MGM + F1

When F1 rolls into town, the task is two-fold: Develop sales materials and a campaign for the marquee Bellagio Fountain Club featuring an uber luxe experience, and showcase the collection of spectacles happening at Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and ARIA affectionally known as MGM Zone.

The first video below was developed for task one. We hired an animator to illustrate an F1 car racing around the iconic Bellagio Fountains, then interspersed that footage with clips from the previous year to communicate the energy and elevation of BFC. The BFC sold out and the activations were well attended.

Then we branded the endless parties, shopping and meet & greets. To stand out from the mass of ads, we went minimalist, leveraging animated color vortexes and matching F1 cars against a rich black to communicate everything from speakeasy pop-ups to special menus. We worked with Laundry Studio to create the animations for our hero video and social channels. The aesthetic successfully stood out against the cacophony of color around The Strip.

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Virgin Hotel Las Vegas

OH Partners called needing help with their pitch for Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. How could I say no? I worked with their team to develop two conceptual directions for Virgin’s new Las Vegas venture. My ideas and writing, including a record player we sent featuring a branded message recorded on a custom record, helped OH win the business, and I got called back to help with the teaser campaign.

For the latter, I suggested a website: whileyouwaitlv.com, to create anticipation for the grand opening. The website showcased construction development and venue announcements alongside random content purely sourced for its entertainment value.

Unfortunately, just as the teaser campaign hit the streets, the pandemic put an end to the launch campaign before it could be developed. This is the manifesto video and concepts we put together for the pitch. When Virgin finally opened, their launch campaign had revised messaging to better align with the consumer mindset post-Covid, but the art direction was very much modeled after the campaign I developed with my partner.

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AquaValue Retail Stores

United Aqua Group’s retail brand, AquaValue, was in deep need of an overhaul. Since each shop is individually owned, consumers were unaware that they were part of a larger collective, able to negotiate supplier contracts together to achieve better pricing while still retaining their mom & pop feel. My challenge was to carve a unique brand space within the already crowded pool store market. We wanted to position the brand as the local experts, a store you could count on for advice and repairs as well as products. And that’s how I created our affable, but clueless pool guy.

I wrote the scripts, cast, art directed and produced the spots—negotiating with those same suppliers to pay for the production in exchange for highlighting their brands. Then I built a website to help consumers find their local AquaValue store. The shops, who received the finished spots at no cost, aired them in their respective regions across local TV channels and even jumbo screens at minor league baseball games.

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Montage Hotels & Resorts 

With resorts in Laguna Beach and Beverly Hills, and plans for more, the company needed a corporate campaign that embodied the casual elegance and intimate nature of its properties. I’d been part of the launch branding team for both properties. Creating a voice and aesthetic for the corporate entity that was separate than, but also encompassed both proved an intriguing challenge. Ultimately we chose a minimalist, highly evocative approach that relied on simple copy and classic images to convey the essence of the Montage brand.

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El Encanto

SK+G Advertising in Las Vegas rehired my partner and I to pitch the lucrative Orient-Express North America account, which included NYC’s famous 21 Club among other bespoke destinations. “Embrace Anonymity,” our pitch campaign for launching the revival of Santa Barbara’s famous El Encanto hotel, which Orient-Express had purchased and chosen to restore to its former 1930s glory, leveraged the hotel’s history as a hideaway for Hollywood’s movers and shakers.

I wrote every word with a delightful wink to old Hollywood. The campaign won the account, and we launched most of it with hardly a note to the copy.

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United Aqua Group

Launched over 50 years ago by a small group of luxury pool builders, UAG had grown into a multimillion-dollar company comprised of commercial and residential builders, pool retailers and service professionals. I was tasked with evolving the corporate brand for the next 50 years of growth. I collaborated with the C-Suite on a new brand architecture, then developed materials to educate the 350-plus members about the new corporate structure.

To grow the membership, I branded the new company, as well as created distinct identities for each of its sub-brands. The video below was developed to introduce the new brand vision to the company shareholders at the annual conference, the theme of which was “Spark.” The collateral pieces and ads that follow branded UAG as a modern, forward-thinking company.

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