What I've Done
As a part of the advertising and branding world, I’m launching new products for brands all the time. From JBL to Canon to Panasonic to Ocean Spray. There’s no such thing as a slow day.
Below you’ll find a few of my favorite projects over the years. It’s a mix of academic and professional, just to keep things interesting. As you can imagine, these aren’t solo projects in any way. I had a strong team working alongside me every step of the way. There was brainstorming, collaborating, and a whole bunch of stressing.
Select Professional Work @ Pixel Inc.
AN ANALYSIS OF “DIESELGATE” AND ITS IMPACT ON THE EUROPEAN DIESEL COMMERCIAL VEHICLE MARKET
The Problem: In the second half of 2015, news broke that Volkswagen vehicles were found cheating US emission requirements. This sent a wave of shock throughout the world, impacting customer perception across all markets.
The Ask: As a part of my Strategy and Systems course at The University of Virginia, my team was asked to evaluate the effects of this scandal on the commercial diesel vehicle market and what to expect in the coming future.
The Presentation: Our winning presentation involved understanding the key drivers of Dieselgate, what it did to customer and political perceptions, and how those might translate into a sales impact for diesel and diesel additives across the European Union.
A LARGE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY’S FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN
The Problem: A large public research university was looking to renew its commitment to its shareholders via a new five-year strategic plan. This plan was to include a vision, mission, and focus areas for the University, and how to best achieve its goals.
The Insight: The University is driven by more than just its students or faculty. It is the coming together of various stakeholders (i.e. Deans, Faculty, Students, Staff, Alumni) to create buy-in and bring in the next five years of the prestigious institutions.
The Big Idea: A series of roundtable discussions to generate stakeholder buy-in to better understand the needs and requirements of the University before creating a holistic plan that would prove to be more than another document on the shelf.
THE NATIONAL STUDENT ADVERTISING COMPETITION 2016 - TAI PEI
The Problem: Tai Pei, a frozen Asian food company, was struggling to resonate with the millennial generation. Recovering from recent health issues and losing the battle against the "health conscious" generation, Tai Pei was looking for new ways to relate to this audience that is now the largest living generation in the country.
The Insight: The millennial generation is constantly pressed for time, and they yearn for those few minutes a day where they can have their "alone time". A time cherished and enjoyed, whether its spent sleeping, watching Netflix, eating, or just doing nothing.
The Big Idea: Tai Pei is one the few frozen food companies that makes its products to be single serve; each serving is meant for one. Leveraging the insight of "alone time", my strategy for the product involved capitalizing on this trend and making Tai Pei the perfect excuse to take some extra alone time in a day.
THE 19TH ANNUAL ROGER EBERT FILM FESTIVAL
The Problem: After the death of it's creator and renowned film critic, Roger Ebert, the Roger Ebert Film Festival has faced a hard time increasing awareness and recognition from film-enthusiasts outside Champaign, Illinois. The ask was to develop a captivating campaign to an audience of our choice in order to boost sales and recognition.
The Insight: Film enthusiasts consider movies to be very secluded and does not instil in them a sense of community. There is no discussion at the theaters. Our target wants to engage in this sense of community and togetherness.
The Big Idea: The "One is a _____. Many is a _____." campaign showcases how doing things as a community and with "many" people enhances the viewer's experience, and includes both film-related and abstract scenarios contrasting the one vs many aspect.
THE NATIONAL STUDENT ADVERTISING COMPETITION 2015 - SNAPPLE
The Problem: Snapple, a prominent drink from the childhood of millennials, looked to increase it's sales throughout the country while trying to make itself more relevant to millennials
The Insight: In a world full of consumer brands that attempt to push a certain kind of lifestyle on consumers, consumers want a drink to be a drink. Something that will quench their thirst, refresh them, but not tell them how to live their lives.
The Big Idea: "Snapple is the Un-stuffiest Stuff on Earth" - In the midst of all the "stuffy stuff" and the pretentious "stuff" that surrounds us, Snapple is the escape from that monotony. It wants to be fun, and it knows its drinkers are fun too. By being the unstuffiest stuff on earth, Snapple reminds them of that.
SAM’S CAFE - CHAMPAIGN, IL
The Problem: Sam's Cafe, a small local coffee shop located in Champaign, Illinois, needed to undergo rebranding to reinvent itself and give is a fresh face to resonate with its local target audience.
The Insight: The welcome experience and feeling that a coffee shop gives its visitor is often what decides whether it will become a part of a busy-users lifestyles. Long lines, misspelled names, and unwelcoming baristas often send customers looking elsewhere
The Big Idea: "The Walnut Cafe is a place where upscale meets down-to-earth: a place where middle-aged, white-collar professionals feel welcomed on a personal level" - Introducing The Walnut Cafe, a catchy new name that could easily be used as a noun in itself. A personalized loyalty program allows for a warm welcome, and a regular order stored for convenience to-go.
KORA 100% BAMBOO TOILET PAPER
The Problem: Kora, a brand of bamboo-based toilet paper, is an environmentally friendly alternative for regular toilet paper. However, eco-friendly toilet paper does not resonate as important or relevant with the target audience of the brand, which is sold solely on Amazon.com
The Insight: The target audience responds much better to a premium styled product, giving the benchmark of Tesla. Most users already choose to invest in premium toilet paper such as triple-ply.
The Big Idea: "Premium and eco-friendly can go hand-in-hand" - Combining the features of environmentally-friendly with the bamboo-based toilet premium paper opens up new opportunities to advertising effectively and capture the interest.
THE STEVICK FOUNDATION AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN MEDIA RESEARCH
My maiden research experience was a part of earning the Undergraduate Research Certificate at the University of Illinois. As a part of a pilot class offered by the College of Media to help facilitate research with students, our topic of choice was: Focusing on the congruence of music and recognition in advertising.
We created our own advertisement for a fictional brand to eliminate prior bias, with both happy and sad endings. We then added both complimenting and opposing music based on the theme of the video and conducted extensive tests on a wide range of students within the University of Illinois community.
Through our study we discovered that the incongruence of music and message may have resulted in the viewer not remembering the contents of the ad and focus more on the incongruity. Though our results were not very significant, we realized it may have been due to the small sample size, and had we expanded the user base, the results would have definitely yielded more concrete results.