Rebranding Project: Nortel.com

agency: Avenue A/Razorfish
This Canadian telecom had a massive problem. Once the market dominator in telecommunications, it had been devastated by accounting scandals and reduced to a third of its original might. Nortel’s clunky website was driving their corporate customers batty. And meanwhile, Cisco Systems had taken most of their market share.

What did they have left?

Nortel had a 100-year legacy of innovation. They not only excelled at developing systems, they invented the parts and switches these systems relied on, including the early structure of the Internet. Research discovered the bright spot: people still thought highly of Nortel engineering.

Brainstorming a strategic handle for this superiority, I came up with Nortelligence—the invisible goodness baked into every piece of Nortel technology. It is 100 years of innovation and research. It is the people at the company. It’s the answer to the question “What does Nortel offer me that XYZ competitor does not?” And it’s the compelling reason behind their tagline: Business Made Simple.

WaMu "Whoo Hoo!" online

agency: Avenue A/Razorfish

ITECH direct mail letter


APF2K8 Football ~ Packaging and Web Copy

Agency: EVB

Aquapets

From 2003-2005 I was the in-house copywriter at Wild Planet Entertainment, where I helped develop the toy lines of the Aquapets and Liquifreaks. The best way to describe them is "test tube Tamagotchis". The Aquapets became wildly popular for a few seasons.

The original was a Sega toy licensed from a Japanese trade show. The gameplay was pretty limited, so I gave the critters inside a backstory and characterization with unique names and personalities. The collector appeal was similar to Beanie Babies: character design, clever packaging and a collectors' map. Each came with a little ID card stating its name, origin, preferences and dislikes, and its best friends.

Adding the story details really helped this brand explode in popularity. The Kid Outreach Team reported a little girl holding one up and saying, "This one's afraid of thunderstorms..and so am I!"







Liquifreaks

A spinoff geared more towards boys. A little more and gooey and gross than the sugar-and-spice Aquapets.





Lumiere Place Casino Direct Mail Kit

agency: Nimblefish Technologies

Nimblefish develops a "personal URL" for casino customers where they can track their bonus points and redeem custom offers. These DM pieces announce a new property in St. Louis and drive individuals to their PURL site.