I oversaw the Postmates brand for the past five years, helping thru the transition after getting acquired by Uber and working closely with product and operations to get the business to profitability.
Our secret sauce was combining our food cravings with our pop culture obsession. So we shot a burrito cannon at Jerry Rice. Published a Don’t Cookbook during the pandemic. Launched a roast chicken boat in Echo Park. Offered a Bottom-Friendly Menu for Pride. Gave out Ted Lasso biscuits, Sopranos’ gabagool, and Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti. And sold a LOT of fried chicken sandwiches.
Work recognized by Cannes, One Show, ADC, AdAge, Adweek, NBC, Barstool Sports, HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
The brief? Food = drugz
Adnatomy interview (Adweek)
Agency: Mother LA
Production: Nexus Studios
OOH Artists: Jen Stark, Akiko Stehrenberger
Recognition: One Show, Adweek, Creative Boom, Cannes.
For Coachella, we bought billboards between LA and Indio Valley to remind everyone we get your love for music + food. Headlines referenced lyrics from artists performing this year including Missy Elliott, Charli XCX, Lady Gaga, T-Pain, and Green Day.
Google was launching its new Fiber service in Kansas City and needed to get permission from KC residents to start building the infrastructure required for 100x faster Internet. So we worked on an integrated campaign to drive awareness and signups for the service. This included a short film about a toy car that drove through metaphorical neighborhoods, from dialup to broadband to Fiber, to help illustrate the giant leap forward Fiber was over your current Internet service. We also published a book that imagined the future possibilities of a Fiber-fueled web. Over the course of six months, more than 100 pieces of OOH, print, digital and collateral advertising were made and we helped Google exceed its subscription goals by 300%.
Recognition: Cannes, One Show, Emmy, Clio, Effie Silver.
After a year of baking banana bread and other pandemic-inspired home chefery, you're done. That’s why we made the Don't Cookbook, a cookbook that requires no cooking whatsoever. 200 pages of fun. 50 recipes. A coloring book for the kids. (Sold out within 2 hours of launch.)
Collaboration between Mother LA, Postmates and artists.
Recognition: Cannes Bronze Lion, D&AD Yellow and Wood Pencils, Hypebeast, Creativity Editor’s Pick
Hate comes in all shapes, sizes, and smells. Sometimes it’s just a snide comment about the lunch your mom packed you for school. Still, it’s painful and can breed a kind of self loathing or shame. It can take decades for you to admit that you actually love that food and that you should take pride in it.
So to commemorate AAPI Heritage month and to #stopAAPIhate in our own small way, Postmates is taking the homemade lunches that were made fun of and flipping them into a school lunch program created by some of LA’s best AAPI restaurants, inspired by real AAPI stories. The first lunch was with Greta Lee (A24’s Past Lives, Netflix’s Russian Doll) x Yangban, probably my favorite new restaurant in LA. The second lunch was with Bretman Rock x Big Boi, an amazing Filipino combo. We also made a donation to StopAAPIHate.org.
Recognition: AdAge Editor’s Pick, Adweek, One Show.
The Creative Studio updated Netflix’s former brand ident animation in order to better reflect the changes that have been happening at the company. Some things we wanted to keep (for instance, the catchy audio mnemonic and the now iconic N symbol). But we needed a brand system that represented Netflix’s global presence and breadth of original content.
We decided to show that the N symbol was made up of a spectrum of colors, inspired by the spectrum of stories, emotions, languages, fans and creators that collectively make up who we are as a brand.
We also changed the background color from white to something much darker and more cinematic, in essence, going from an interruption to an invitation into our content.
The final challenge was to show that the visual system could flex across product and marketing. The video at the bottom was used internally to launch the new ident and demonstrate how the brand would evolve.
For the global launch of Intel's Core processor, we staged a cinematic chase scene across a variety of familiar applications (Excel, Photoshop, even the Trash bin), thus highlighting the chip's powerful, multi-tasking capabilities. We made a long-form video that garnered over 2.5MM views on YouTube and designed an HTML5 experience on Facebook that turned the story into an interactive treasure hunt. The film was recognized at the TED Conference as one of the year’s five ads worth spreading.
Recognition: TED Conference, Cannes Cyber and Film, One Show Interactive.
Jerry Rice is the greatest receiver of all time. With so many records, he’s got the record for records. Postmates wanted to help him break one more by having him make the world’s longest reception — of a burrito. We designed an air cannon that shot a 1.5-lb burrito upwards of 250 mph, that could cover the length of a football field. And then we partnered with NFL Films to capture the record-breaking stunt.
This idea served as the culmination of a season-long partnership between Postmates and the NFL. We produced a 4.5-min film that garnered over 3MM views on YouTube and was covered by ESPN, TMZ and AdAge. We also extended the campaign through product, social and email with artwork, headlines and behind-the-scenes content created for the stunt. (Fun fact: Inside the burrito mascot outfit is yours truly.)
Shot with NFL Films and Think Out Loud.
Recognition: Creativity Pick of the Day, Muse.
For Pride 2022, Postmates teamed up with Dr. Evan Goldstein of Bespoke Surgical and comedian Rob Anderson to launch the world’s first Bottom-Friendly Menu. The menu was featured inside the Postmates app, with healthy, soluble options from some of our best restaurants.
We made a stop-motion video promoting the menu that garnered over 750MM earned media impressions.
Production: Psyop, Barking Owl
Recognition and Press: HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, NBC, Fox, CBS, Business Insider, Queerty, Out, AdAge, MIC, Elon Musk's X/Twitter account
Stop motion videos made with my sketchbook and songs from The Velvet Underground, The Beastie Boys, The Smiths and Public Enemy.
Postdates was a website created to help people get their stuff back from their exes. We loved the idea. Our lawyers didn’t. So instead of sending an official cease & desist, we decided to send the creators of Postdates a “Dear John” letter asking for us to get our stuff back (e.g., logo, name).
Breaking up is hard but that doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk about it.
Super Bowl, Shmooper Bowl. It's all about the half-time show, and stuffing your face. Which is why we partnered with Eminem to bring his favorite restaurant to LA. We started with a teaser image (a fork that made the iconic backwards E) that hinted at the partnership a couple days before launch. Then we unveiled our key art and announced that the Mom’s Spaghetti popup was live in LA. Everything was done in-house, from designing visuals to building OOH to crafting all the social, email, and in-app messaging. Plus, got a ton of help from legal and ops to turn this crazy idea into reality. Press coverage from People, TMZ, Hypebeast, Complex, Eater LA and many more.
We put our own twist on the "For Your Consideration" ads you see all over LA leading up to the Academy Awards. We called the campaign "For Your Consumption" and then parodied genre tropes that let you imagine an entire story with one key visual.
Recognition: Adweek
I led a multidisciplinary team from Volkswagen, Deutsch and Google on an application that quantified your drives. The app synchs with your car through Bluetooth, tracking distance, time and weather, and even lets you play Punch Dub when you pass another VW. SmileDrive also helps you share photos and posts while you're on a road trip. It's basically Nike+ for driving.
Recognition: One Show Interactive, SXSW Interactive, HOW Interactive Design, FWA, New York Times, Fast Co., PSFK, Engadget.
To celebrate the fact that Cricket Wireless covers over 99% of Americans, we launched a holiday campaign that features a family covered head-to-toe in Cricket-branded wrapping paper. The idea of a family covered in wrapping paper isn’t just a silly metaphor for Cricket’s coverage, it’s a way to stand out from lookalike seasonal advertising while still embracing what makes the holidays special — namely, spending quality time with the family. Directed by Jorma Taccone.
Plenty of advertising explains the benefits of Sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra) — hint: it gives you long-lasting boners. We wanted to take a different tack. So we focused on the emotional benefit of re-connecting with your partner. We interviewed six couples, asking them intimate questions like “Where’s the craziest place you’ve done it?”, “What do you look for in a partner?” and “How do you know when your partner’s in the mood?” From that footage, we cut five spots celebrating healthy, sexual relationships made possible by hims.
Comedy's a peculiar thing. What others find filthy and disgusting, you might find hilarious. That's why we built a YouPorn-inspired website filled with over 600 clips from HBO comedy shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Eastbound and Down, and Flight of the Conchords, categorized by fetish, whether it was hardcore awkward silences, premature evaluations, uncomfortable climaxes, full frontal confrontation, huge misunderstandings or interracial faux pas. Comedyfetish.com was the only place in the world wide web where you could tickle your funny bone and get turned on to HBO titles you never even knew existed.
