Neil Levy

Online travel booking has hurt the airline industry. It's made it all about finding the best price. But travel is way bigger than whatever the lowest going rate might be. It creates memories that last forever. So when Cathay Pacific wanted to find a way to promote Hong Kong as tourism destination, we set out to create an experience that would make potential travellers feel like they were already there. And in the process, we created a new way of reaching customers.

How do you tell the story of a little olive oil brand with a limited budget trying to go up against bigger, more established brands on the grocery shelf? You find one unique little thing every day to celebrate and share it with the world. And if you do it right, that little olive oil brand becomes a lot bigger.

The following is a piece I worked on when I was freelancing at EVB, in my opinion, the best social media agency in the world. Stephen (the ECD), Kevin Dailor and I came up with the initial idea: Altoids has always been a curiously strong mint. What if we used that legacy to celebrate the “curiously strong” social media behaviors that seem to permeate Facebook. Like any social idea with many moving parts, a ton of people contributed to making it great. My original thought was to make the intro video that launched the idea a “Busby Berkeley” inspired musical. Fortunately, Geno, Jean and Devin (three great creatives who ended up producing the final work after I left) went more contemporary. I think it was the right call. It was fun coming up with the character personalities. There were so many great ones we didn't even get to mention. The net result was work that made people pay attention. Thousands of the awards were sent and the video had almost 3 million views. Hoping it helped sell a few more mints as well.

It seems like every year another computer maker introduces a machine that’s supposed to change the world. They get thinner and lighter. With sleeker designs and more powerful processors. But despite the advancements, why is it the average computer battery hasn’t evolved to last more than a couple hours on one charge? For the average person, this might not seem like a big deal. But for the business traveller who depends on finding power to work on the road, it can be a real problem. This campaign addressed the issue with a 360 idea to help launch HP’s new Folio: The Ultrabook made for business.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the SF Zoo for a long time. And while I’m proud of all the marketing I’ve helped them execute, if someone asked me what I was most proud of, it would probably be this: The first campaign we did after a tiger attacked three visitors and nearly closed the zoo forever. One of the hardest marketing challenges I’ve ever had to work on but in the end, something that helped bring San Francisco together in ways we could never have imagined when we came up with the idea.