My responsibilities have pivoted greatly towards advertising lately. We ended 2017 with a big advertising pitch put together by our Creative Director and myself. In early 2018 I was involved in the re-scripting of a potential ad campaign. Later we were tasked with the ideation and execution of ads in volumes we had never put out before. It required us to hire more heads and re-configure the team’s responsibilities.
Some of the best experiences I’ve acquired so far have been collaborating in new ways with members of the brand, marketing and copywriting and video teams. Below are samples created for Dominaria and Magic 2019.
DOMINARIA
This campaign involved so many firsts. It was the first time we heavily relied on social media advertising, first time we created high volumes of animated assets, and first time for humor. Our brand has been very serious for a long time. Initially, the humorous ads/memes were supposed to be just based on nostalgia, but I’m glad that they ended up where they did and that we were allowed to go forward with them, to the point that we are continuing to create these for future sets.
We created a high volume of ads to A/B test, and we discovered that animated ads get our viewers’ attentions more than static ones. We also discovered that humor breeds high engagement, and that interactive ads (such as carousels, canvas and collections) are great for storytelling and information.
My responsibilities for this project were to direct most still and animated executions, defining goals, pathing, targeting, mood, content, and in some instances even writing copy. I was also responsible for running our line review presentation to our VP’s and business partners, where all assets were received very well.
I consider myself very fortunate to have had the support of especially dedicated brand and marketing partners, as well as the opportunity to direct an incredibly hard working team of designers that made a mountain of deliverables possible. Last, but not least, I was also able to collaborate with amazing animators (definitely one of my favorite mediums to design/collaborate/direct on).
Dominaria was the highest selling set in Magic’s history (so far).
SEAMLESS CAROUSEL
ANIMATED ADS
ANIMATED MEMES
MAGIC 2019
For our summer set the memes were back! as well as even more animated executions. I discovered my imagination lends itself a lot to motion graphics and I LOVE it. My favorite animation so far has been the rotating Planeswalker Deck that goes through all the different colors available. I’ve enjoyed solving new ways to display the variety of products we have available. It was great collaborating with the 3D animator, as well as our own team motion graphics specialist to achieve the final look.
MEMES
ANIMATED ADS