NADAV MARKEL
DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA CREATIVE DIRECTION | ART DIRECTION | STRATEGY | DESIGN
Scroll down to see some of my work.
DIRECTV
4K Activation Campaign
Emotion in slow-motion is the theme of this social
video campaign.
Seeing someone’s emotions change in extreme slow motion is an eye-catching way to illustrate how people react the first time they see their favorite shows in 4K.
I concepted 4 different executions for social videos and guided them through production. From cleverly mapping different types of 4k content to different feelings, to working with the director to capture the right emotions, and directing the post production teams during editing, I was a creative lead throughout the entire process.
This work was intended to convince people to sign up for DTV 4K service and the results exceeded our projections.
TLDR: I create video content
for social media
Microsoft
Social Media for Cloud Services
I led a creative team spanning 3 offices around the globe to concept, design and produce massive amounts of social content illustrating Microsoft’s thought leadership in artificial intelligence and digital transformation across multiple industries.
I was handed an account that was in danger of being lost and I quickly turned it around by developing new design templates, incorporating animation and video, and adding conceptual thinking and humor to a subject that can easily become dry and technical.
My work put the agency back on top of Microsoft’s
agency roster.
TLDR: I led a global creative team outputting massive amounts of
social content.
Heluva Good!
Rebrand
I helped develop a new, quirky brand voice for Heluva Good! The strategy was to avoid talking about flavor and ingredients like everyone else in the category. We wanted to simply put the fun back into food.
This example is a rotating set of parallax style videos for the client’s website. I developed the scenarios, chose the photographer and helped bring this idea to life from casting, to guiding the shoot, animation and production for the web.
This rebranding effort helped the client achieve record sales and defend against a competitor that was making inroads into its territory.
TLDR: I have successfully rebranded
companies and products
Budweiser
Project 12 Photo Series
Craft beer from a brewing superpower sounds like an oxymoron, but all of Budweiser’s 12 master brewers are legit craftsmen. When Bud gave them each an opportunity to show their skills, my agency was tasked with spreading the word across the social ecosystem.
We focused on reaching specific categories where craftsmanship is respected and created photo essays around influencers important to those interests. From sports to music and movies, we created content and released it on the channels our targets spent time on. And we linked that to the Project 12 program.
Not only did we successfully engage these communities, but the work got an honorable mention in the ADDY awards.
TLDR: I know how to steer content to
communities that care about it
Zicam Total Immune
Influencer Activation
Zicam wanted to make some noise about a new product launch but didn’t want to spend a lot of money doing it. A publisher/influencer partnership was the way to go. We determined that Self Magazine had the right audience and Kathryn Budig, a yoga and lifestyle influencer had the most engaged following.
We created a series of 12 videos, released across the social channels of all the players in this partnership, which illustrated how Kathryn lived life “Totally In” and how our product helped her do that.
My role was to concept the ideas for each of the videos, help direct the production team during the shoot, and art direct the videos in post production.
The client got a successful product launch and we won a Telly award for our efforts.
TLDR: I can turn a small budget
into a big win
Zicam
Product Launch Campaign
Zicam relaunched their (highly controversial) nasal swabs and as the AOR, my agency was responsible for the entire launch campaign.
I worked together with the Creative Director to come up with the big idea, a 360 campaign that played on the snapping sound the product makes when you crack it open it – "Get over your cold with a snap".
This idea played out across TV, digital and social media. As the ACD, I was deeply involved in every phase of this campaign from concepting, to art directing
and production.
The product launch went very well, and this work won a Telly and a Summit award.
TLDR: I can come up with the “Big Idea” and turn it into a 360 campaign
Chevrolet
Timeline Postcards
One of the cool things about working with big clients at big agencies is getting the first crack at Facebook’s newest features.
For Chevy, we got advance notice when Facebook’s timeline first came out so I was able to come up with one of the first apps that took advantage of it.
The idea is to memorialize an experience you had in a Chevy by creating a postcard that integrated with your friends, your photos, and Google Street View. Combining these assets would create an individualized, sharable postcard that inserted a memory into your timeline at the moment it happened.
TLDR: I like to push creative boundaries
with innovative technology
Absolut Vodka
My Absolut Brooklyn
Rather than simply replicating an offline campaign, I prefer to use digital and social media to expand and enhance a campaign.
Spike Lee designed the Absolut Brooklyn bottle to represent his childhood home in Brooklyn and this concept gives people the power to do the same. By overlaying a transparent bottle onto Google Street View, anybody can create an original Absolut bottle design and share it with their friends.
I came up with the idea and directed our developers to create a working proof of concept, but alas, it never got produced.
TLDR: I create platforms that let people design their own unique creations
Partnership for drug
Free Kids
Twitter Hack
Some of my favorite work comes from unexpected clients. This was a pro-bono project that the agency was doing TV spots for.
Digital was not the main focus for the general creative team so they didn’t expect what was coming.
The brief was to prove to parents that kids were abusing prescription drugs found in their own homes. The idea I came up with was to hack into the Twitter API and every time a slang term for prescription drugs was tweeted, it would scrape the post and display it while also dropping a handful of pills onto an ever-growing pile.
I came up with this idea and worked with developers to bring it to life.
TLDR: I look for opportunities to do
things nobody has done before
Global Archer
An iPhone App I created
I’d had an idea for a game like this for quite some time and pitched it to multiple clients to no avail. Not wanting to let the idea go, I partnered with a friend and contracted a developer to help me build it.
I handled creative direction and user experience duties while overseeing the development and deployment of the app. Once released, I created social channels and took on community management. It was hard work but extremely satisfying to see it out in the real world.
This app had over 10,000 downloads and hundreds of people playing daily.
TLDR: if I believe in an idea, I’ll find a
way to make it happen
Banner Ads
I admit it, I have a soft spot for banner ads. I like the creative challenge that comes with the strict guidelines. I like the simplicity of a strong message in a small size. The small scale and quick turnaround of display media let’s me use my concepting muscles to create pure advertising. And when it comes to rich media, there is really a huge amount that can be accomplished creatively.
In the past, when Flash was a thing, I would concept, design and code massive amounts of banners. Here is a selection of some of my favorites.
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TLDR: It’s weird, but I love
creating banner ads