CHRIS ELLIOTT

343 Industries

What happens when you give an audience no headline, no copy, no call to action, and only to 72 hours figure out your message?

We were tasked with creating pre-sale buzz for Halo 5. Our solution? Make gamers game. Give them small clues. Drop those clues around the world, across multiple platforms, with no instructions and nowhere to gather. Create a scenario that required round-the-world social collaboration to solve.

Awards: Cannes Lion (shortlist), 6 Gold Addys, 1 Gold Echo, Webby, Silver Addy, Silver MIXX

SAP

Brand film (documentary), explainer videos, self-guided demos, social, RM, rich online experience.

SAP wanted to leave announce its new SAP Industry Cloud by showing how technology could blow past existing barriers.

Our campaign kicked off with Innovation at the Edge—a “feature length” documentary with zero product mention—telling the stories of three visionary leaders using technology to reinvent their industries.

With audiences gathered (& leads captured) the full campaign followed—showing the deep benefits of the offering.

Awards: Platinum Hermes Creative Award, Silver Brand Film Award

Amazon

Amazon’s Customer Experience Labs wanted to to a lighter take on the explainer video, with the twin goals of 1) teaching audiences the hidden Alexa features and 2) creating a character they could base future content around.

We created a series of quick, fun videos that featured “Amanda” an, over-the-top, improv, social star with a wide comedic range and a passion for the finer points of Amazon technology.

Windows Developer Marketing

Windows wanted to grow a community for every developer in the world—whether they coded for Windows or not.

We created Dev Collective, a truly dev-centric brand with a code-forward aesthetic, messaging that understood who they were and zero photography (Insight: Devs hate being “represented” in photography).

Brand complete, we launched with a robust set of assets including full guidelines, social, RM, media, event support and dozens of custom learning course trailers featuring Jen Taylor, the voice of Cortana for the VO.

Windows Developer Marketing

As part of the Dev Collective initiative, our client asked us to create a unique content series—a mixture of entertainment and information that would break through with our audience.

We created Crash Course—a show that asks a pair of programmers to break down coding concepts for devs using only what they find around them. We gave them toy robots, phone cords, keyboards and swim tubes and rubber ducks, but no white boards, notebooks, or screens were allowed.

Fun for the whole dev family, Crash Course provided something for experts and non-experts alike.

Microsoft

Microsoft wanted a front face for their approach to Artificial Intelligence.

So we helped them create Best of Business AI 2021 — an immersive site with no products, no attempt to make a sale—just guidance, insights and tools from Microsoft some of the world’s leading global organizations.

Explore the site

Xbox

It’s well-known that gamers get spontaneously “sick” the day their favorite games come out, so we didn't need a hotline to the CDC to know that on the Xbox One’s release day (a Friday), sick days were going to be burned—en masse.

Our gamers were going to need “legitimate” excuses and we were there to help with customizable notes to their bosses and loved ones.

Our audience loved that we got the joke and so many notes were sent that the the story was picked up by gaming, tech, and mainstream media, including Good Morning America and Morning Edition on NPR—I'm strangely proud of that last one.

Awards: Gold Addy, Webby

Xbox

At year’s end, we helped Xbox celebrate its gamer community by creating unique Gamercrests for each of its 16 million players.

We started by analyzing each gamer’s data—hours played, achievements earned, quests conquered—their entire year of play. Then we commissioned world-famous artist Jeff Soto to create hand-crafted illustrations, reflecting our discoveries.

With all the pieces in place, we used a custom algorithm to match art to stats, creating a one-of-a-kind crest for every Xbox gamer across the globe.

Awards: 5 Gold Addys
 

Epic Games

To promote the launch of Gears of War 3, a cornerstone Xbox franchise, we created a suite of over 50 exclusive digital “gifts" designed to excite Gears veterans and new recruits but, more importantly, show us where and how they gather, share and communicate.

We gave each gift a unique number (a Cog Code) and seeded them across media channels from digital to print to influencer. Players who found the codes were able to redeem them at their own “footlocker” tied to their gamer IDs.

As the audiences collected and shared the gifts, positive sentiment rose dramatically and the codes gave is a crystal clear view of the community—invaluable lessons for later in the campaign and for future efforts.

Awards: 2 Silver Addys

Woodinville Whiskey Co.

The story of Woodinville is the story of risk, craft and friendship—from it’s founders, lifelong friends who risked everything on a dream, to the Omlins, a local family farm who took a chance on reinventing themselves and passing on a legacy to the next generation.

This was a labor of love for us though it didn’t hurt that our clients insisted every meeting begin and end in the tasting room.

adidas

Adidas tasked us with creating a direct campaign to convert teens from first to second purchase within 30 days. Rather than just serve up the offers, we made sure each send highlighted a different aspect of the Adidas brand.

By creating multiple unique entry points, we introduced a new audience to the possibility, wonder, and even history of a brand they didn’t know the half of.

F5 Networks

Two separate divisions at F5 needed new campaigns—set to launch on the same timeline.

While the targets of the campaigns were different, they shared an over-arching narrative, intertwined themes of safety and agility and a strong likelihood that customer journeys would cross.

As part of our solution, we created systems that, while distinct for each audience, contained a strong connected visual language and messaging, ensuring maximum continuity for F5.

Microsoft Surface Commercial

We partnered worked with the new Surface Commercial group to craft a narrative and a look that conveys “premium” as well as powerful and reliable.

Through visual guidelines, photography, and campaign collateral, we developed a system positioning Surface as the must-have device that empowers its user to drive business forward, appealing to decision makers who are both solution-focused and style-conscious.

Microsoft HR (pitch creative)

As one primary aspect of recruitment, Microsoft wanted to tell the story of it’s rich package of benefit and career possibilities—a space they had been traditionally humble in, until now.

”I am here” connected multiple new employee themes—arrival, purpose, being seen. The campaign used the voices and stories of real first-year Microsoft employees as its backbone.

As a true omni-channel experience, everywhere possible touchpoint, was considered, without and, especially, within Microsoft—because those who are living the benefits are the best ambassadors for it.

Microsoft Word

I love last-minute, end-of-year projects. Client comes to you on Dec. 15th with “use-it-or-lose-it” money and an idea—you’ve been there. In this case, our client wanted to highlight their robust, new Word Editor with a simple product demo. We not only did that, but made it a celebration of why that software exists.