Brand Strategy and Copywriting

Print Campaigns

In the ad at left, the client (the leader in mail and customer messaging technologies) needed to get the conversation started for an innovative technology for which it would be introducing new products: intelligent mail.  Here, I vectored the copy onto a provocative tack.  And it got results.  There were many requests for the ad's white paper offer.

The next three ads reintroduced Pitney Bowes docSense software technologies in the campaign I developed for them, "The Power Behind Documents."

The final ad is for Pitney Bowes' Mail Inserters, also from DMT, which are the industry standard in mail inserting equipment.  So much so, they've spawned a fan base all their own.

Art Direction:  David Grigg, Happy Dog Advertising

Shown here: five print ads

Dimensional Direct Mail

IBM urgently needed to reach the CEOs of America's 30 biggest banks to tell them about an important new hardware/software solution, Netpay/MVS, which helps those banks attract and keep their largest customers: other banks.

OUTER COVER:  The big one that got away...
INSIDE COVER:  ...won't get away anymore.

An LL Bean fish net is inside, along with with brochures for the CEO to pass along to their bank's key decision makers.

Did it work?  After this mailing dropped, the IBM sales team went from having exactly zero presentation meetings to 18.

Art direction by Jeff Bretl at GREY

B2B advertising for Kendall Motor Oil

As copy lead on this national brand, I stayed busy writing for broadcast and print for consumer, motorsports, and B2B. The B2B side covered segments like retail trade, transportation, fleet and construction, examples of which are shown here.

Agency: Al Paul Lefton New York

Dimensional Direct Mail

This trade association of call centers in Europe needed to convey its unique differentiator of easy targeting. So we created this arresting dimensional direct mail piece containing a custom dartboard that simply couldn’t miss.

Art Direction: Mitch Achiron

Infographic

This is a sample of the demand generation writing I do for this digital transformation company.

For more demand gen samples — blogs, listicles, articles, etc. — just ask.

Direct Mall

Dun & Bradstreet needed to get out the message that they’re experts at customizing lists for their vast and diverse client base. We told that story with boldness and clarity. The client was pleased with the results. (And, yes, they got their mailing list from D&B.)

Agency: GREY

Art Director: Stan Poulos

Print Ads and Trade Show Theme

TechnipFMC has a range of advanced subsea energy production technologies that require deftly executed copy and art to compellingly communicate their advantages.

The top print ad dramatizes the advantages of TechnipFMC’s end-to-end integrated subsea oil and gas production solutions. This concept was designed to be adaptable to a wide range of media — from collateral, presentations, online animated banners and trade shows, as shown here at TechnipFMC’s booth at the 2019 OTC show.

Agency Partners:
Soubriet Byrne & Associates and Lumentus

Print Ad, Product Catalog and Dimensional Direct Mail

The direct mail piece broke through to purchasing executives with its miniature sample of Paige’s innovative Miracle Box container that erects in seconds. I wrote the copy and co-developed the visual concept.

Print Ad

Privat Air, a Swiss premium air charter company, wanted to reach C-Suite executives who were also auto enthusiasts. The offer was Privat Air’s “Guide to Private Aviation,” which I also wrote.

Agency Partner: TDO

Creative Director/Art Director: Joe Feigenbaum

Print Ad

Venda is a one-stop shop for development of sophisticated e-commerce websites. We told their compelling story in depth as a print ad (shown first) and in collateral. Their website, as well, deployed a version of this creative.

Art Director: Brian Wu of Inside Out Design

IBM General Technology Services North America needed a morale boosting video as part of the “Power of the Possible” internal communications multi-media platform campaign I created for them.

For more on this successful internal communications campaign, get in touch.

5-Page Brochure

Insurance agents and advisors are tough to crack, especially when it comes to winning them over to hard-to-sell products like long term disability (LTD) insurance. So we attacked the problem head on in a fact-filled brochure that knocks down all the key pain points for this market.

Agency: Al Paul Lefton New York

Art Director: Fred Greenfeld

Dimensional Direct Mail

Here’s a powerful example of how emotion plus logic, artfully blended, can make a huge impact in the noisy B2B space. This piece for IBM’s OfficeVision software starts out as a relatively modest 9 X 12 mailing and then its story unfolds three times into a mammoth 3-foot by 2-foot arm-stretching, eye-popping broadside with stirring art and copy.

Agency: GREY

Art Director: Jeff Bretl

Multi-Page Broadside Magazine Insert

This media management platform helps media buyers and planners make sense of, and control, their media purchases within the rapidly expanding world of video convergence. We applied hand-holding with hard facts to build our client’s case.

Design Partner: Rappy & Company New York

Social Media: Visual concepts and copywriting

LinkedIn ad campaign for Income Discovery, an app for financial advisors to help them plan their retiree clients’ retirement income spending. (To view more of this campaign, visit my home page.)

Catalog — Full Copy available on request

Here’s one example of several monthly product catalogs I wrote for this tech giant. For more on my tech capabilities, check out the tech section of this site.

Design Partner: Sasho Jones New York

Dimensional Direct Mail

Who says B2B can’t be fun? This piece from Pitney Bowes’ docSense business unit contains a paper airplane kit that helps drive home key selling points.

Design Partner: McKenzie Hubbell Westport CT

Dimensional Direct Mail for the Connecticut Economic Resource Center

Here's another example of using dimensional direct mail to seize the attention of senior executives.  In this example, it's owners of $5 million-plus businesses.  The challenge here was to be sure that the items inside were, in fact, made in Connecticut.  Six BIC pens with black ink did the trick.  And attracted businesses to the Nutmeg State.

Agency Partner: Mintz & Hoke Avon CT

Art Direction: Don Carter

Animated Banner and Print

I worked on a wide range of assignments for this financial management giant.

Shown at the top is the storyboard of an animated banner promoting their participation in World Cup soccer in Poland. 

Below: three front page print ads in Franklin Templeton's "Global" capabilities campaign.

Art direction by and agency partner: Soubriet Byrne & Associates
 

Direct Mail Brochure

This was fun piece to write and co-create. The concept of “flying blind” without a solution like IBM NetView monitoring far-flung networks took off with IBM’s customers.

Agency Partner: Barry Blau & Partners Fairfield CT

Print Ad

From the “ I Pulled This One Out of My A__” Department:

So I was just going to meet this little design firm in Manhattan to show my portfolio and chat.

So instead the guy asks, “can you do an ad for me right away?”

So I say, “like by tomorrow?”

So he says, “no, like now.”

So I whipped up the headline and concept on the spot. Body copy next day.

So that’s what you see here.

So there.

B2B Catalog — Full sample is available on request

Just another example of my extensive catalog experience.

Agency Partner: BKR&H New York

Print Ad

My client scope covers a wide swath of business sizes, from mammoths like IBM to a medium-size consultancy like this one.

Agency Design Partner: Studio V Chicago

Brochure for an infrastructure consulting company - Full piece available for review on request

Here’s another project for a small consultancy with a big story to tell.

Design Partner: Laura Campbell

Print ad for a water treatment chemical company

If the client’s product can make their customers more profitable and protect the environment, too, that’s a win-win. The assignment here was to make that message clear with impact.

Direct Mail Brochure/Folder

The United States Postal Service wanted to reach out to businesses to educate them on the power of monthly transactional statements as high impact marketing communications. (By the way, that number of 5,000 messages a day is way low these days.)

Shown here: cover, gatefold overleaf, two inserts, letter and full package

Agency Partner: FCB Direct New York
Art Director: Rob Ulliman

Print ad and branding for a premier producer and distributor
of all things swag.

Long before Staples started making red buttons a thing, we came up with the idea for this purveyor of promotional products.

Media Kit for an online media buying platform

When a client has a lengthy story to tell, I’m always up to the challenge. quadrantONE has a unique local media management platform and we created this media kit to build a strong case for getting in touch with their sales department.

Shown here: cover and eight pages

Design: Andy Cleff

Editorial Copy

I also write editorial content. Here’s an example of work I’ve done for TRUMPF, an industry leading manufacturer of sheet metal fabrication and processing equipment.

Shown here is an article for their corporate magazine, TRUMPF Express.

Five Pages

10-Page Brochure

A marketing piece for a leading technology consultancy.

To more easily read the body copy text, access this page on your mobile phone and expand.

Design: Brad Collins

Print Ad

Dramatizing the reason to buy is always a good thing. Here, it’s with a little slice of (unrealistic) consumer behavior.

Design Agency Partner: Dan Taylor Design

Dimensional Direct Mail

My toughest B2B client?  Bob Devol.  That guy wants everything.  He's a real pain in the ass.  The good news is that he offers 100% share of the profits to his copywriter when a mailing succeeds, as this one did.  So I guess he isn't that bad after all.

This dimensional direct package was mailed to graphic design firms and boutique creative agencies. It generated a ton of business and acquired valuable clients with whom I’m still working today.

Art Direction:  BARNETT

Print Ad

For a global publication like the FT, targeted distribution of their print edition to key demographics is critical.  One such target is hotel guests.  This ad speaks to hotel managers.

Art direction by Patrick Seymour of Tsang Seymour (design agency partner)