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What we create

More courageous creativity. More validated, too.

Our ability to align audacious creativity with individual consumer motivations lets us do more than hope for brand love — we methodically engineer it throughout the consumer journey.
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Mammoth Lakes Tourism
The Real Unreal
We engineered mountainous awe by showcasing mind-blowing nature

When there’s only one word to describe a landscape as majestic as Mammoth Lakes, California, you own it. Then you let nature do the rest of the talking — or in our case, the showing. 

Brand Campaign
It’s as real as unreal gets.
In a world consumed by the manufactured realities of social media and deepfakes and the metaverse, there is still a place so naturally extraordinary it simply doesn’t seem real, even when you’re surrounded by it. This is the Real Unreal of Mammoth Lakes — a pure, unfiltered, authentic unreal. The kind of unreal that deserves to be protected. #KeepMammothUnreal.
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The Real Unreal - Mammoth Lakes, California, is unreal natural beauty at every turn. Which is very different than the “unreal” whatever you find on social media.
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55,000 Years - It’s taken millennia for Mammoth Lakes, California, to form into the unreal landscape it is today. Ponder that on your next weekend getaway.
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Another Planet - Mammoth Lakes, California, is like a whole other planet. Except on this planet. Which is pretty unreal if you ask us.
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Acres - Mammoth Lakes, California is big. Really big. It’s also mind-blowingly beautiful, and we’d like to keep it that way.
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How Unreal - Mammoth Lakes, California, is so unreal you may not even trust your senses to tell you how real it is.
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Edibles - In Mammoth Lakes, California, there’s a reason everything is so unreal. Mother Nature, you’ve got some explaining to do.
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Visit California
Am I Dreaming?
We took travel seekers on a rip-roaring joyride over California just before the Super Bowl

From a mix of live-action shooting and cutting-edge 3-D modeling, to an aggressively negotiated media presence centered around some of live sports’ biggest events, we helped California make a big leap back into the spotlight.

Highlights
Super Bowl Pregame Sponsorship
Visit California was positioned as the presenting sponsor of the Super Bowl LVI opening segment with a custom :05 branded introduction leading into the broadcast open, followed by a :30 linear and :60 streaming commercial airing just minutes before kick-off.
California Star Power
It wouldn’t be a Visit California commercial without a few celebrity appearances, including San Francisco Giants All-Start Brandon Crawford, actor/TV host Mario Lopez and actor/comedian Anthony Anderson. But the true standout might be the iconic soundtrack “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen.
Winter Olympics
Am I Dreaming? will air during prime on NBC alongside some of the most popular events, including alpine and freestyle skiing, snowboarding, figure skating and speed skating, and will be complemented by weekday and weekend placements.
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Am I Dreaming? :60
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Am I Dreaming? :30
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California Grown
Grown To Be Great
We moved people to purchase California commodities.

Comprehensive digital and video advertising solutions lean in to humor and wit to educate consumers on why California grown products are better than domestic and international options. The points of differentiation extend beyond just the freshness and quality, and remind everyone that in California we do it a bit different. After all, California Grown commodities are Grown to be Great.  

IMPACT
68% Video Completion Rate
The programmatic and social partnerships delivered a 68% video completion rate within video placements in the first few weeks of the campaign launch.
16.85% engagement rate
Rich Media interactive units produced a 16.85% engagement rate in the first month of activity, exceeding partner benchmark range of 12-15%
5x greater than goal
Instagram & Facebook effectively reached the target audience driving high engagement across video (thru play rate nearly 5 times greater than goal).
Branding
Grown to be Great.
Our ‘Grown to be Great’ campaign uses humor, hyperbole, and a fresh bold look to both champion our commodities and playfully demonstrate just how obsessed some people can get about their food and where it comes from. Visually, we knew this work (and our commodities) needed to stand out. So, we embraced our California-ness and all things bold when choosing our campaign colors, typographic treatments, and casting.
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Each humorous vignette celebrates the joy and quirky obsessions of those who eat and cook with the world’s best fruits, nuts and vegetables. The work was shot by highly acclaimed comedy director Mike Bernstein.
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Each humorous vignette celebrates the joy and quirky obsessions of those who eat and cook with the world’s best fruits, nuts and vegetables. The work was shot by highly acclaimed comedy director Mike Bernstein.
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Each humorous vignette celebrates the joy and quirky obsessions of those who eat and cook with the world’s best fruits, nuts and vegetables. The work was shot by highly acclaimed comedy director Mike Bernstein.
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VSP Vision Care
That’s Vision Accomplished
We moved people to explore their eye care options

In a new assignment for VSP, we developed a unified campaign for three lines of business that showed how vision can play an important role in accomplishing our everyday goals.

THE PLAN
414 million impressions
A multi-layered national campaign combining the best of digital & traditional channels.
20 spot markets
This campaign targeted VSP’s most valuable prospects in high-impact markets.
25% lift
Boosting website traffic during VSP’s crucial open enrollment season.
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VSP Vision Care “Remote Work”

Enduring endless zoom calls without gouging your own eyes out — this counts as a major win in 2020.

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VSP Vision Care “Binge”

Marathon viewing sessions of your favorite shows? These are the little joys in lockdown.

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VSP Vision Care “Home Improvement”

Who doesn’t love a little DIY backyard beautification project? Especially when it involves a life size dolphin topiary.

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VSP Vision Care “Distance Learning”

Transforming our homes into everyday classrooms has its challenges. Here’s to passing that test with flying colors.

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Visit California
California Road Trip Republic
We tapped into a growing road trips zeitgeist to engineer a competitive advantage for California.

From custom advertising solutions to experiential activation, we engineered the California road trip experience across the entire media ecosystem to capture and engage audiences.

Impact
90% positive sentiment
Sentiment among Ad Aware consumers achieved a near universal positive rating of 90%.
10% lift (western region markets)
In year one, the campaign generated 10% lift in intent to visit among Ad Aware consumers in western region U.S. markets.
20% lift (other national markets)
Across other national U.S. markets, Ad Aware consumer were twice as likely in intent.
Branding
California is a road-trippers dream.
As the most talked about U.S. state in the road trip conversation, California is the ultimate destination for hitting the road. We appealed to the road trippers desire to step outside the structure of daily life and experience a true sense of freedom and discovery in the California Road Trip Republic — state and state-of-mind, where bold adventurers come in search of bucket-list experiences, awe-inspiring escapades, and transformation through transportation.
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California Road Trip Republic Case Study - Awareness-building advertising, custom platform-first experiences designed for digital discovery, and an immersive live activation at Waterloo Station took consumers on a full funnel journey.
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Born to Be Wild - Off-the-beaten-path backdrops combined with a creative adaptation of the iconic Steppenwolf song “Born to Be Wild” brought California’s distinct road trip vibe to life in this anchor video asset.
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Buckled In - A series of six-second video assets added depth and dimension to the California Road Trip Republic story.
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Odometer - A series of six-second video assets added depth and dimension to the California Road Trip Republic story.
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Curiosity - A series of six-second video assets added depth and dimension to the California Road Trip Republic story.
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Partnerships
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Bollé Brand Positioning
Details Matter
Rebuilding a gear brand at high speed

The brief was clear: rebuild the Bollé brand in North America. So rather than making decisions in a vacuum-sealed boardroom, we aired out multiple new Bollé brand stories in real media, giving guidance and confidence to the next wave of brand bets we’re helping Bollé make (and sold product along the way).

Brand Positioning
Details Matter.
Our digital campaigns leveraged social media and programmatic media channels (including video, display, high impact, native, and more!) to increase awareness and interest in the Bollé brand. A mix of video, static and high-impact digital assets tailored to each audience segment helped drive digital to a unique Bollé microsite, each dynamically generated to reflect the brand story a consumer clicked on. The microsite creates engagement and further interest in the Bollé product portfolio, and then directs to online and offline retailers to complete purchases.

Our ability to use digital to drive both online and offline sales for key retailers provided Bollé with the momentum needed to successfully relaunch their brand in North America.
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Discover performance eyewear not just designed for perfectionists, it’s designed by perfectionists. See for yourself in perfect detail.
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We don’t sponsor athletes. We put them to work designing, testing and improving everything we do so it outperforms all expectations in competition.
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Your confidence and sense of style clearly show in frames that stand out in a crowd of sameness and lenses that share DNA with fighter aircraft.
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French design for looks. French engineering for the most technologically advanced performance optics and frames you’ll find anywhere.
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Performance eyewear that knows no limits. Lenses deliver unrivaled optical clarity. Frames that adjust to hold on no matter how far you push them.
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Every detail in our technologically advanced lenses is designed to perform with unmatched optical clarity. See for yourself in perfect detail.
Advanced-technology optics, fully-adjustable frames. Even the athletes who help design and test our performance eye wear find them hard to beat.
Before, during, and after the ride, you’ll look good and see even better with advanced Phantom lenses in fames that adjust for a tailored fit.
You expect flair from French design. But French engineering has flair of its own – advanced Phantom optics, adjustable frames for a truly custom fit.
Vision, focus, and clarity get you to your personal best. Our lenses deliver all three in frames that adjust to hold on no matter how far you push them.
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SDG&E
It’s Time To LOVELECTRIC
By busting EV myths, we compelled people to LOVELECTRIC

When EVs first arrived, they were “the future”. But they posed big challenges. Too expensive, short driving ranges, and charging stations few and far between kept people from jumping in. But we’re there now. EVs are less expensive, have longer ranges, and thanks to SDGE, there are thousands of charging stations all over San Diego. It’s time to LOVELECTRIC.

Impact
20.3 million impressions
To date, the 2021 advertising campaign has recorded 20.3 million impressions across many channels, including Connected TV, YouTube, Social Media, Pandora, and Programmatic Display.
54% completion rate
Demonstrating the power of long-form storytelling, the campaign’s :30 videos generated a 54% completion rate, 4 points higher than condensed :15 video versions.
Nearly 50 thousand engaged users
Using a custom Engaged User metric that counts only users who visit 3 or more pages or spend more than 60 seconds on the page, this campaign was optimized to reach those in our niche georgraphic audience who are most likely to be interested in EVs.
Branding
It’s time to LOVELECTRIC.
Myth busting is fun. And pretty funny. Especially when you can relate to it. With each message, we served up a truth about EV driving and just how good it is. EV ranges are longer than ever. Charging stations are everywhere. And it’s downright economical, making an EV a smart family car. By letting people see themselves in the campaign, they start to see an EV fitting into their life.
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All marriages are the same. One person makes a broad generalization, the other is delighted when their spouse is proven wrong. The fact is that San Diego has EV charging stations here, there and everywhere, making it easy to LOVELECTRIC.
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It’s everyone’s greatest fear when it comes to EVs– being stuck on the side of the road with no power and no charging station for miles. But with EV ranges now longer than ever, we turn the tables and see an EV driver come to the rescue of a famil
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EVs are for the well-funded. Or so some think. Truth be told, EVs are a smart choice for a growing family. Take the tax credits and incentives, add the fuel efficiency, and maintenance costs lower than with gas cars, and you’ll see how economical
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EVs are everything we want, quickly rendering gas vehicles a thing of the past. Which may leave the next generation wondering why we left our home to fuel our car?
Oil change? That’s still a thing? - EVs not only cost less to fuel, but also less to maintain. So saying “I have to take my car in” will more likely refer to parking it in your own garage.
Collateral
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Mammoth Lakes Tourism
No Small Adventure
We engineered reconnection with nature in a digital world.

When you have a campaign called “No Small Adventure,” no small marketing solution will do. Mammoth Lakes is a larger-than-life destination, and what better way to show it off than with an immersive 360º experience?

IMPACT
107,776
Our 360º work drove 107,776 incremental winter trips.
15.3 million
Video completes were 48% above goal.
12.3 million
More than 12.3 million minutes of content was consumed.
Awards & Recognition
BRAND ACTIVATION
We brought Mammoth Lakes to life virtually.
Leveraging the growing trend of getting back to nature, we created ‘360 Degrees of Adventure’ to showcase the year-round awe and exhilaration on offer in Mammoth Lakes through 360º video. This immersive content was deployed across a range of digital and social channels, and activated in a full VR lounge at key trade shows.
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With a production that stretched over nine months, we captured Mammoth Lakes across seasons to allow users to explore this majestic adventureland in 360 degrees.
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BrewDog
It’s AF Time
Putting the bite into alcohol-free brews.

When BrewDog wanted to launch its alcohol free brands in North America, we gave "AF" an entirely new meaning. 

IMPRESSIVE AF
↑45%
New user traffic compared to prev. period
↑357%
In unique AF sales compared to prev. period
↑210%
Increase in AF product revenue
Advertising
Make anytime AF time.
Creatively, we wanted to explore the bevy of occasions that an AF beer puts back on the docket. This may have even included pregnancy, which may have singlehandedly generated around 42% of site traffic that directly led to AF sales (before it was pulled).
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We flipped the script to build brand awareness, focusing on AF beers that can be sold online and easily shipped over state lines.
So we wanted to challenge the conventions of when beer would be an acceptable beverage choice.
The further we pushed, the better the performance. And when we chased when-to-drink messages with taste messages … cha-ching.
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San Diego Tourism Authority
Happiness Is Calling
We got people to answer the call of happiness by engineering brand storytelling.

Across all media channels, San Diego’s brand advertising not only delivered good vibes, it consistently delivered travel intent and helped drive overnight hotel stays.

IMPACT
50% unaided awareness
50% unaided ad awareness drove consideration and intent across domestic and international markets.
35.8 million visitors
The campaign contributed to record-high visitor volume and occupancy (78.7% average).
$11.5 billion economic impact
Happiness is Calling contributed to $11.5 billion of visitor spending.
Awards & Recognition
BRANDING
Happiness is calling.
Insights from consumer research pointed to San Diego as a place that brings out the best version of one’s self. Laid-back and relaxed, with diverse and vibrant experiences, San Diego is California’s quintessential Beach City, inspiring optimism and positivity. We developed a creative platform with a built-in call-to-action beckoning people to experience San Diego’s good vibes. From TV commercials and original video content series, to print advertising, out-of-home and digital, we shared a dose of the brand’s sunny outlook.
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With an uplifting song and imagery that embodies San Diego’s lighthearted, youthful attitude and breadth of experience, the signs of a good time ahead are all positive in this anchor TV spot.
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Everyone needs a bliss break from time to time, a quick trip to their happy place amidst the social scroll.
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San Diego is full of bright ideas — pool parties to crash, waves to rip, hikes to conquer, museums to wander — ready to be shared one at time in this short-form content series.
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This original video series features local San Diegans as guides to all the good stuff San Diego has to offer, from the craft beer scene or Cali-Baja movement to neighborhood deep dives.
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Headlines cleverly disguised as signs remind readers why there is so much to smile about in San Diego.
Headlines cleverly disguised as signs remind readers why there is so much to smile about in San Diego.
Headlines cleverly disguised as signs remind readers why there is so much to smile about in San Diego.
Headlines cleverly disguised as signs remind readers why there is so much to smile about in San Diego.
Headlines cleverly disguised as signs remind readers why there is so much to smile about in San Diego.
Headlines cleverly disguised as signs remind readers why there is so much to smile about in San Diego.
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Inner Nature
Weleda
The natural beauty of data and creativity living in harmony.

The Shipyard helped Weleda reinvigorate a 100-year old brand with a unique natural beauty story and a novel approach to engineering brand love across 575 audiences simultaneously. With every audience representing another revenue stream, hundreds of audiences drove exponential growth for the brand.

BEAUTIFUL RESULTS
Double-Digit Retail Growth
Dramatic increases in both sales and distribution across Amazon, Target, CVS, Whole Foods and more. Leapfrogged from #9 to #4 in the natural skin care.
235% D2C Growth
Weleda.com is the #3 in company revenue, #1 in profitability and a learning lab that builds direct customer relationships
#1 Natural Personal Care Product
Weleda Skin Food is becoming a Cult Brand. This Celebrity-obsessed moisturizer jumped nearly 3000% in popularity on Amazon.
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