Dan Thorne

Every pet parent watches their dog twitch in their sleep and wonders what they’re dreaming about. We offered some ideas.

If your dog can dream it, Purina Pro Plan can help him achieve it.

At a time when pasta consumption was declining, Barilla, the category leader, wanted to make pasta stand for something besides “carbs.” We decided on passion—reminding viewers that life is better when you’re doing what you love (like eating pasta). Each episode captures the real-life passion of one profoundly interesting person, in about the time it takes to cook pasta. After the premiere of this series, pasta consumption increased for the first time in years.
 

The thing restaurant managers hate the most is sitting in their back office doing paperwork. Teamwork saves them a ton of time in the office. Time they can spend with staff, guests, or shooting commercials.

Since the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line has been around since 1981, we decided it was time to do a #TBThanksgiving. Part of the effort was a colorful retelling of memorable calls the Talk-Line has received over the years, like “My turkey is lost in a snowbank,” or “Can I thaw it faster using my jacuzzi?” Those stories were sent as inspiration to the writers’ rooms of our favorite late night hosts, and they were inspired indeed—to partner with us in the making of some truly memorable segments. Our efforts helped Butterball earn over 3 billion impressions that year—on a $250,000 budget. And Colbert’s segment went over so huge with his viewers, he came back to us the next year too—in person this time.

The idea of “Trick or Treat” is dead to teens. So we resurrected candy fun especially for them, inventing a new product called Zombie Skittles, where a few Skittles in every bag taste like rotting flesh. They swept over the internet like a zombie apocalypse. And they weren’t just a headline-grabbing novelty. They sold so well that they came back to store shelves for Halloween the following year.

Whiskey and live performances: both better straight.

Every injured veteran at the Warrior Games has made an incredible journey to get here. So we challenged all of Chicago to join them, with a journey of their own. By air, by land, or by sea.

We work hard to make our kids better athletes, better artists, and better students. But are they actually better for it? “BE Time” is an experiment that explores the challenges and opportunities parents face when it comes to how their kids spend their time, both structured and unstructured.

The 606 is a three-mile-long elevated park in Chicago. We were presented with a unusual challenge: gathering support for the project from potential donors and everyday Chicagoans while the park itself was still under construction. We used what was missing to communicate what makes the park unique, and tied its elevation to Chicago’s aspirations.

Copy:

The 606 is more than a new path. Or a new park. It’s a new way forward.

It’s a new way above traffic and congestion, of seeing familiar places from a new perspective, of bringing people together. It’s a way we can discover new talents, or enjoy old ones; to appreciate nature, and bring a little more green space into our lives. It’s a way upward, and onward, for all of us.

Find your way to the new park that’s elevating Chicago. 
 

Just as we simulated the effect of seeing others on The 606, we also allowed people to imagine seeing themselves high above the city (in a slight exaggeration of The 606's 17-foot elevation)

Pro Plan believes that "inside every good dog is a great dog." So we highlighted the "every dog" throughout our campaign. First, by pairing original music with found footage of great dogs for our TV spot. Then we found more real dogs with compelling stories and built a print campaign around them. Finally, we created social content with almost no budget by tapping into our greatest resource: our fans. They contributed images of their own dogs to help us create amazing posts, and were more highly engaged because of it.

The Meow Mix jingle is the brand's most valuable equity. So naturally, we decided to mess with it, partnering with musicians in EDM and country genres to create “Meow Mixes.” Cat people were big fans.

Years later, Meow Mix realized they couldn’t top this idea, so they just did it again with a bigger budget.

In partnership with Mashable, we brought together renowned grill and pit masters, influential Instagram foodies, and some hard numbers to uncover how America cooks out. The result was a great short doc on the subject, supplemented by mouth-watering photography and fun infographics that capture how everyone does their own thing. And no matter how you grill, Bush's has a bean for that.

Nike can have their athletes. At Wolverine, tradespeople are our heroes. Project Bootstrap was built to celebrate these workers and inspire others to pursue the trades.

This approach earned us over 200 million impressions from outlets like the New York Times, CNBC, and the Wall Street Journal.

Most of the small businesses and restaurants SpotOn serves are one location, not 50. Independently owned. They’re local. And so is SpotOn—with sales and support from people right in your neighborhood. Very few tech companies can say the same.