Partner, chief creative officer
Deutsch NY
1) I think AI has been the most exciting area of growth and development in 2017. It makes us think differently about creative briefs and expands what we are capable of accomplishing for our clients. I love everything that’s happening in this space right now, and in April Deutsch launched Great Machine, an AI division tasked with adding creativity, soul, personality, and a voice to the AI landscape. It’s a huge opportunity for brands to connect with consumers, but we believe that without a personality, AI is still just a bunch of numbers and code. As AI becomes more mainstream, the agencies that are working with it now will be the ones that are ahead. We’re excited to see where it takes us.
2) When we were brainstorming work for DraftKings, we knew their fan base is different than our other clients. As a fantasy sports company, DraftKings needs to maintain constant communication with their fans, especially during the season. So, we set up the tools to keep them up and running with new communication within 24 hours of things happening. Our campaign “Play” content was created around the idea that people don’t just want to watch, they want to play. And they want to do so at what we call the “Speed of Sports.” Deutsch created a powerful, but easily adaptable campaign that allowed them to convert fantasy bracket-busting headlines into real reasons to play DraftKings. After weekend games, our writers created new scripts that were approved overnight by DraftKings, and by Tuesday were locked and loaded to go on air.
3) In 2017, Deutsch launched the first marketing blitz for DraftKings that featured a doctor character, named Dr. Aftkings. Deutsch saw that DraftKings was having a perception problem. Their campaigns were founded on how much you could win. We were able to rebrand DraftKings to tap into the truth of the consumers: It’s not just about money, it’s about wanting to be closer to the game. That’s why we launched Dr. Aftkings, a new brand ambassador that would cure fans’ season-long frustrations and ailments, such as Draftitis, Loseonic Plague and Winnerhea. With the guidance of director Wayne McClammy, the voice of Dr. Aftkings became a new comedic voice that resonated with fans. This year was DraftKings biggest, most winning year yet, improving brand perception, increasing consideration, and exceeding acquisition goals.
5) Great work breeds great work. I recognize that to keep your engine running, you need that satisfaction of producing work you’re proud of. My resolutions are to keep that energy going for Deutsch and ensure that everyone is creating and making.
Review: Writer-Director Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”
"Is it too real for ya?" blares in the background of Andrea Arnold's latest film, "Bird," a 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) rides with her shirtless, tattoo-covered dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), on his electric scooter past scenes of poverty in working-class Kent.
The song's question — courtesy of the Irish post-punk band Fontains D.C. — is an acute one for "Bird." Arnold's films ( "American Honey," "Fish Tank") are rigorous in their gritty naturalism. Her fiction films — this is her first in eight years — tend toward bleak, hand-held verité in rough-and-tumble real-world locations. Her last film, "Cow," documented a mother cow separated from her calf on a dairy farm.
Arnold specializes in capturing souls, human and otherwise, in soulless environments. A dream of something more is tantalizing just out of reach. In "American Honey," peace comes to Star (Sasha Lane) only when she submerges underwater.
In "Bird," though, this sense of otherworldly possibility is made flesh, or at least feathery. After a confusing night, Bailey awakens in a field where she encounters a strange figure in a skirt ( Franz Rogowski ) who arrives, like Mary Poppins, with a gust a wind. His name, he says, is Bird. He has a soft sweetness that doesn't otherwise exist in Bailey's hardscrabble and chaotic life.
She's skeptical of him at first, but he keeps lurking about, hovering gull-like on rooftops. He cranes his neck now and again like he's watching out for Bailey. And he does watch out for her, helping Bailey through a hard coming of age: the abusive boyfriend (James Nelson-Joyce) of her mother (Jasmine Jobson); her half brother (Jason Buda) slipping into vigilante violence; her father marrying a new girlfriend.
The introduction of surrealism has... Read More