Creative Direction, Content Development, & Advertising

Overview

One of the more impressive things, looking at Save The Crew as a part-political campaign part-cause-based-ad agency, is the amount of stuff we created.

From the humble beginnings of a donation page on the internet and a few social media handles, we ended up building out a full website with merch store and an at-least-weekly blog, we grew into a social media behemoth on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, we produced web ads, outdoor billboards, newspaper ads, frequent email newsletters to both fans and business allies, and on top of that multiple campaigns to push initiatives like our appeal to our friends in Austin, our fan-created jersey unveil, our stadium concept unveiling, a massive season ticket pledge drive, and a legends reunion soccer match featuring returning Crew heroes.

All of this took an insane amount of not only our time, but collaboration. As a grassroots entirely volunteer initiative, we relied on our local industry contacts when we couldn’t do something in-house. Photo and video shoots, media space, and social media management software were the three biggest donations. Most of the rest of our production occurred in-house with our team of designers, web programmers, photographers, and video editors. I was able to help direct video shoots and productions, concept and write web pages, manage social media, and ensure consistent and powerful brand messaging in all of our written communications to our myriad of audiences and email lists.

The “Dear Austin” Video

One of the biggest threats to Save The Crew’s “always positive” mantra was something we decided to get out ahead of. With so much of the movement growing online, it would have been easy for our opposition to try to turn Columbus vs Austin into a divisive and distracting battle that we knew wasn’t the real issue. We knew the good people of Austin didn’t ask to be pitted against us. We knew most of them had not even heard of this attempt to bring soccer to their city. We saw a huge opportunity to set the narrative first by telling our story to the people of Austin in a heartfelt way that also served to remind our supporters in Columbus and around the world to be civil to Austin and understand that they didn’t ask for this either.

I helped write and creative direct the Dear Austin video, with production help from my connections to the film studio, Kinopicz. It was filmed in an afternoon, but its effects were both instant and lasting. Upon release, it climbed to the #1 video on ESPN’s website for its entire soccer category. Most importantly, it provided a lasting reminder to the people of Austin and the fans of the Crew that we were not at odds–there was just a better way to bring soccer to Austin that didn’t involve moving the Crew.  

The Community Kit

As many fans protested purchasing any new merchandise while the team’s future was still up in the air, the idea of producing our own jersey (or “kit” in soccer terms) seemed like a great idea. Teased at the end of the 2017 season, it gave us a huge opportunity to keep marketing our message and movement in the team’s offseason, when we knew we’d have to up our marketing game to keep top of mind with our audiences.  

As a lifelong soccer jersey collector (read: freak), I had a heavy hand in what would become The Community Kit. We formed a design committee to present options to the broader leadership council of Save The Crew. The design we ultimately arrived at was the highest end jersey that private citizens can produce without an adidas contract–right down to the patches and embellishments that come from the same manufacturer that makes them for global powerhouse clubs, national teams, and MLS. We also involved a national brand that’s headquartered in Columbus as well as a growing Columbus business as our primary and sleeve sponsors. This was by design; it helped us fund upfront costs, was sure to give them a ton of recognition based on our global profile, and also served the message to the league and media that there was business support large and small that supports soccer in Columbus (that there was none was a false narrative being used to justify the team’s move).  

The marketing of The Community Kit was probably the most hype we ever put behind one of our own initiatives. After we agreed on our design we had a lengthy ordering process since the design was fully custom and sourced from global suppliers. That was time we needed to be marketing, so we ran a reveal campaign that built hype and demand.

We teased details of the jersey a piece at a time on social media in the weeks leading up to an unveil event. Every week our reveal led to huge spikes in web and social traffic and pre-orders kept rising.

In the background, I knew the actual jerseys would not be present for the unveil event itself. We needed to instead have a presentation worthy of coming out to an event for. I’d seen MLS presentations and global rebrands that often used a speakers-and-video format for large unveiling functions and it became clear that our video needed to tell the story of The Community Kit in a way that A.) showed how the jersey reinforced the message of the movement, B.) showed each detail was symbolic and carefully considered, and C.) told a broader reason of why this jersey would help us Save The Crew. I wrote and directed an unveil video that gave the jersey the storied context it deserves.

Below is the video used to unveil The Community Kit. You can read the full case study here.

Save The Crew’s Stadium Project

In August of 2018 we unveiled the finale of a secret project we’d been working on for months. Using what intel we had from various civic sources and insiders, we knew that any deal to save the team would need to include a league-mandated plan for a new downtown stadium.

Our stadium project had a number of key objectives for various audiences. First and foremost, it was to show the league office that it was indeed possible to realistically fit a new soccer-specific stadium in a desirable downtown location. It also served to build excitement and buzz among citizens of Columbus and a fanbase who would be leaving behind a stadium that was old but considered hallowed ground. This public buzz and support then in turn created a momentum that could persuade city, county, and state civic leaders to support it. It could also help convince the owners of the unused land we proposed the stadium be situated on to begin considering a sale should we save the team.

We wanted everyone to see a new stadium was possible, where it should go, and to dream of how to make it happen.

Using that sentiment as a guide, I helped craft the presentation of the plans. We offered it as a high-res, beautiful download on our website, but not before a surprise public unveil.

We billed the Stadium Unveil event as a “special happy hour” to honor another the success of another initiative (a Pledge to purchase tickets under new ownership that had grown to 10k tickets pledged), with a featured guest, former Crew legend Dante Washington who would be getting awarded his own Community Kit for his service to the movement.
The stadium plan completely blindsided the audience and the media went nuts. A local company that makes kits of famous stadiums out of Legos even sold replicas of our concept stadium.

The website experienced its highest traffic day to date as our stadium presentation was downloaded thousands of times in 24 hours. We later turned the presentation, with my narrative guiding you through a day at the new park, into an extremely limited run of books for key leaders. Oh, the actual new stadium (opening 2021) is also going in Columbus’ Arena District, exactly where the concept was located.

You can read more about the overall project and download a copy of the presentation here.

Click each topic below for a snapshot of my role with Save The Crew

LEADERSHIP
• Organizational consulting
• Creative vendor procurement & partnership

MESSAGE STRATEGY & BRANDING
• Messaging & media response
• Brand ethos
• Consensus building across sectors and audiences

CREATIVE DIRECTION, CONTENT DEVELOPMENT, & ADVERTISING
• Creative media
• Traditional media campaigns
• Social media campaigns

MARKETING & EXPERIENCE ACTIVATIONS
• Events & Appearances
• Community & Organizational Partnerships