Project Overview

Auntie Anne's embarked on an innovative venture by bottling the beloved aroma of its freshly baked pretzels into an exclusive fragrance, Knead. This unique scent captures the essence of buttery dough, salt, and a hint of sweetness, transforming the iconic aroma into a wearable experience. Each spritz of Knead evokes nostalgic memories of passing an Auntie Anne's store and savoring the delightful smell of pretzels.

Project Highlights

Innovative Concept: We transformed the alluring aroma of Auntie Anne’s pretzels into a fragrance, creating a new and exciting brand extension.

Aromatic Appeal: The fragrance combines notes of buttery dough, salt, and sweetness, encapsulating the brand’s iconic scent into a unique, wearable product.

Launch Strategy

Pretzel Parfumerie: To celebrate the launch, Auntie Anne's opened New York's first Pretzel Parfumerie on August 13 at 433 Broadway in Soho, New York. The pop-up event allowed fans to be the first to experience Knead while enjoying a sensory and immersive environment.

Exclusive Experience: Visitors to the Pretzel Parfumerie received complimentary swag and enjoyed Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, enhancing their overall experience and connection to the brand.

Sales Success

Product Offering: Knead was sold in 1-ounce and 3.4-ounce bottles, priced at $25 and $45 respectively.

Online Availability: For those unable to attend the pop-up, the fragrance was made available for purchase online. Impressively, the scent sold out within the first 10 minutes of being live, showcasing the high demand and success of the product.

Testimonial

“There are few scents more recognizable than the aroma of Auntie Anne’s,” said Julie Younglove-Webb, Chief Brand Officer at Auntie Anne’s. “Smell is a special and powerful sense. Over the years, fans have shared their memories and experiences that began with just a whiff of our pretzels. We’ve bottled that moment and can’t wait for fans to enjoy it in a whole new way.”

Conclusion

The Knead fragrance launch not only created a novel way for fans to experience Auntie Anne’s but also showcased the brand’s ability to innovate and connect with its audience on a deeper, more sensory level. The rapid sell-out of the fragrance highlights its success and the effective execution of a bold and imaginative idea.

The Challenge

Auntie Anne’s, beloved by consumers, faced the challenge of declining mall foot traffic. Digital ordering made Auntie Anne's more accessible outside malls, but many consumers were unaware of this convenience.

Objective

Increase awareness of Auntie Anne’s digital ordering and delivery by leveraging a key sports-watching and snacking occasion: football.

Timing

The campaign built interest throughout the football season, culminating on Super Bowl Sunday, a prime snacking occasion.

Offering

The Snack Stadium, a cardboard football stadium package, holds two buckets of pretzel nuggets, perfect for gameday watch parties. Each stadium has a suggested retail price (SRP) of $50.

Insight

The Snack Stadium had been on the market for 3-4 years. Research showed that consumers who previously purchased a stadium had a high intent to repurchase, driven by the stadium's unique packaging.

The Solution

What better way to showcase the Snack Stadium than to bring it to life? By animating the stadium, we created a unique and ownable story with seamless product placement. This generated news, excitement, and helped Auntie Anne’s break through a crowded market space. Additionally, it established a repeatable platform for future campaigns.

Stadium Design Update: Enhanced the Snack Stadium with goalposts to gamify the experience. Updated graphics to feature the new Nugg Bowl league shield and highlight the four competing teams (varieties) for the pretzel championship.

Content Creation: Developed snackable, bite-sized content for social media, web, and app platforms to increase awareness and generate buzz. Engaged top fans in the Nugg Bowl storyline, fostering rivalry, loyalty, and predictions.

Playoff Integration: Aligned Nugg Bowl playoffs with professional football playoffs. Nugg teams went head-to-head each week, featuring iconic sports moments that built anticipation for game-day snacks.

Fan Engagement: Provided thrilling recaps of each playoff game, with highlights, stats, leaderboards, and brackets on nuggbowl.com.

Event Execution: On Super Bowl Sunday, delivered comprehensive coverage of the first annual Auntie Anne’s Nugg Bowl, complete with high-flying offense, defense, commentary, cheerleaders, and touchdown celebrations.

Results

Sales Impact: Achieved the largest sales day in the brand’s history on Super Bowl Sunday.

Snack Stadium Units: +93% vs. Previous Year (PY)

Digital/Off-Premise Sales: 3PD +120% vs. PY, 1PD +60% vs. PY

Digital sales reached 18% of total system sales for the first time.

Week-Long Success: Sales increases extended beyond Super Bowl Sunday.

1PD Sales: +63.5% for the week

3PD Sales: +35% for the week

Overall Snack Stadium Campaign Sales: +60% vs. PY

Conclusion

The Nugg Bowl campaign successfully created a new consumer behavior, allowing guests to enjoy Auntie Anne’s pretzels at home without visiting the mall. It generated significant interest, buzz, and sales, solidifying Auntie Anne’s position in the digital and sports-snacking space.

Auntie Anne’s is the world’s largest soft pretzel brand. With over 1,800 locations in more than 25 countries, Auntie Anne’s is a billion-dollar CPG brand with 1.2M in systemwide average weekly store traffic.

Challenge:
Consumers have fond memories tied to Auntie Anne’s (AA); however, they only think of the brand when they’re at the mall.

Auntie Anne’s near-exclusivity to malls means many people have fewer opportunities for serendipitous brand encounters. In addition, the rise of online shopping has created a culture of fewer mall visits, and by extension, fewer AA brand experiences.

People’s strongest associations with AA are linked to their shopping mall excursions as kids and teens. While the Auntie Anne brand is seen as warm, wholesome, and positively nostalgic, they have fewer opportunities to connect, and consumers’ brand experiences were largely based in the past. The homey and nostalgic vibe also means that most people aren’t thinking about new menu items when they visit Auntie Anne’s. Research also revealed that the average consumer was much younger and more diverse than previously thought. To make matters worse, Auntie Anne’s hadn't updated their brand in over 30 years. It was time for a refresh!

Results:
Auntie Anne’s has entered rarefied air this year, becoming a billion-dollar brand after its first rebrand in 30 years. The brand exceeded all its financial goals YOY, experiencing big growth in sales, traffic, EBITA, and even loyalty acquisition. Auntie Anne’s also experienced growth across its International footprint, adding a whopping 64 stores across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East this year.

I create video that connects—visually, emotionally, and strategically. With over 15 years of experience across commercials, social content, brand films, and short narratives, I concept, direct, and produce work that resonates. My background in film and production gives me the storytelling instincts to shape meaning, and the production chops to bring it to life—on budget, on message, and on screen.

From pro bono passion projects to million-dollar shoots, I’ve led productions where every dollar counts and every frame matters. Whether it’s a 6-second social hit or a sweeping brand anthem, I ensure the story lands and the craft shines.

What I bring:
End-to-end production leadership—from concept to final cut

Expertise in directing, producing, editing, and post workflows

Experience across broadcast, digital, social, and experiential formats

A strategic mindset that aligns creative with business goals

Let’s make something unforgettable—something that earns attention, sparks emotion, and drives results.

Challenge

Despite declining teenage pregnancy rates since the '90s, unintended pregnancies among women aged 18-30 were on the rise. Research identified that many women were ambivalent about the impact of unintended pregnancies and lacked knowledge about newer contraceptive methods.

Objective

The campaign aimed to increase awareness of the potential impacts of unintended pregnancy and reeducate women about contraceptive options. The goal was to change attitudes and norms about birth control usage.

Solution

To break through the clutter, the campaign introduced a memorable and eye-catching mascot: a 7-foot stork.

Target Audience and Channels: The campaign strategically targeted key demographic segments in places like restaurants, movies, bars, and cars—places where potential hookups might occur.

Multi-Channel Approach: The campaign utilized a mix of guerilla marketing, broad reach, online engagement, and events featuring guest appearances by the stork. The initiative also included an interactive website and resource center.

Campaign Results

High Recall and Positive Impressions

Recall: 72.3% of respondents recalled the campaign.

Impressions: 54.5% found the campaign funny, and 75.2% thought it was informative.

Engagement: 51.8% laughed when they saw the campaign, 21.6% shared it with others, and 42.5% discussed it with friends.

Impact on Unintended Pregnancies

Decline in Unintended Pregnancies: Iowa saw an 8% decline in unintended pregnancies.

Comparison: The decline in Iowa outpaced other Midwest states, which saw a 6.1% decrease.

Reduction in Abortion Rates: Since peaking at 14.2%, the percentage of pregnancies terminated by abortion in Iowa declined by 24%, a noteworthy achievement compared to other states.

Conclusion

The "Avoid the Stork" campaign successfully raised awareness about the consequences of unintended pregnancies and promoted contraceptive education. By employing a unique and engaging approach, the campaign effectively reached its target audience, resulting in positive behavior changes and significant declines in unintended pregnancies and abortion rates in Iowa.

Challenge

The bottled water market faced heavy commoditization and mounting environmental concerns as consumers became increasingly aware of the plastic waste accumulating in landfills. Coca-Cola sought to address these challenges by developing a more sustainable packaging solution.

Solution

Coca-Cola introduced PlantBottle packaging, a 100% recyclable bottle made from up to 30% plant-based materials. This innovative packaging aimed to reduce carbon footprint and emissions while resonating with consumers’ environmental consciousness.

Strategy

While environmental benefits like carbon footprint reduction can be complex for some consumers, Coca-Cola discovered that linking PlantBottle’s innovative technology to consumers’ emotional connections with plants effectively conveyed the sustainability message.

Emotional Connection: By highlighting the plant-based materials in PlantBottle, Coca-Cola connected the innovative technology to consumers’ love for nature and sustainability.

Interactive Tracking: Partnering with Coca-Cola's scientists and supply chain management teams, a real-time sustainability tracking system was created. This system allowed both the company and consumers to monitor the positive environmental impact of PlantBottle globally.

Living Exhibit: The tracking system was showcased as an interactive "living" exhibit at The World of Coke, providing visitors with a hands-on experience of the sustainability efforts.

Outcome

The PlantBottle initiative successfully communicated Coca-Cola’s commitment to sustainability, fostering a deeper emotional connection with consumers. The real-time tracking system and the living exhibit further enhanced consumer engagement and awareness of the positive environmental impact of PlantBottle.