Portfolio:

Earned & Experiential

Selected work

Lizzo performs at the Mio Squirtcar

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Experiential

Experiential marketing isn’t the only way to earn attention and reach.

But after a decade as a Creative Director working for some of the world’s biggest PR agencies, I know that crafting an experience that immerses an audiences into a brand makes for a great story, video, insta, or TikTok.

Here, you can scroll through some case studies of my experiential experiences and some other earned-media campaigns of note.

In 2012, MiO introduced Canadians to an entirely new beverage category: liquid water enhancers. After two years, the market was starting to get crowded, with many new entrants and more on the way.

MiO targeted male millennials, who were aware of the brand, but hadn’t yet chosen to enhance their water.

Building off the new “Make it Original” campaign platform, MiO partnered with NXNE, Toronto’s premier music and arts festival.

To generate media coverage, we knew that standing out in this crowded landscape meant more than slapping a logo on a building – it meant creating an experience that no festivalgoer had ever imagined or would ever want to miss.

The World’s Most Original Music Venue

“The MiO Squirtcar” was designated an official venue of the NXNE festival and was filled each night with a lineup of the most popular international acts.

MiO dominated the conversation around NXNE. The brand was mentioned in conjunction with the festival 360% more than Red Bull and 800% more than Budweiser, the other title sponsors. MiO’s sponsorship was featured in 371 traditional media stories, 80% of which were national.

During NXNE, it gave out nearly 64,000 samples. More than just trying the product, the target audience associated it with the original music and experiences they love.

It then spread awareness of the campaign across Canada, expanding the experience well beyond those who attended the festival, receiving 31.6 million social media impressions, 30 million paid impressions and 403 million earned impressions.

More than a year had passed since the crowning of Stirling-Rawdon as the winner of Kraft Hockeyville 2012.

It was a year of mixed emotions for hundreds of communities and thousands of fervent Kraft Hockeyville aspirants across Canada. They felt disappointment when the NHL players’ strike forced Kraft Hockeyville to take a hiatus. For the past six years, anticipation for a new hockey season approaching also meant the announcement of a new Kraft Hockeyville season.

And so, like a superstar returning from injury, how would we step on the ice and make the fans rise to their feet? How would we not only return to the same level of play as before, but soar beyond it to smash records and ignite a nation?

Research showed that across the country, awareness of Kraft Hockeyville wasn’t an issue.

But a year off meant the job-to-do was to motivate communities to participate again.

To drive coverage of the launch of the new season, we went back to the genesis of arena hockey to tell a story, drive coverage, and create an experience that any hockey fan couldn’t help but share.

Kraft Hockeyville is about celebrating the heart of local Canadian communities: The Arena. Towns compete, showing their passion in hopes of winning a grand prize of $100,000 toward arena repairs and improvements, to keep the heart of the community beating strong.

To promote the new season, we took media, influencers, and fans back to hallowed ground–or what should have been hallowed ground: the location of the first ever hockey arena.

Victoria Skating Rink in downtown Montreal represents a historic site, recognized in 2002 as the birthplace of organized hockey.

Few fans would know it however, as the song goes, they paved it, and put up a parking lot.

Tragic, yes, but it presented the perfect story illustrating the risk of letting an arena go to waste.

So we brought the rink back to the birthplace of hockey.

Reviving the Beating Heart of Canada’s Game

The simple insight and execution translated into an exceptional launch for the program.

It was highlighted in Strategy Magazine as a stand-out campaign, and a specific example of how PR agencies were starting to take the creative lead in integrated marketing planning.

hockeyville-coverage-strategy-magazine-2014-18

As stated in the article, “at 63 million earned media impressions, 170 million media impressions and more than 500 submissions, it was the biggest numbers the program has seen to date, but it was the quality of the mentions that really stood out this year. ‘It’s one thing to get Kraft mentioned in a [news] story, but it’s another to get Kraft mentioned how you want it to be, with the image you wanted,’ says Kathy Murphy, corporate affairs director, Kraft.”

Introducing new worlds and stories from a challenger streaming service when Canadian households were already overflowing with content options isn’t easy.

For Prime Video, we brought the worlds to Canadians, and immersed them into the stories with fantastical experiences and spectacle.

Primed and Ready fordeep immersion into New Worlds

RBC’s Canada 150 marketing program centered on investing in youth, providing selected individuals with funding for their ideas to make the country and their communities better.

We were challenged with making the marketing campaign an earned story, and an authentic one, showing how RBC’s employees were a part of this national and local initiative.

The solution: kill two birds–but with 300,000 Post-It Notes, instead of stones.

Going big for Canada’s Biggest Bank

Through concepting, prototyping, and execution across the country with dozens of employees, this was not only Canada’s biggest-ever billboard, but a wonderful way to bring attention to RBC’s campaign.

This interview says it all.

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