WALMART

Agency: R/GA
Role: VP,  Executive Creative Director
When I took over creative leadership, the team was demoralized, the work was run-of-the-mill and the client was frustrated by the agency’s lack of innovation. I rebuilt the creative leadership and changed the focus of the entire 150 person team from making banners to making apps that bring the promise of saving money and living better to life. We helped bring the brand into the social age, growing the brand’s Facebook presence from 40K to 11 million followers. My mantra was “make apps not ads.”



ShopSmart Application

Saving people money was core to the brand’s promise, but the daily grocery shopping experience, the most important aspect of the brand in people’s lives, wasn’t living up to the hype. We took live pricing data from their grocery store and used it to prototype a simple and extremely powerful experience. We used local pricing data, which the brand had but had never shared with customers, to allow shoppers to create shopping lists and guarantee them the lowest prices on all of their items. We pitched this idea to the CEO and built it.
How We Do It Campaign

To fight the popular perception that the brand used bullying tactics to get lower prices, we developed the How We Do It campaign to feature the hundreds of ideas that resourceful and innovative employees had to lower costs and pass those savings on to customers. We shot hundreds of videos around the country. One video of Mike the trucker was so successful the brand ran it as a broadcast spot.


Spark Ideas Platform

Sam Walton always carried a big yellow legal pad with him on his frequent visits to stores so that he could write down the best ideas that employees had for improving the experience for customers. We were inspired and created a platform for the brand to continue Sam’s legacy and capture the best ideas that both employees and customers had for improving stores and making Walmart a better place.


Dream Dorm Campaign

Walmart was the last place that college students would think of when trying to decorate their dorm rooms. To help change this, we paired five amazing interior decorators with five lucky incoming freshmen to help them design their dream dorm rooms. Everything was sourced at Walmart and then the dorm rooms were designed and finished - and of course, we shot everything. The films worked and we got a new audience of younger people engaging with the brand and looking at product.


Sparkbook

Chromebook + Walmart collaboration. We worked with Google to design and prototype a custom version of the Chromebook with a ‘Walmart OS’ designed to help people save money and live better every time they used it.