Miguel H. Gonzalez
Digital Creative, Content and Management Director
Bio Miguel Gonzalez is a digital creative
and management leader for advertising, integrated and digital marketing firms. Most recently at Momentum Worldwide, Miguel reorganized the agency’s digital practice across North America while launching 10 initiatives in 9 months for Coca-Cola, HP, Microsoft, American Express and more. Previously at DraftFCB, Miguel led the emerging platforms team that spearheaded digital and cross-media campaigns for Boeing, Kmart, KFC and SC Johnson. Miguel was Vice President, Creative Director at Leo Burnett where he co-led the launch of “An Army Of One” for the U.S. Army, managed the unprecedented “Basic Training” webisode series, and launched the first social networking community for Philip Morris. During the dot-com era at interactive agencies including Leapnet (Chicago), Poppe Tyson (NY) and Ogilvy Interactive (NY), Miguel developed and launched interactive experiences and campaigns for LendingTree, a startup brand he named, Valvoline, Dean Witter, Prudential Securities, IBM, MSNBC and Slate online magazine. Miguel launched media mogul Barry Diller’s first web site at TV shopping network QVC in the mid1990s. At his first agency, Gyro Worldwide in Philadelphia, Miguel helped make the notorious Zipperhead campaign that appears in the book Advertising Today (Phaidon). Miguel’s work has received awards from Cannes, the One Show, the Effies, Art Director’s Club of New York, Addys, Reggies, New York Advertising Festival, the Yahoo! Big Idea Chair and ad:tech.
Photo: Sandro
New Balance At Momentum, we faced clients who needed breakthroughs in digital and social media as the economy tanked.
Season In The Balance garnered enough buzz and positive sentiment that New Balance renewed the effort for another year. Season two will launch in 2010.
New Balance Social media management, outreach and moni-
toring were handled by Momentum’s Engagement Intelligence group in London under an internal finance cooperation agreement I initiated.
Hampton Hampton was introducing the Cloud Nine Bed to mid-tier business travelers. I thought, If you’ve had a great night’s sleep, it shows.
The idea was produced in national print, TV, radio, OLA, web videos, web site, a national live event tour and experiential Bed Head interventions at airports for weary business travelers. Then we won the prestigious Yahoo! Big Idea Chair award.
Winner oF the 2008 TasTy award for BesT Lunch Performance
“this is perFect For our liFestyle.”
“We have a liFest
yle?”
“Feed your appetite For a good Film.” “Finally a Film that leaves you satisFied.”
KFC In the QSR category, you work with what you’ve got. You deliver within razor thin margins. And your results count.
When we launched the Life Tastes Better With KFC brand platform, we ran print and digital advertising that re-inforced the mainline effort’s “Friday Night Lights” brand world.
KFC For a new product that needs explanation , a
promotional microsite can be fun and smart. We built this one using internal resources for only $95,000. So it can be cheap, too.
KFC Here’s how to leverage an existing asset, the
national TV spot, for interactive media. For the expanding banner, you guess what Mom will say and see results. On the left is a dvMail experiment in video email that outpulls conventional email by double digits.
Rolling Rock At Momentum, the New York-based team that
had been the core of Amster Yard collaborated with the St. Louis-based account and creative teams to develop “Born Small Town” for newly acquired AB-Inbev brand Rolling Rock. We activated the campaign through a music tour and local bar events featuring Bloodshot Records artists and a really relaxed vibe that resonated with Rolling Rock’s indie cred.
U.S. Army My contribution to reinventing the U.S. Army brand began with the key strategic insight that I wrote on an airplane napkin: “Army Is Strength.�
The results were incredible. We turned the brand and the recruiting mission around in the first year. Plus, the campaign won a gold Effie. After presenting at the Pentagon and traveling in the U.S. and Europe with the senior-level clients, I remain closely connected to members of the client team to this day.
:: Miguel H. Gonzalez :: 708 445 9096 :: miggon@hotmail.com ::
U.S. Army I wrote and presented this launch kit that was
drop shipped to more than 3,000 recruiting offices. It included a briefing manual, the iconic posters from the launch campaign, banners, window decals, post cards and mouse pads.
U.S. Army Basic Training became the heart of the U.S.
Army campaign after its launch. The agency and client leadership came to loggerheads over creative differences, and the media was already paid for. So, this truly ground breaking campaign of webisodes, spots, print, POS and, importantly, online advertising driven by search effectively inhabited the brand. And it worked. We also took home a bronze CyberLion.
U.S. Army I wrote up the concept, storyboarded webisodes, plotted the editorial calendar and supervised casting. Then I sold the idea in a tiny Pentagon conference room full of Generals. No pressure.
U.S. Army Basic Training actually became content itself.
The History Channel picked it up and ran it as a 13 week cable TV series.
U.S. Army I supervised the creative development of the
U.S. Army’s important sports marketing effort. Originally, we named the NHRA dragster “The Sarge.” But champion driver Tony Schumacher quickly embodied the moniker and Army brand values himself.
U.S. Army In addition to supervising the sub-contractor
agencies at Leo Burnett, I actively managed the more than $55 million dollar U.S. Army direct response budget, production and creative duties.
Shout Wipes It takes patience and a great deal of trust for
CPG clients to approve innovative work. If the idea stinks, you’re dead. The idea stems from the benefit: Shout Wipes bring clothes back to life. This viral video won a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals. The campaign included live events in six markets and online social media support supplied by New Media Strategies. Family company CEO Fisk Johnson loves it.
American Express The way to break through the current stalemate of client-agency of record relationships is to present a campaign that is both strategically and creatively undeniable.
As a platform for converting NWA cardholders into Delta SkyMiles members, Make Miles Matter was produced in live events, online and good old TV and radio. Importantly, the idea provided the catalyst for everybody’s contribution to the client’s success.
Busch Gardens This site for Colonial Williamsburg gives con-
sumers personalization and a calendar application to explore and enjoy the real-world experience of visiting the historic vacation destination.
HP HP invested in an entertainment property and a
retail partnership with Office Depot. We pulled it together with an integrated retail and consumer promotion platform, “The Monster Makeover.�
Microsoft (MSN) Like more contemporary online promotions, this
effort for MSN Internet Access demonstrates how brand relevance can inform a promotional platform idea. At the time, MSN was mailing 35 million discs every quarter. With this brand benefit driven program, we got them a 10 percent lift at $32 per acquisition. It’s a case study for why “buy this, get that” is never enough.
Kraft Foods I spent three solid years in the trenches of con-
sumer promotion, experiential and entertainment activation marketing as VP, Deputy Executive Creative Director of FCB/Marketing Drive plus as a contractor at Frankel/Arc Worldwide and 141 Worldwide. In my quest to completely understand the consumer decision journey, I was compelled to understand how all marketing communication and brand-building campaigns can derail at the fateful “point of decision� in stores. I learned to love the spider chart while winning Reggies, Promo, Ex and POPAI awards.
DiGiorno My team developed the thematic platform and
POS for DiGiorno’s NCAA partnership from its inception. We were kickin’ it old school while partnering with AOR partners for advertising, digital, PR and media.
Worlds of Discovery As lead agency for Busch Entertainment Corpo-
ration, we partnered with them through their post-InBev transition as the stand-alone corporate brand Worlds Of Discovery. Our challenge was to keep the new umbrella above its constituent theme park brands without losing its identity in the mix. The site used Papervision 3D and Actionscript 3 techniques for visual interest and a truly contemporary feel (beyond the look).
Boeing As Group Director for Emerging Platforms at
DraftFCB, I took on a hybrid role that was part creative idea starter and part innovation strategy thought leader. For Boeing, we took the client to the IPG Emerging Media Lab and immersed them in digital and social media. Storyscape came from that off site as a groundswell for the brand idea. The people of Boeing embody its brand proposition because at any given hour there’s somebody at Boeing working on innovation all over the globe.
Monsanto This looks like B2B, but it’s really B2F ... farmers
are actually among the most wired businesspeople in the U.S. Momentum launched the Genuity brand and defined its Brand World. The site was developed using Adobe Flex, the latest generation of Flash, on top of a dynamic content management system to accommodate all the media it takes to explain genetically modified traits and stuff like that.
COMMENTARY THAT HITS
BE LOW T H E B EL T W A Y
What matters.
Slate At Leapnet, my team went on a new business
tear with Microsoft after solidifying our MSNBC relationship. For Michael Kinsley’s ground breaking political magazine, I led the strategic effort and wrote the brand manifesto with the tag line “What Matters.” Slate became number one in its category, and we had a lot of fun with it.
The Internet’s informed look at politics and culture. Read it FREE at www.slate.com.
© 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Slate is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.
Concern This pro-bono project introduced a one-day
event in the US in the form of a do-it-yourself word of mouth marketing kit that was mailed in an interoffice envelope complete with push pins. We asked people to make their own copies and pass the whole package forward. The campaign included a series of web videos that would today be used as “social media objects� to increase awareness, conversation and buzz through online social networks.
IBM As a design-oriented copywriter I’ve often been
asked if I can lead designers -- especially in digital. This IBM site won gold from the Art Director’s Club of New York and the unambiguous praise of CEO Lou Gerstner.
QVC The original QVC.com was itself a precursor of
integrated marketing to come. I’d developed the name “The Quest for America’s Best.” And I created the site based on giving fans exclusive access to original content they couldn’t get on TV. This was not only one of the first advertising campaign web sites of its kind, it was Barry Diller’s first web site. The design’s dated. But the idea and content strategy remain vital and relevant.
Development and Production Resource Contacts Digital is far too diverse for any agency to go it alone. Even the digital agencies need support here and there. I have fostered a network of best-in-breed suppliers for strategic insights, mobile programs, rich media, kiosks, projections, content management systems, rich Internet applications, social media monitoring and outreach, multimedia email and more.
AvVenta, Charleston Digital Arbor, Boston Blockdot, Dallas The Hyperfactory, New York/Auckland eatdrink, Las Vegas/Chicago Interpolls, Pasadena/New York Phenomblue, Omaha New Media Strategies, Washington DC Sia Interactive, Miami/Buenos Aires Admob, San Mateo/New York Nearpod, Miami MonsterMedia, Orlando Pointroll, New York Oddcast, New York The Viral Factory, London/Santa Monica sixteen30, Chicago
Electric Artists, New York Eye Wonder, New York/Chicago Feed Company, Los Angeles dvMail, Evanston (IL) egg strategy, Denver/Chicago Impact Mobile, Toronto/New York The Seventh Chamber, London VerveLife, Chicago BzzAgent, Boston MotiveQuest, Evanston (IL) Klip Collective, Philadelphia Protein Editorial, Chicago Mekanism, San Francisco Eyeblaster, New York Domani Studios, Brooklyn/Chicago Driftlab, Atlanta/St. Louis