When Direct Auto briefed us, first off, it was depressing. Their target suffers endless hardships. Real hardships, like choosing between paying for groceries and rent.  Not like, “my internet stopped working ALL afternoon”. And yet, research showed that they always kept a strong sense of hope and optimism. Our strategy folks called them "resilient strugglers".  Uplifting, right?

Direct Auto’s existing tagline was, “We’ll do right by you”. This notion of caring for their customers is at the heart of their business. So how could we tell a group that is decidedly not used to good customer service about this diamond in the rough?

We conceived an idea baby. His name was JJ Hightail. He’d be a happy-go-lucky, Southern, ex racecar driver, with a past so tragic it was comical.  Even so, he’d be positive about life, and let customers know just how helpful Direct Auto was for all his car insurance needs.

JJ gave Direct Auto the simultaneously empathetic and entertaining voice that they were lacking. And made their strategic positioning take real meaning. 

Co-Creative: Matt Schaffer
Executive Creative Director: Larry Hampel
Directors: Michael Patrick Jann, Jared Hess
Photographer: Matt Hoyle

While ideating on the brief for the Massachusetts Prostate Cancer Coalition, a non profit out of Boston, we found men were either newly diagnosed and anxious, or unaware of preventive measures like PSA tests. The reality is prostate cancer can make you feel like you’re part of a club that no one wants to join. These men, long conditioned to face illness alone, needed outreach and a sense of community to help navigate this difficult challenge.

Our fresh brand platform, “Join the Club,” not only made support feel accessible but also appealed to younger men, who are increasingly at risk.

We leaned into the demographic being mostly men with green leathers, cursive fonts and cues from country clubs to dial up that “club” aspect and it’s premium offerings.

So far it has grown membership and elevated the organizations’s presence–resulting in a campaign loved by both us and the client.

Agency: Colbert Studios

ECD/Copy: John Colbert

CD/Copy: Dave Devesa

CD/Designer: Greg Puglese

Strategy: Emily Mascher

PMs: Rachel Moser, Eli Weger

UX: Mark Engel

While freelancing at Cutwater and working on Hartz we noticed the brands social presence was a bit straight forward for something that is targeted at dogs and cats. So we took the content calendars of a few months and let the catnip fly.

Here are just a few of the fun posts we came up with.

Agency: Cutwater

Creative Director/ CW: John Colbert

ACD/ Art: Jen Dodaro

GCD: Scott Padden

Meta and Ray-Ban paired up to make smart glasses that combined cool tech like built in speakers, hands-free shooting, and an AI assistant, with the stylish frame styles like the classic Wayfarers.

Our task was to target gen z with TikToks that were at a production value Ray-Ban was used to in their broadcast work, but that we could execute often using iPhones. And in paid media so the videos had to educate as well as entertain.

We achieved this by bringing the pre-pro process of broadcast to social, and arming our content creators with LED lights, wireless lavs, and art directors on set. Oh, and decent scripts too.

Agency: VaynerMedia LA

ECD: Aaron Howe

Group Creative Director: Cristy Sotelo

Creative Director/ Senior Copywriter: John Colbert

Senior Art Director: Nina Wang

Senior Copywriter: Alla Arutcheva

Content Creators: Pablo Lanuza, Vasilina Mikhaylova, Jair Lucas, Chris Zamora, Nadya Lambreva

There’s something powerful within all of us. If we support it. If we champion it. If we cheer for it. If we’re given the confidence to become, we can emerge as what we were always meant to be.

ENTER CURIOUS, EMERGE COURAGEOUS

Lawrenceville Academy is a prestigious prep school in New Jersey where a majority of kids graduate to go onto Ivy League schools. With a beautiful campus, caring faculty, and a history of success we knew a campaign that highlighted the transformation a student goes through during their time at Lawrenceville would be very powerful when speaking to parents, alumni and specifically big donors.

The following is the Donor Campaign we created to help them fundraise towards their annual endowment which goes to categories like scholarships, new facilities, etc.

Credits:

Executive Creative Director- Patrick Macomber

Creative Director/ Copywriter - John Colbert

Associate Creative Director- Greg Puglese

Senior Designer- Juliann Gates

Senior Copywriter- Tobey Ward

I worked at a video store in high school so to say freelancing on Tubi, a free streaming service for movies and TV was right up my alley was an understatement.

Taking the strategy from the TV campaign, “just keeps going” we did TikToks for many different briefs from advertising their Halloween content in October to hitting all sorts of types of viewers showing how Tubi has everything they need, and then some.

I was fortunate to help oversee these projects as well as concept and script the videos for the content creators to shoot.

The following is a handful of various TikToks we made. As you can tell, we had zero fun.

Agency: VaynerMedia LA

Group Creative Director: Cristy Sotelo

Creative Director/ Copywriter: John Colbert

Strategy: Jeremy McDonald

Content Creators: Jair Lucas, Emmanuel Roldan, Han Whitaker, Ryan Wentz, Niled Martinez

The problem? Viewers today are everywhere. On multiple screens, with the attention span of a small child full of sugar. The solution? Comcast Spotlight let's advertisers be across all channels so they can reach viewers no matter what. Here's the campaign we created to illustrate that. 

Co-Creative: Matt Schaffer

Executive Creative Director: Larry Hampel

Director: Josh Miller

The University of Virginia Athletics department was looking to build hype for the upcoming season to boost ticket sales. After being on campus interviewing everyone involved with the organization we walked away knowing we had to showcase how every moment, every play and every inch of the game matters- while making sure we stood true to the brand of being confident, yet not cocky. We had a special advantage that we were able to shoot with the actual players to get fans excited while we set out to tell a compelling story about camaraderie and teamwork.

It’s also just really fun doing a sports campaign so there’s that too.

Executive Creative Director: Patrick Macomber

Creative Director/ Copywriter: John Colbert

Associate Creative Director: Greg Puglese

Copywriter: Jason Donahue

Director: Konstantinos Psimaris

Head of Production: Anderson Bradshaw

Exec Producer: Justin Padilla

Producer: Brandon Suquet

Editor: Shane Scherlolz

To advertise Hartz’s very lickable, wet cat treats we had fun with not only the fact that they are “deliciously delickable”, as well as the truth that once a cat has had a taste they become insufferable.

Director: David Hicks

Agency: Cutwater

CCO: Chuck McBride

GCDs: Scott Padden, Adam Vohlidka

CD/Copy: John Colbert

Copywriter: Taylor Smith

Art Director: Alexandra Ebright

Belmont Park is to be the greatest arena to grace the Long Island shore. With state-of-the-art amenities like a 200 room hotel, high-end retail shopping, and bespoke cocktail service featuring premium views of both center ice for Islanders fans and center stage for music lovers- we needed a campaign that would emotionally entice our target audience of affluent New Yorkers to not just buy season tickets, but to purchase custom suites as well.

The following is an anthem video which will be played in their sales suite to close clients, as well as a few pieces we made used for print and social.

ECD: Patrick Macomber

CD/copywriter: John Colbert

ACD: Lindsay Tweed

Copywriter: Jason Donahue

Producer: Lori Schmon

Director: Johnny Andow

Editor: Alex Ayabe

Social on social- this is some spec work I had way too much fun making with fake Onion posts talking about social media truths.

Click each to expand. 

Creative Director/ writer - John Colbert

Designer - Michelle Badua

The Ad Council wanted to inform New Yorkers of the importance of making a plan should a natural disaster strike.A pretty simple mission, except for one problem: New Yorkers think they know everything, and what they don’t know, they can figure out on the fly. So we struck the one chord they couldn’t afford to be cocky about - the safety of their loved ones.

Co-Creative: Matt Schaffer
Executive Creative Director: Larry Hampel

I actually started my career doing a lot of pharma. So I’m privvy to the legal restrictions but as well as the benefits of working on products that can truly help people live better lives.

The following is a big array of creative samples from DTC to DTP brands spanning from agencies Deutsch NY to DiD in Philadelphia.