In 2000 I wrote Jose Cuervo's first website. Twenty-five years later I'm a creative director who starts every brief with the same question. What is the objective?
That question has outlasted every tool I've used. CD-ROMs, banner ads, pre-roll, addressable TV, augmented reality, and now generative AI. Each one showed up with someone asking how to make the work cooler, funnier, more viral, or available in the metaverse. Big, fun creative is a pleasure to make. Big, fun creative that moves a number is the job. I still think ROI should stand for Return on Involvement.
At DraftDigital I wrote for Jose Cuervo, AARP and Verizon, and a rewrite of Verizon's online help cut call-center volume 10%. At Atmosphere BBDO, Deutsch and G2 I helped launch Dark Chocolate M&M'S and Chocolate Skittles. At Saatchi & Saatchi I led a team of 18 making everything for Toyota's dealer associations, 420+ dealers in 22 states. At UM Worldwide I ran branded content and addressable work across four offices for BMW, SharkNinja, Epic Games and ExxonMobil. Then Xfinity, then The Mars Agency, where M&M'S sales grew 7.8%.
Since 2023 I've been learning the next version of the work on purpose. An M.A. in Media Studies at The New School, with a thesis on how generative AI changes creative concept development. In Pixels We Trust, an experiment with 2,694 judgments about AI images. Aidgency, an AI platform for corporate social impact that I co-founded and tested with 14 nonprofits. Creative for various nonprofits, such as At The Crossroads, which serves homeless youth and young adults.
Before any of it, I was a staff writer on Strangers with Candy and co-wrote Jimmy Walks Away, a short that went to Sundance in 1997.
I'm looking for a creative leadership role at an agency that puts the objective first and wants AI working for it.