers, the decision to move forward had to have unanimous approval. It didn’t. So we went ahead and did a traditional brand refresh. But there’s an important lesson here. The pursuit of innovative ideas doesn’t always succeed. It can’t. That’s not failure. There will inevitably be setbacks along the way. But you learn from them, and you move on to even better ideas. Failure is giving up.

Fun Fact: Pokemon Go launched in 2016, instantly becoming a cultural phenomenon. In its first year alone, real players walked over 8.7 billion kilometers hunting virtual Pokémon.

CASE STUDY: Creating a Winning Playbook

Client: Aloha Airlines
Project: West Coast Route Launch
Scope: From Regional Favorite to National Contender

The Ask:

Aloha Airlines needed to launch new West Coast routes and look like they belonged in the big leagues. But how can a small, regional airline go toe-to-toe with national giants—on a budget that barely covers beer and peanuts?

The Idea:

Rip up the rulebook and write a new one. That meant a total brand refresh: new aircraft, bold new livery, stylish uniforms, a revamped website, and its first-ever mainland TV campaign that kicked off Super Bowl Sunday. The ads had to compete with the best spots of the year and send fans flocking to the site. The site, in turn, had to turn football watchers into Hawaii bookers. No room for fumbles.

The Results:

Website traffic shattered records—up 400% over the previous all-time high. Flights from the West Coast to Hawaii sold out. In the space of four quarters, a little-known airline was suddenly on the radar from Seattle to San Diego.

Fun Fact:

The in-flight scenes were filmed inside a real jet that had been sliced into quarters, mounted on dollies, and reassembled like a puzzle. This allowed full access for cameras, lighting, and crew. Not to mention plenty of legroom.

CASE STUDY: Revving Up Corvette Buyers

Client: Chevrolet
Project: Digital Garage
Scope: Upgrading The Ownership (And Purchase) Experience

The Ask:

Create a communications program that keeps purchasers of new Corvettes engaged and immersed between ordering and taking delivery. It should reflect Chevy’s commitment to providing Corvette buyers with a premium experience on par with luxury European competitors.

The Idea:

Create a virtual factory tour where Corvette buyers experience their new car being built from body shell to paint, to being fitted with the engine, drivetrain, interior, and exterior trim. They could opt-in to receive a detailed production schedule, phots and videos, daily text or email updates, and access to the Corvette Concierge Team. They could also schedule delivery and a tour at the National Corvette Museum.

The Results:

Response was so positive that Chevrolet extended it to the purchase process on Chevroltet.com, enabling buyers to choose from exterior customizations, interior personalizations, and performance upgrades. The fully interactive experience features 360-degree, 3D exterior and interior renderings.

Fun Fact:

The Corvette is the longest-running continuously produced passenger car in the world.

Adobe Times Square Takeover

CASE STUDY: Start Spreading The News

Client: Adobe
Project: Adobe Creative Suite Digital Launch
Scope: Worldwide

The Ask:

Announce the new Adobe Creative Cloud--no constraints. (Only later did I learn we were a few weeks from deadline.) The dozens of discarded campaigns—mostly online banners—were heavy on features and functional benefits, but lacked the excitement, and impact of a momentous launch.

The Idea:

Starting with Times Square, we take over cities worldwide known to be creative epicenters, turning each into an outdoor gallery, It launches with every screen in the 5-block area going dark. Then the new Adobe Creative Cloud premieres, showcasing art made with Adobe’s products. It moves propelled by a whisper campaign among the creative community who nominated the art to be featured. No screens? the city becomes the screen, with the art projected on iconic local buildings and other landmarks.

The Results:

Total silence. Then, a very rare occurrence at a creative presentation: applause. The idea never took shape. But a creative director job did.

Fun Fact:

Called the Midnight Moment, a synchronized art display appears on the electronic billboards in Times Square.

CASE STUDY: Downhill From Day 1

Client: Mattel
Project: Barbie Line Extension Brainstorming
Scope: 150+ countries worldwide

The Ask:

Barbie has been everything: a doctor, an astronaut, and even a presidential candidate. And she has everything. But Barbie wants more. Come up with a product line extension for the new year.

The Idea:

It was my first creative assignment at my first “real” job, but it wasn’t mine alone. Everyone at the ad agency was invited. I wanted to prove that I deserved a place in the creative department. But I didn’t know very much about Barbie, so I called an expert with deep knowledge: my sister. I wrote our ideas down on 3” x 5” notecards and organized them from good to better. Not feeling like I had a winner, I tossed and turned for few hours. It was on the commute to the office when, distracted by traffic, the idea hit. Barbie needed a Ski Chalet. 

The Results:

I was informed that the Ski Chalet was among the ideas that would be presented to Mattel. In addition to receiving permission to work with the creative team on the presentation, I was handed an envelope emblazoned with Ogilvy’s letterhead. It contained a bonus check for $100. That year I got my dream job as a Junior copywriter.

Fun Fact:

Barbie has her own signature color, “Barbie Pink,” also known as Pantone 219 C.

CASE STUDY: Not The Usual Run Around

Client: Salesforce
Project: US Cellular Pitch
Scope: Multimillion Dollar Contract Expansion

The Ask:

Create a high-impact presentation for C-suite and senior-level clients to push Salesforce to the top of the consideration set. Make it high-level, conceptual, and memorable.

The Idea:

Instead of a pitch deck, what if we did an embodied presentation at Nike’s Unlimited Stadium, the world's first full-sized LED-lined running track?

The starting line is Q1. As we walk the track, we’ll explain how we can help US Cell get ahead. Threats will be represented as 3D avatars that we outpace with the help of key Salesforce technologies. At each corner, we get a Salesforce boost that propels us forward. Contextual information in the form of dynamic charts and graphs accompanies us, adding depth to the presentation. 

As Nike says, “There is no finish line,” but when we arrive back at the starting line we’re in the lead.

The Results:

None. This was a spec idea. Take it and run with it.

Fun Fact:

There are more mobile phones on the planet than toothbrushes, which may explain why long-distance calling is so popular.