Just before I started at Skip, they released what’s now an award-winning TV spot introducing the world to Playoff Pants, the first item in what was to be a tongue-in-cheek line of “wearable technology.”
Then a couple years passed and we never did follow it up…until now.
To kick off the 2023-24 NHL season, we introduced hockey fans to the Skip GameTime Tarp, a way to protect your home jersey while you’re watchin’ the game. If you’re lucky, maybe even with Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers. Tarps on!
Skip has partnerships with every Canadian NHL team, except one: the Toronto Maple Leafs. Our competition beat us to the puck that time.
So. we needed a way to get to Leafs Nation, some kinda workaround.
We pitched Leafs star winger Mitch Marner on the idea of a virtual restaurant, Mitch’s Dishes, that would live exclusively on the Skip network for the duration of the team’s run in the playoffs.
Turns out he’s a notoriously picky eater. There’s our hook. And if we let him help choose the menu alongside our Chopped Canada award-winning chef, well, then, “if Mitch likes it, it’s gotta be great.”
Employing a series of 43 ghost kitchens across Ontario (from Timmins to Mitch’s hometown of London), we gave Leafs fans some fare they could truly call their own: Mitch’s signature Right Wings, Sammitches, Goalie Pulled Pork, The Mitchell Burger, The Zeus (named after his IG-famous dog), and Helmet Salads to name just a few.
Maybe the best surprise was a two-and-a-half-minute segment on TSN with Mitch and his teammates talkin’ Mitch’s Dishes that we surely would’ve paid for but didn’t.
And hey, we even took home Gold at the 2023 Sponsorship Marketing Awards this spring. Good game indeed!
Skip Express Lane is a new collection of dark stores across Canada delivering 1500+ items to your door in 25 minutes or less. We needed to communicate the concept to consumers, while showing the breadth of the offering and that it’s all done from your phone.
This series of OOH inspired a greater series across digital platforms that featured batteries, bananas, band-aids, and other things that actually didn’t start with the letter “b.”
Art Director: Ron Smrczek
It’s funny to think of two-minute videos as longer-form storytelling but, these days, if you can hold someone’s attention that long, you’re doin’ pretty well.
I’m proud of these little indie restaurant spotlights as they didn’t turn out this great by luck. Starting with a rigorous curation of Skip’s 40,000+ partners in key cities, we interviewed several restaurant owners with places on the network and narrowed our selects down to the stories we found the most compelling.
Then, after extensive pre-production and planning, we knew going into each shoot day exactly what the principal storyline was we needed to capture, the menu items we’d hero, and how to make each video in the series stylistically feel like a visit to the featured restaurant. Here’s a few of my faves. Enjoy!
Five9 is the Intelligent Cloud Contact Centre, a suite of software and tools that empower agents to work from anywhere and engage with customers through their preferred channel: voice, text, email, or social.
Our Reimagined meets Realized campaign extended to print, radio, social, digital, personalized videos, and more. Oh, and then we put an agent on the side of a cliff in Wales to really bang home the point of working from anywhere.
CD: Alex Furrer
Copywriters: Me and Liz Mackenzie-Barrett
Art Director: Susan Alvarez
The ask: write a video with opportunities to feature an email recipient’s name and company name throughout key moments in the story. To demo, I’ve used my own name and “Word Slinger, inc.” Try it yourself at reimaginecx.com.
The biggest and most successful campaign Jays Care Foundation has ever run celebrates its most remarkable, real-life young leaders as #UnstoppableKids.
I even had to step in as producer for the 3 most recent commercials, which expand upon the previous year’s hero spot to dive deeper into the impact of its programs on kids.
Three back-to-back-to-back shoot days, two directors, 25 kids and their chaperones, and one tired writer/producer.
The opportunity to write and craft a series of storytelling videos about Toyota introducing accessible go-karts to its young driver safety program, kartSTART, was a standout project for me.
This is the hero spot, which the client recently reported has returned ad tracking numbers that are simply off the charts compared to its usual metrics. I’m talkin’ three times the creative efficacy scores and more than double the “authentically Toyota” markers.
Art Director: Ibraheem Youssef
I had this idea after volunteering at Matthew House, a refugee home that has welcomed over 1,500 refugee claimants from 100 different nations over the past 20 years.
I wanted to develop a provocative mechanism to raise awareness and support for its Refugee Hearing Program, designed to help prepare refugee claimants for their day in front of the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Working to the non-profit’s customary budget of zero dollars and nothin’ cents, I came up with a cost-effective DM piece that could stand out from the clutter of junk mail while giving us a platform to tell one of the many urgent, powerful stories of those Matthew House is helping to remain in Canada.
#heretostay
Because many of these people have fled terrible, even life-threatening circumstances back home, they are often so overcome with anxiety and emotion at the prospect of being turned down that they blow their opportunity to plead their case with adjudicators.
Matthew House greatly enhances their chances by staging mock hearings with volunteer lawyers and law students in advance of the real hearings, often in rooms decorated to look much like the one they will be in on the day.
And, really, who doesn’t like to get a postcard?
Some fun lines for a recently revamped brand of winemaking kits looking to appeal to the Elder Millennial.
Without a brand identity or even a project name in place, CAA Insurance needed a full-throttle campaign for the first auto insurance payment program in Canada for people who drive less than 9,000km per year.
Art Director: Matthew Kenney
I didn’t mind the extensive “research” required to write for Ontario’s first craft brewery one bit.
On top of romance copy for at least 20 beers, here’s a few fun bar posters I wrote to celebrate the brewery’s 35th anniversary.
Designer: Vanessa Rosati
Writing for Harry feels like serendipity given their flagship Toronto store can’t be 25 yards from the very spot a friend convinced me I should consider becoming a copywriter.
Art Directors: Ibraheem Youssef + Bob Goulart
Three days before Halloween, the client asked if we could create some social videos for its new line of Dark Chocolate granola bars. I quickly wrote the scripts, tricked a few of my coworkers into being the stars, and used some of my own music to deliver this triptych of cinematic spots in time for Hallow’s Eve. Total budget: $1500.
Shot + cut by Johnny Lajoie
Or if you’re hungry for some long-form writing, check out this microsite and blog I conceived and wrote about little-known outdoor adventures from all across Canada, Find Your Taste of Nature.
