Challenge 
Delta Dental has the nation’s largest network of dentists. But it wasn’t widely known. So how could we break through to tell the masses that Delta Dental coverage gives you the freedom to go wherever life takes you? 

Insight 
In 2022, millions of Americans were exploring new futures. Remote workers were relocating like never before, and approximately 35% of the workforce was freelance or “gig.” On top of all that, about half of those employees reported that they lacked traditional health insurance, including dental.

We created a humorous, mockumentary campaign inspired by the original “gig” workers. Musicians. Enter Mölar, a metal band heavily obsessed with oral hygiene. So obsessed that they refused to go on tour without coast-to-coast dental coverage. But now, they’re finally hitting the road thanks to Delta Dental. And they can’t stop smiling. (Something a bit problematic for a metal band with a dark image to uphold.)

We embraced this quality to craft a world revolving around our band, drawing inspiration from the aesthetics of Heavy Metal and music culture. Everything from real-life documentaries to music videos to album covers influenced our approach to casting, wardrobe, location, props, and set design. All were brought to life through a combination of handheld cinematography and skilled improvisation to create satirical work with a relatable look and feel.

The footage from our ambitious, single-day, run-and-gun shoot became the foundation for a breakthrough integrated campaign. Ultimately, the band played everywhere from social to TV to OLV. They even got on the radio. Their healthy smiles showed up on billboards, banners, and in magazines, letting everyone know they’re covered everywhere they go when they get on the highway to health with Delta Dental.

AAA isn’t your run-of-the-mill roadside assistance. They have a fleet of over 60,000 trucks that cater to over 56 million members. They show up 20 minutes faster than the competition. And to top it off, they get a majority of motorists back on the road without a tow. No wonder they’re the most trusted service AND #1 in customer satisfaction.

But here’s the problem: there are still millions of drivers who don’t think they need a service like AAA.

So for this project, we used breakthrough, relatable humor to position AAA as the must-have go-to when stuff happens unexpectedly—and put this 122-year-old legacy brand on the map for more motorists across the country. 

During the great depression, an immigrant mother from Naples, Italy turned a family recipe into an American icon, RAGÚ. It was staple in households everywhere… until it wasn't. 

Over time the category grew, and RAGÚ, was old news…

Then the pandemic hit, and people got burnt out on cooking every meal, every day.

So how do you reinvigorate a tired brand and consumer base?

By turning our heritage into a badge of honor. Because to cook like an Italian mother, is to cook like a mother fucker!   

The cheeky, consumer-driven call to action got people’s attention. The RAGÚ jar’s signature yellow lid became the canvas for a bold new look and feel—standing out from the competition in the sea of red. 

We served up much-need inspiration – and simple meal solutions – to the millions of Americans who were burnt out on cooking. 

By helping them step up to the stove and slay supper with ease, we showed the world that ANYONE can Cook Like A Mother. No matter who you are or how full your plate. 

THE RESULTS:
Best Rebrand Finalist at the Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards
Silver / Food & Beverage + Finalist for Rebrand Campaign / The Shorty Awards
Silver/ Rebranding, Repositioning or Reintroducing Brand Marketing / REGGIE Awards

What happens when you unleash 4 Italian Nonnas onto the streets of NYC, armed with delicious samples made with RAGÚ Kettle Cooked Sauce? A whole lot of smiles, kisses, songs, hugs, and laughter! We took our brand and authentic Italian Nonnas to New York—one of the most discerning cities in the U.S. when it comes to flavor—to introduce the rich, old-world taste of RAGÚ Kettle Cooked. Watch as four Nonnas serve up a taste of tradition and see how New Yorkers react to the big debut of RAGÚ Kettle Cooked.

We were tasked with highlighting ALDI's high-quality health food offerings, so we crafted a life-sized, practical set and blended stop-motion, live action, and motion design. This allowed us to create fun, visually dynamic short stories showcasing how people switched to ALDI and saved big on everything from fresh organics to delicious plant-based products.

With the launch of two new Kleenex products we were tasked with creating content that would both communicate the product benefits as well as engage and delight the audience. 

The adaptation of the live actions spots were created specifically for a mobile ad buy and were served up as promoted content on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

We also created a series of more whimsical stop motion ads that ran during the back to school season. We featured four different tableaus that helped connect the product usage with the school scenarios.

Client: Kimberly-Clark

Digital/Social

Creative Director/AD – Brian Trecka
Creative Director/AD – Pete Pona
Creative/ACD - Robin Dafforn
Creative/CW - Marissa Rhines

For the 2016 Olympics, Kellogg’s is asking - “What Gets You Started?”

Kellogg’s has proudly honored Starts for more than 100 years, and as a sponsor of Team USA for the 2016 Summer Games, we wanted to create a campaign where everyday Americans could find parity with first-time Olympic hopefuls – athletes whose stories are untold and potential yet to be defined.

In a series of films, we documented each of our athlete’s personal stories that focus on their families, determination, motivation and their continued drive to succeed on every single day.

As a part of the campaign, Kellogg’s and the athletes will post photos, short videos, and tweets that focus on daily motivation, using the hashtag #GetsMeStarted. Both paid and earned media will be used to amplify the content and each athlete will also be partnered with relevant influencers.

100 DAYS OUT EVENT

In order to leverage excitement around the countdown to Rio we hosted a 100 Days Event to introduce The Team as a part of a live spectacle in Union Square, NYC.

We created distinctive, visually compelling vignette build-outs to serve as authentic backdrops for media 1:1s and to provide designated spaces for each athlete to share their stories, demonstrate their athletic skills with media and fans alike.

A few highlights include:

A live Periscope broadcast featuring Ajee' Wilson running the width of Central Park (800 meters and her event). Along her run, viewers posted shout-outs and questions for Ajee' that she answered live after her run.

We also creatd a VR film that gives media and fans alike, an immersive way to experience what gets swimmer and Olympic hopeful, Tom Shields started. 

Users will be transported to an Olympic sized pool where they can look around and explore the scene from a 360 degree perspective. The audio is a combination of environmental sounds and Tom’s voice over as he shares his motivation. 

The immersive VR film can be experienced with VR googles or it can be viewed on YouTube 360° .

Client: Kellogg's

Digital/Social/Experiential

Creative Director/AD – Brian Trecka

Creative/CW - Cassidy Pazyniak

Producer - Jen Passaniti

Post - Optimus

As America’s largest food purveyor, McDonald's supports thousands of independent farmers, ranchers, and suppliers, but people perceive McDonald’s food as “made” not “grown.”

So we developed a new initiative in brand trust for McDonald's.  Supplier Stories focuses in on the farmers, growers, ranchers and sea captains that supply the top quality food to McDonald's.  

We set out to improve McDonald's reputation, by creating a personal connection that helped humanize the brand by giving McDonald’s suppliers a voice to tell their own story in their own words.

Client: McDonald’s

TV/Digital/Pre-roll/Social/Mobile

Awards:

Mobile Marketer - Mobile Advertiser of the Year

Silver Effie Award

ACD/AD – Brian Trecka
ACD/CW – Nick Marrazza
ACD/AD – Kathy Petrauskas

Senior Designer - Minna Sponholz

Live Desktop Site

KLEENEX - New Wet Wipes

In 2018 Kleenex launched Kleenex Wet Wipes. This new product is not "just another wipe" in an already crowded wet wipe category. It's multi purpose uses and the fact that it is 99% water makes it a wipe that's perfect for just about everything and a must have for the Doer, the type of person that is not afraid to get their hands dirty.

These beautifully shot usage occasions define these Doers and showcase just some of the situations in life where Kleenex Wet Wipes can come to the rescue. Proving these are the right wipes to always have on hand.

Game on, questers. The Quest for the Golden McRib is a virtual scavenger hunt to find the Golden McRib located in McDonald’s across the country.  Each challenge incorporates real-world McDonald’s, using Google Maps with Streetview, and are met with “weirdly wonderful” characters. Features like badges and a leaderboard honoring Questers makes finding a Golden McRib the ultimate bragging right. 

The Quest for the Golden McRib marked the first time that McDonald’s built a branded game experience on the Facebook platform; all digital media weight and broadcast media directed users to the experience. Promotional efforts included tandem Facebook status updates with partner brands and outreaches to the McRib Superfan pages to thank them for their continual support. The integration of Google Maps with Streetview meant that Questers could explore McDonald’s locations both locally and nationwide, creating an engaging way to interact with actual stores.

ACD/AD – Brian Trecka
Client: McDonald’s

As more and more consumers show an interest in the foods they’re eating and feeding their families, Kellogg’s decided it was time to throw open their doors – both literally and figuratively.

Open for Breakfast is a multi-platform, transparency campaign designed to let Kellogg’s truly connect with consumers.  

The campaign consisted of a responsive site, where customers could ask questions and get answers. It also featured 150+ pieces of original content that includes short videos, infographics, editorial stories and other snackable content.

We used both paid and earned media to push out the content to to social sites where it could both inform the cynics and arm the brand ambassadors with facts.

www.OpenForBreakfast.com

Client: Kellogg's

Digital/Social

CD – Brian Trecka

CD - Scott Serilla 

ACD/CW – Deb Pahl

CW - Cassidy Pazyniak

AD/Designer - Adam Hanson

AD/Designer - Minna Sponholz

Convincing a 7-year old to get a Happy Meal is easy breezy. Convincing the 7-year old’s parents to get a Happy Meal? Not so much. We took the idea that no family is perfect – and that’s what makes them perfect. And that’s why there’s Happy Meal.

The TV spot explored some ‘imperfect’ moments that can happen on any given day – who hasn’t told their kid to hide and then forgot to seek – and then have that day end with a Happy Meal. Care was taken to present the kids and parents as real – no over-the-top triumphant moment at the dinner table. Just an exhausted family eating in the car.

For digital, pre-roll and social we wanted a more authentic representation of our “real moments” theme so we had a series of real families (non-actors) film themselves.

The result is a celebration - that real families fight, say dumb things, have imperfections, but that's okay.  And regardless of the family - Happy Meals make family time fun. Allowing them to be who they are: perfectly imperfect families.

Client: McDonald’s

TV/Print/Pre-roll/Digital/Social

ACD/AD – Brian Trecka

ACD/CW – Deb Pahl

How do you get people excited by a new lemonade drink? You create a memorable animated lemon. And how do you make sure they’re REALLY excited by that lemon? You voice him with a Soprano’s thug. (Dialogue has never been so much fun…)

A fully-integrated 360° campaign took McCafé’s Frozen Strawberry Lemonade’s mascot and extended his story beyond TV into the digital platforms – literally. An interactive experience told the Lemon’s story via his family tree (an actual lemon tree with unfortunate relatives, some of who ended up as a garnish) and his love story of How Lemon Met Strawberry.  The extended story was featured as a series of pre-roll ads that played in succession throughout programs.

Client: McDonald’s

TV/Digital/Pre-Roll/Social

ACD/AD – Brian Trecka

ACD/CW – Deb Pahl

Senior Designer - Josh McGuire

The McRib is one of those things that people love – and love to hate. Every year the challenge became, ‘How do we capitalize on its cult status and spread the word to the masses?’ The big idea – let’s just tell people why they should eat a McRib.

An interactive website let McD.com visitors explore 101 reasons they should eat a McRib – and even managed to work in taste and quality cues along the way. Each beautifully designed card featured a custom icon and was shareable to Facebook and Twitter.

Desktop/Tablet Live Site

Mobile Live Site

A selection of motion graphic videos created to promote Viva towels and Kleenex on social media.

Client: Kimberly-Clark

Digital/Social

Creative Director/AD – Brian Trecka

McDonald's needed a way to bring the millennial crowd into their restaurants for something other than a hangover-soothing McGriddle. Enter McCafé Iced Coffee - refreshing, flavorful coffee to help them kick start their day.

Animated pre-roll videos told the stories of three people and their morning routines. The common thread? McCafé Iced Coffee. Dialogue was kept natural and true to life and illustrations were provided by Max Dalton, known for his work with Wes Anderson.

Client: McDonald’s

Digital/Pre-roll/Social

ACD/CW - Deb Pahl

ACD/AD - Brian Trecka

Illustrator - Max Dalton

Animator - Chris Guy

This was an amazing opportunity to create several Coke spots for three different countries - Japan, India and South Africa.  It brought together a collaboration between many artists using several different mediums.  All of the individual pieces were hand drawn, painted, hammered, glued, sewn, stamped and then animated, shot and composited together in post.  

Client: Coca-Cola
Role: Director of Photography, Artist, Animator
Director: Bruce Alcock

When McDonald’s resurrected the classic Jordan-Bird TV spot with QBs Colin Kaepernick and Joe Flacco, digital took the [foot]ball and ran with it. 

The two :30 TV spots were made into a cliffhanger, raising the question - who turned out the lights and took The Mighty Wings. This fully 360° integrated campaign introduced seven suspicious characters and let fans view their alibis and vote on the guilty party.  The storyline ran across all social media channels as we had characters "take over" McDonald's Facebook and Twitter pages. Their the narrative played out in real time with accusations, clues and alibis videos. The content is also appeared on Instagram and YouTube.  The result was a true success as it logged more than 15,000 likes and comments in a matter of a few hours.

At the end of the campaign a video reveal wrapped up the story line and introduced who really had the Mighty Wings – Mr. Larry Bird, himself (disguised as the mascot Fox).

Client: McDonald’s

Digital/TV/Pre-roll/Mobile/Social

ACD/AD – Brian Trecka

ACD/CW – Deb Pahl

Senior Designer - Minna Sponholz

Making a festival trailer for an underground film festival is rad.  Basically you get to make a short film that will play at every screening of the festival.  This piece was all hand-drawn and animated with love.  Shout out Lisa Barcy for her wham bam shizzle animation skills.

Client: Chicago Underground Film Festival

CD/AD, Sound Designer, Editor - Brian Trecka

CD/AD, Animator - Paloma Trecka

Dragon

One of my favorite animated spots I have worked on.  It’s whimsical and gorgeous and of course references classic Terry Gilliam animation.  All of the artwork was painted with oil on large pieced of plastic and wood.  Then all of the elements were animated and shot under camera on a multi-plane glass table.  Simple, elegant and fantastically animated by a great team.

Client - Reese’s 

Artist, Animator, Director of Photography - Brian Trecka

Director, Animator - Bruce Alcock

Live Mobile Site

When McDonald’s introduced a series of sandwiches featuring the spicy kick of jalapeños, we knew they had a bold story to tell. So that’s just what we did – tell the story of the new Jalapeño Kickers the way that story was meant to be told. As a graphic novel.

A series of four animated comic strips showed how the sandwich inspired our hero to be bold – or at least how he thought he was being bold. The result was a bright, pop art inspired campaign that let McDonald’s bring some humor to their product.

Client: McDonald’s

Pre-roll/Mobile/Digital/Social

ACD/AD – Brian Trecka

ACD/CW – Deb Pahl

Senior Designer - Minna Sponholz

McDonald’s revisited a classic Filet-O-Fish spot – the singing bass – to introduce their new Fish McBites. Digital extended the campaign and took the new jingle one step further – we let fans mix it up.

Users visiting the site could roll over 15 fish, each with their own musical note and ‘lyric’, and record their own version of the jingle. Their final mix could then be shared on social media to increase exposure.

Client: McDonald’s

Digital/Mobile/Social

ACD/AD – Brian Trecka

ACD/CW – Deb Pahl