Unproduced concepts
Ideas don’t need permission.
People ask what I do with all the ideas. This. None of these got built, and I still think about every one of them. If you need big ideas, this is the part of the job I’d do all day.
Kraft Heinz · PR stunt
The Barge
After 21 years, Heinz Field became Acrisure Field. The name came off the building. Heinz wanted a PR stunt.
Every Steelers broadcast opens on the same aerial. The city, the stadium, the river. So put a giant Heinz bottle on a barge in the Allegheny and dye the water red around it. No media buy, no copy. It’s in the opening shot of every home game, all season.
Heinz loses the sign and keeps the shot.
Wingstop · PR stunt
Swap Them Buns
Wingstop launched a chicken sandwich into a market where everyone already has a favorite.
So trade for it. Bring any other chain’s chicken sandwich into a Wingstop and swap it for ours, free. Half-eaten counts.
We accept all forms of chicken sandwich unfaithfulness.
Citi · Formula 1 hospitality
Citi Sky Suite
At a Grand Prix, every brand builds a lounge at the track and fights for the same clients. Citi’s top clients don’t need another lounge.
The Citi Sky Suite is an airship over the circuit. Twenty seats, the only unobstructed view of the whole race, and a menu from the best restaurants in whatever city the race is in.
Everyone else is in a tent. Citi is the most visible thing at the race.
Logitech For Creators · Global program
Creators in Residence
Streaming doesn’t reward rest. It rewards being on, all the time. Logitech makes the gear creators perform with, so it’s the right brand to give them somewhere to stop.
Creators in Residence is a residency. Creators apply, and the winners get the Streamlabs Airstream, parked somewhere beautiful, for as long as they need it. Work in it, stream from it, or don’t turn anything on. It launches at TwitchCon, with the Airstream on the floor and the biggest creators in the building streaming the first call for applications from inside it.
An award you win by needing a break.
Jell-O · Mobile vending
Funexpected DMV
The DMV is one of the most miserable places in America. That’s why Jell-O should be there.
Funexpected: Jell-O shows up where fun isn’t. A vending machine on a trailer outside the DMV asks what small win you’re having today. Remembered all three forms of ID. Combed your hair for the photo. Got up with the alarm and beat the line. Pick one and it hands you a Jell-O.
The DMV will never get better. That doesn’t mean your day can’t.
Taco Bell · OnlyFans
OnlyTacos
This one required nerve, which is exactly why it was right for Taco Bell.
Taco Bell opens an OnlyFans account. OnlyTacos: food porn, played completely straight. Idris Elba reading a Crunchwrap recipe in a voice that should be illegal. Guest chefs. Fans submitting their own builds to earn a spot as a creator. Live-stream cook-offs, Megan Rapinoe versus Anne Burrell. And a cookbook at the end called You Only Live Más.
Every new subscriber triggers a donation to fight food insecurity. Subscribing is free.
Fannie Mae · National program
The Affordable Housing Plan
Fannie Mae’s whole job is getting people into homes. The country doesn’t have enough of them, and nobody has a plan.
So Fannie Mae makes one. Partner with ICON, the leader in 3D-printed homes, and Gensler to design five model houses, one for each regional climate, printable for a fraction of what a house costs to build. Give the plans away. Set up regional stations where anyone can rent the printer. Build the first one in an underserved neighborhood in Washington, DC, and run it as a showroom and a classroom for first-time buyers.
A lender that stops waiting for houses to exist and helps print them.