Paul Galbraith

Sensodyne U.S. was trying to reach a new audience called “the less bothered” - people who avoid treating their sensitivity. Our challenge was to start a conversation, knowing that they won’t respond to typical sensitivity messaging.

We found out that the average American was planning to eat 39 scoops of ice cream last summer. But for 51%, those moments of joy would be dampened by tooth sensitivity.

So we created a limited-edition ice cream called #LiveEveryMoMint (a nod to Sensodyne’s global platform of “Life’s Too Short for Sensitivity”) and gave it away to people who engaged with us on National Ice Cream Day, along with a free tube of Sensodyne.

Using our toothpaste as inspiration, we partnered with Nye’s Ice Cream Sandwiches to create our unique flavour: Vanilla Mint with White Chocolate Ribbons.

Social media blew up, demand was overwhelming (we ran out in hours), and the next custom flavour is already in the works.

Gaming isn’t about the hardware you run, it’s about the people you play with. So to promote Xbox Live, Xbox's multiplayer service, we created Xbox All For One - a serialized web series for gamers, by gamers. It’s their very own platform to share their thoughts, ideas, stories and experiences around gaming.

The show has been a huge success, igniting the Canadian gaming community and becoming a globally recognized integrated platform.  

Volkswagen wanted to show thanks to some valued customers in a big way. Knowing that “surprise and delight” videos have been used with great success, we wanted to leverage the formula, but make it fresh and memorable. So instead of prizes, we focused on people. And that led us to the big idea: Giving back to those who give back.

Volksgiving 2019 is already outperforming last year’s initiative by 40%, with Canadians talking, sharing, and celebrating the VW brand.

Life’s too short for tooth sensitivity. So we wanted to show sensitivity sufferers that with Sensodyne, they can enjoy their favourite moments without pain getting in the way.

Using YouTube Director’s Mix, we created a 6-sec spot for every possible moment - 30 in total. We appealed to audiences of all kinds with visuals and copy that spoke directly to their favourite, yet forbidden, food and drink.

For the launch of their new toothpaste, Pronamel wanted to get “wellness maintainers” to add Pronamel Mineral Boost to their daily self-care routine.

Knowing that our audience already care for their bodies, we just had to convince them to show the same love for their teeth.

So we got wellness influencer, Hannah Bronfman, to lead by example with #BoostUpYourRoutine, a three-part series that inspired people to see their oral health in a whole new way.

Award: CMA Direct Engagement - Automotive

Every Ford F-150 owner has a friend who thinks they can do anything with a car and a bungee cord.

So how did we get Ford customers to convince their friends to 'cut the cord' and buy an F-150?

We gave them a conversation starter with a How-To package, complete with a bungee cord and poster featuring misguided towing attempts. There was also a $250 gas card incentive. 

The results were much higher than expected, with over 1,800 trucks sold (400% over objective).

To launch State of Decay 2, a new exclusive Xbox title, we invited gamers and influencers from across Canada to learn the skills to survive a zombie apocalypse. With help from real-life zombie instructors, we put them through three rounds of intense training: Combat, Bushcraft, and Field Tactics.

Using the camp as our set and the gamers/instructors as our talent, we created a series of How-To Survive videos for the Xbox Canada community. Over two weeks, we released a new video every three days on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 As our grand finale, we put the camp-goers through a mock zombie outbreak where they tested their new skills against ‘real’ zombies. We then turned the content into a short film, starring our influencers and fans as kickass zombie hunters.

We wanted to bring the product features of the Microsoft Band to life through a lighthearted story that connected with Microsoft Canada’s Facebook fans. 

The resulting videos, shot on a shoestring budget, performed so well in Canada that they were picked up by Microsoft’s social channels globally.

BMO InvestorLine self-directed accounts are for people who hate the idea of giving up control. We tapped into their belief that, with the right tools, they could do a better job themselves. After all, everything they need is already in their own capable hands. Campaign elements included digital ad units, content, print, and in-store digital video.

We wanted to do something cool for our clients. So why not give them the secret to all our ideas? Too far? Maybe. But they loved it.

To help drive traffic online and in-store for IKEA sales and promotions, we developed weekly emails with fun lifestyle headlines and product shots. The challenge was coming up with interesting ways to communicate something as simple as a hanger. 

Only two months after winning the business, our IKEA clients saw such an improvement in the quality of their email copy that they have started to award us other pieces of business.  

In Toronto, we work hard and we play hard. So when Nike Canada hosts executive meetings in our town, they want to give their employees the 411 on the 416. Say hello to the Nike Visitor's Guide. Updated regularly and broken down by neighbourhood, this handy e-guide gives the low down on the city's hottest spots, from bars and restaurants to sporting events, running trails and more. 

With great power comes great responsibility. This is especially true of Tech Leaders in business. They wield the power over what tools are available to employees – and workers know it.

So we created a series of tongue-in-cheek social posts, manifestos and blogs, written as pleas to Tech Leads to get Office 365. Using a classic problem/solution format, we used 'real people' to explain the benefits of the product and convince their Tech Lead that choosing these new tools will help them do great things at work.

Microsoft wanted to show off the amazing power of the new Surface tablet by targeting first year university students. 

We came up with the Surface Student Survival Guide. Full of funny freshman firsts, it demonstrated the product's capabilities by solving a problem every student can relate to. 

And for our final (and most impressive) demonstration, we created all of the illustrations using the Surface itself. 

How do you get the word out about a launch party for Quantum Break, a noir Xbox game title set in a violent near-future? 

By sending an invite to influencers that was sure get their attention because it seemed to come from the game itself. 

(Fun fact: I wrote and voiced the character). 

We needed to create buzz for the launch of Gears of War 3. The only problem? No assets due to secrecy. All we had were some enemy images—and the game’s maps.

So we created a game unto itself, challenging gamers to navigate their team through 3 maps full of baddies. Three missions were created and released each month leading up to the release. Prizes were awarded for completing each mission with the best time. Easter Eggs were included in the form of COG tags, which fed into an experiential campaign from MacLaren McCann.

At the end, the top three gamers with the fastest times got to play the new game at an exclusive event.

How do you get Xbox gamers to (trash) talk their friends into buying an Xbox One? With the Wish You Were Here Postcard Generator. 

With hundreds of possible outcomes, Xbox gamers could customize a postcard that called out their friends in a fun, relevant way. 

They got to choose the game image and headline that would best resonate with their friends. As an added incentive, we gave both advocate and friend a free 12-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass. 

Cloud Power was a campaign we picked up from global. To localize it, we were challenged with finding the biggest awareness impact for 'C' level executives. Our solution was to take over airport terminals around Canada—including Terminal 1 at Pearson International Airport.

Award: CMA Bronze

When the highly anticipated Halo Reach was launching, we prepared gamers for war with a psychological evaluation. 

Everyone who survived the fun Halo-inspired questions received a psych report comparing them to one of the new game characters.  

The campaign won Bronze at the Canadian Marketing Awards. 

We gave people a chance to win the ultimate jetsetter music experience with the Rock The Globe contest.

The contest mechanism was simple and the language was cheeky, resulting in a overwhelming number of entries.  

It's often hard to convince IT Pros to try new infrastructure software that they are not familiar with. This contest was designed to encourage them to stay on top of the latest Microsoft technology, while rewarding them with amazing prizes. The more trials they downloaded and shared, the bigger the prize pot grew. As a result, we converted every participant into a product advocate.

For the launch of Office 365 in Canada, an integrated campaign was created that told the story of a new office environment -- the Liberated Office. Microsoft partnered with Indigo (actual Office 365 customers) to bring the Liberated Office story to life. Campaign elements included a website, phone app, banners, emails, digital magazine in Canadian CIO, video mailer, and campaign videos.

Some things are hard to let go. These are my first print ads. If the image quality is lacking, it's because these are pics of the actual print ads (which I still have). Ahh, simpler times.