I worked with Scott Reid’s team at shopper marketing firm Mars | Philter on St Lawrence Market’s first TV ad in its 200-year history.

The commercial, produced by Serge Constantinou and edited by Sugar Media, was the final piece of the agency’s rebrand of the Market.

I pitched several concepts

Among them was one with a chicken standing and delivering on a bar stool, but budget limitations meant shoppers did all the talking this time.

On shooting day, I stood cheek-to-camera, firing questions at those passers-by who’d agreed to tell us why they shopped at the market. They got to make a little advertising history.

I also came up with the tag, ‘What are you in the market for?’

All in, we came in on budget, the client was thrilled and the ad wasn’t too shabby.

We didn’t win it, but I couldn’t bin it

Below, some roughs I worked on, produced by art director Ryan Fox.

As often happens with this man, I came up with the art direction ideas, he the copy.

Smart parking, aka Smarking

We also created several pieces promoting Green P as the smarter way to park. They even have an app for it.

Some radio

‘Smarking I’ – 30”

(Two cheerful men in a car, looking for parking, SFX: engine, traffic)
Hamish: Risking presupposition, it would appear our parking prospects do not give rise to optimism.
Raphael: Afraid I must assume a degree of culpability, for I had earlier neglected to mention one Green P smartphone application.
Hamish: And what, oh ever-sagacious one, is that?
Raphael: It is no less than an inspired scientific marvel enabling one to prelocate Green P parking facilities prior to exodus.
Hamish: Rather a smart approach to parking, I should say.
Raphael: Smart parking, indeed!
Together: Smarking!
VO: With the Green P smartphone app, you’re no longer parking, you’re smarking.

‘Smarking II’ – 30”

(Two guys driving, SFX: music, traffic)
Rick: Wow, is she wearing skorts with her windblazer?
Dave: Yup, she’s packing massive ladytude!
Rick: You’re so wittarious today.
Dave: Mayhaps, but I can occasionally be doofiotic.
Rick: Hey, why so scritical?
Dave: Because I forglected to download the Green P smartphone app. It lets you chout all their parking areas, preparture.
Rick Wow, talk about smart parking.
(SFX pregnant Pause)
VO: The Green P smartphone app. It’s not parking, it’s smarking.
Dave: Okay, intellinouncer!

‘Casanova’ – 30”

Woman: (smooching sounds) Mmm, you kiss like a god.
Man: Thanks, you’re pretty amaz— Oh no!!
Woman: What?!
Man: Gonna get a parking ticket! Be right back!
Woman: But… (sigh)
SFX: Door swings open, left banging on the wall, footsteps echo off into distance.
VO: Announcing the Green P smartphone app. It let’s you pre-plan where you park, and set yourself an expiry reminder, plus you only pay for the time you park. You’ll never have to interrupt anything again.
Man: (rushing back, breathless) OK, where were we?
Woman: Sorry, your time’s up here, too, buddy.

‘Assistant’ – 30”

(SFX: Street sounds, man and woman walking quickly)
Mr Abernathy: Okay, got the briefs?
Jane: Check.
Mr Abernathy: Got the concepts?
Jane: Check.
Mr Abernathy: Excellent.
Jane: Um, I also took the liberty of pre-parking us, Mr Abernathy.
Mr Abernathy: What?
Jane: That’s right sir. I downloaded the Green P Parking app onto your smartphone and found the closest Green P lot to our meeting. On arrival, I’ll set an expiry alert to beep us so we don’t get a parking ticket!
Mr Abernathy: Well done, Lisa.
Mr Abernathy: It’s Jane, sir.
Mr Abernathy: It sure is, Jane.
VO: Download the Green P parking app for your smartphone. It’s got your back.

UCC thanks the Globe and Mail for Failing Boys

UCC wanted to second the emotion in a Globe series, ‘Failing Boys’, investigating how Canadian education is leaving too many boys behind. This is was the ad I wrote.

Boarding Forever campaign

A few years back, UCC almost killed off its boarding school component, but a spirited counterblast from old boys saved it. Thing was, UCC’s boarding facilities were in need of total renovation, so $14 million had to be raised.

I developed the line ‘Boarding Forever: The Global Call’ to anchor the international fundraising portion of campaign. The idea was to incite a hearty sense of the old boys’ and the school’s passion behind it, coupled with the reassurance that boarding would remain a UCC institution.

The rest rolled out from there.

International mentor recruitment campaign

The Common Ties mentor campaign was also a substantial undertaking. Additional collateral that went along with this ad was similar to the above.

…and an Xmas card here and there.

Kingspan commissioned my client Jib to create this website, pathtonetzero.com. I was asked to write it up.

It speaks volumes for itself, so I need not.

SOFA leases fully customizable private showroom spaces to manufacturers who use them to market products to the design and architectural trades.

I’ve worked with SOFA for a couple of years, writing the website, print ads and collateral for their team of very hardworking women. It’s a fairly new destination and not in the most glamorous of locations — Airport Rd — so it’s not the easiest of sells. But these girls hustle and are getting it done.

Jib created an papercraft architecture competition for Irish construction materials company Kingspan to pump up SEO and draw prospects’ eyes to their insulated metal panels. These are high-end panels used as cladding on prestigious architectural projects.

We launched with print ads in architectural trade publications, DR and eblasts announcing the competition and directing people to an intriguing microsite created for it, legaciesarebuilt.com.

Woven into the program was a story about the ‘Unknown Architect’, a fictional visionary from today times whose works are unearthed by future archeologists long after a rather nasty apocalypse. The key idea was that legacies are built of strong stuff like Kingspan. The winner got a university architecture bursary created and named in his honour.

A Marcom award is won

The campaign won Platinum at the Marcom Awards. My hat goes off to senior designer Ben Allison of Jib for coming up with the idea and handing it to me, which made the writing pretty much self-execute.

I’d done their first website about seven years ago, and was honoured to be re-engaged.

In the end, most of my wordage wound up in the bio section where, other than accolades and degrees, I made almost everything up based on interviews.

Though I am partial to words, I can’t fault the Earth people for going minimal — not when their product looks like this.

But, DM ain’t dead yet.

I’ve written several fine pieces with Messenger‘s Laura Wills for TTI Travel.

Some pages…

We harnessed the monitors’ shuffle puzzle factor to maximum effect. Ryan wrote the copy before I even could, so I came up with the art direction idea before he could.

Digital artistry was masterfully executed by designer Doug Groves of Valis Inc.

The brief: Drive hard the notions that Merc’s four-stroke outboards neither burn oil, pump out skanky blue smoke nor bleed toxic rainbows all over the lake — unlike old school mixed-fuel two-strokes. And also that these bad boys are well known for their high quality of manufacturing, reliability, ludicrous power and civilized exhaust notes. (Except, as remarked, when corporal punishment occurs.)