In March 2020, Nintendo released Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which, due to the pandemic, became the biggest single-game launch in Nintendo Switch history. The game was open to brand engagement without a formal partnership, presenting a unique opportunity to join the cultural conversation.

Our team quickly designed and released a series of Corvette-themed items for players to download and add to their virtual worlds. These items were made available via Pinterest—a hub for Animal Crossing content—and promoted across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As the first automotive brand to engage on the Animal Crossing platform, we earned significant media coverage highlighting our creativity and nimble execution.

Awards:

• 06/2021: The D Show (Adcraft Detroit) – Shortlist: Digital / Game

Credits:

• Creative Leadership: Iain Lanivich
• Sr. Art Directors: Kirby & Cleveland Thrasher
• Sr. Copywriter: Tommy Simon
• Editor: Zen Grey

Chevy wanted to highlight its SUV lineup and features on Snapchat, a platform known for pop culture and a youthful audience with short attention spans. Audience insights revealed that Snapchat users crave nostalgia and quickly skip content, so we created Chevy, Player One—a series of eight 8-bit Snapchat Stories designed to mimic old-school video games.

While there was no actual gameplay, the videos gave viewers the feeling of watching a real game unfold. The campaign achieved a higher-than-average click-through rate and outperformed any prior paid media buy on Snapchat for Chevy, proving the value of creative, platform-specific storytelling and paving the way for more “game-style” campaigns throughout the following year.

Awards:

• 04/2020: Shorty Awards – Finalist: Design / Graphics

The Man Cave integrated marketing campaign immersed consumers into the world of Alltel’s four quirky sales guys, extending the popular television campaign while highlighting the benefits of Alltel and the shortcomings of other networks. By developing the characters and storyline, the campaign created a fully engaging brand universe.

The cornerstone of the campaign was OfficialManCave.com—an interactive website offering an immersive 3D tour of the characters’ “secret lair,” featuring exclusive videos, interactive games, and user-generated content. Visitors could unlock hidden rooms, discover exclusive content, and access special offers from Alltel’s online store.

The campaign generated significant press coverage from outlets including USA Today, New York Times, and Adweek, while sparking lively online conversation across blogs, forums, and social media.

Awards:

• 2008 Effie Awards: Silver David & Goliath, Bronze Telecommunications
• 2008 Webby Award: Web Honoree, Telecommunications
• 2007 FWA Site of the Day
• 2007 Mobius Awards: Silver Website

Man Cave Architecture
(first-ever Steadicam room-by-room flythrough on the internet)​

Interactive Microsite
75+ videos, games and interactive elements.
Site designed by Dustin Davis and Michael Kern. Developed by Struck.

Microsite Videos
(Written by Jeff Perreca.)

Broadcast & Digital Interruption
(throughout the campaign, the sales guys interrupted various Alltel properties)

Promotional Materials

Credits:

• Creative Leadership: Mark Simon, Iain Lanivich, Jim Millis
• Art Direction: Dustin Davis, Derek Kuschel, Adam Ball
• Copywriting: Jeff Perreca
• Producer: John Burger
• Website Production: Struck

“Who is Benjamin Stove?” was an immersive alternate reality game (ARG) produced by Campbell Ewald and GMD Studios to build grassroots awareness of GM’s renewable fuel initiatives, complementing the “Live Green, Go Yellow” campaign promoting GM’s flex-fuel vehicles capable of using E85 ethanol fuel. The game leveraged living online characters, puzzles, and interactive storytelling to engage players in a viral, underground marketing experience.

The campaign unfolded across four websites, 10 live events (including hidden notes in nine libraries across the U.S. and a live meeting in Manhattan), anonymous phone calls and text messages, and a series of unbranded blogs and classified ads.

Story Overview:
Tucker Darby, a 29-year-old collections agent in Tampa, discovers a mysterious painting of a crop circle shaped like the ethanol molecule, dated 1913, which exerts an almost supernatural hold over him. Inside the painting, a note hints that the event it depicts is real. Tucker enlists the public to help track down Benjamin Stove, the painting’s original owner, and uncover its meaning.

Over the course of the four-month campaign, 380,000+ participants followed clues, solved puzzles, completed live missions, collaborated as a team, created and published content, and posted 9,000+ messages on campaign forums—all centered around alternative fuels and ethanol awareness.

Highlights:

• Heavy national and international earned media, including Wired, Advertising Age, Forbes, and the Alternate Reality Game Network (ARGN)
• Web metrics: 380,000+ visitors, 14 million hits, and an average time spent of 16+ minutes per visit
• Sustained engagement: WhoIsBenjaminStove.com continued to average 1,600 visitors/day eight months post-campaign, with an increased average time spent of over 20 minutes

Awards:​

• 2007 The D Show (Adcraft Detroit) Awards — Best of Innovation

Vera Stove's Painting (circa 1913)
Painted by Brad Fairhurst.

Live Events - Hidden Library Notes
When you connected the nine cities on a map, the ethanol molecule appeared.

This campaign was a two-part initiative designed to generate excitement and engagement around the launch of a Navy training video game.

PART 1: GORGONBOX TEASER & VIRAL CAMPAIGN
To build buzz prior to launch, we created Gorgonbox, an unbranded teaser campaign named after a key object in the game. The mysterious campaign generated viral chatter across gaming communities, sparking debates among Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft fans about who was behind the effort.

The Gorgonbox landing page offered a fully functional Code Cypher. Visitors who uncovered clues—or followed the social chatter—found a 1-800 number delivering a new code each day for 30 days. These codes unlocked a prequel mission, concept art, and hints about the official sponsor. Street teams amplified the campaign at E3, the gaming world’s most talked-about event, with signage, unbranded messaging, and postcards. The campaign drove heavy online buzz, with the website averaging 9 minutes per visit.

PART 2: NTE: STRIKE & RETRIEVE VIDEO GAME LAUNCH
The game, titled NTE: Strike & Retrieve (Navy Training Exercise), was inspired by The Last Starfighter, where gameplay served as a recruitment and training tool. The game was launched as a free PC download on major gaming websites and the official Navy site, nte.navy.com. Hidden codes throughout Navy.com unlocked weapons and attributes in-game. The launch included a hands-on activation at Universal Studios Hollywood’s CityWalk, demo stations, digital ads, and in-store placements in malls and video/game stores.

The combined campaign successfully married viral marketing, interactive gameplay, and experiential activation, generating significant media coverage and fan engagement.

Awards:

• 2006 Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards: Outstanding Microsite
• 2006 Web Marketing Association's WebAwards: Game Site Standard of Excellence
• 2006 Telly Award 
• 2005 Caddy Awards (Adcraft Detroit): Gold Interactive
• Feature in Big Idea Magazine

Game Simulation

Game Screenshots