Here are a couple of projects I've found particularly fun.
SOMETHING BIG • JWU Wildcat Statue Campaign
One afternoon I received a call from the First Lady of Johnson & Wales University, our Chancellor's wife who was leading the development of a high profile art project. Private funds resourced the design and production of 4 massive wildcat statues honoring the spirit and tenants of the university. The project partnered with the city of Providence and carried over to a physical installation at each of our regional campuses.
I became involved in the final design as the sculpture was being refined. My challenge was to craft an internal campaign to announce and promote the new art installation. Due to the internal environment at the time, I basically took on the task personally, which actually cleared the way for an efficient and creative approach beyond the constraints of the typical multi-layered process.
Building a campaign with students as the primary focus but also raising awareness within the faculty, staff, and alumni offered a unique opportunity. Noting with an installation this large there would be site construction for a prolonged period of an unclear and unknown purpose, I chose to leverage the curiosity with a teaser campaign. Close to the site, we constructed a massive “Box” over 12 feet tall and 20 feet long. The box was wrapped with teaser graphics, “Something BIG Is Coming”.
The appearance of the box had The community scratching their head. Something BIG added to the puzzle. Buzz quickly built around the box. After about 4 weeks and 2 prior to the actual sculpture arriving on campus, we cut a series of ”ventilation holes” on all sides of the box. Additionally, we implanted motion sensor and configured speakers. When students walked within 15 feet of the box a loud “Wildcat roar” emitted at an alarming volume. Not only fun to watch the reaction the chatter grew.
Finally, as our massive Wildcat sculpture made its way from the Pacific Northwest via flatbed truck, we wrapped a social “spotting” campaign marking his progress across the country. The build-up set the stage for an unveiling event featuring the entire athletic department embracing our new symbol of pride, courage, character, and community. The celebration was inclusive of the entire university community with the new freshman class particularly excited. This campaign was mirrored on the regional campuses.
Baseballisms
Baseballisms was solid fun even if it was a bit ahead of its time. Joe Magennis and I created Baseballisms in 2009. The mission was to develop an archive of user-generated content that tells the story of baseball through the stories of true fans. We loved the embrace from the community and had a "ball" working the project. At the time, our preeminent audience wasn't as deeply engaged in digital platforms as we were. Had other opportunities not diverted our time, Baseballisms could have grown into a force. While others may have emulated our concept, the vision of Baseballisms remains viable. Who knows, we may very well step into the box for another at-bat!
Context matters > Please take note, these ebooks featuring selected Tweets were created in 2009, before tools for capturing such elements were prevalent. We manually researched, captured and created these emerging forms of content.
