Edward Miller

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

COPY

ART

CONTENT

FEATURED CASE STUDIES

CAMRY THRILL RIDE

STC REVERSE FOOD TRUCK

FUEL EFFICIENCY MONTH

RECOMMENDATIONS

Edward Miller
Creative Director – Copy \ Art \ Content

While I started my career as a Designer and Art Director, I always began my assignments with words. After some time I realized that I was writing more than half the scripts, so copy officially became my focus. Along the way it became clear I had a knack for directing. Since then, I’ve directed over 100 videos and commercials. The mediums change over time but my sensibilities as an artist remain constant. I’ve been called many things in my career, but the names that make me most proud are Problem Solver, Client Whisperer, and Mentor.

Creative Director

ACCENTURE SONG

2020 - Present

Working for a company as big as Accenture has allowed me to work on projects across the country and around the world. My original assignment was running the Copy Team for the Atlanta studio. While that is still a large part of my job, my role has grown to include working with multiple teams, on many clients such as Anheuser-Busch, Meta, Amazon, Google, Nabisco, HP, Save The Children, and Sony.

Leadership Contributions:

Restaffed Copy Team to accommodate Accenture additions to client roster
Added proofreading and Q/C to Copy Team
Made Atlanta Copy Team available for Accenture assignments worldwide
Integrated the Atlanta Copy Team to Accenture writer’s network

Save The Children</br>Reverse Food Truck

Save The Children – Reverse Food Truck

People needed to be reminded that a small donation makes a big difference to a hungry child. This truck was set up in high traffic, food abundant areas such as Farmer's markets. The twist was you could not get fed, instead we asked you to
"Get Fed Up!" and help make sure others can eat.

Sony Group Global – Social Makeover

The brief was simple; take what had been a corporate bulletin board on social platforms and redirect that effort to attract a new U30 audience to Sony. Easy, just show all the cool Sony stuff, right? The trick is getting all that cool stuff from what is actually many different intellectual property owners within Sony worldwide.

HP Indigo – Attack Kit

Working on B2B and print is like riding a bike, you never forget how. This amazing kit was provided to print shop decision makers, as the lease was ending on their current press. It was the perfect time to demonstrate all the things the HP Indigo
can do, and what their current press cannot. The kicker, the whole kit was printed on the HP Indigo.

Consulting Executive Creative Director and Content Creator

YELLOW HAMMER CREATIVE CONSULTING LLC

2013 – 2020

Owning and operating a consultancy the last several years has allowed me to add new categories and focus on writing and content creation.

Clients include: ADCB, Auburn University, BMW, Deloitte, Dodge, Ducati, ElioCoin, Etisalat, Faraday Future, Florastor, FX “Legion”, Genesis, Huawei, Intuit, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jaguar USA, Jos. A. Bank, Karma, KFC, Lexus, Men’s Wearhouse, Nissan, O’Charlie’s, Pepsi, Porsche, RAM Trucks, Robinsons Department Store, The North Face, Toyota, Winn Dixie Food Stores

The next six entries are some of my longer assignments along with a few accomplishments for each.

Consulting Executive Creative Director

IMPACT BBDO – Dubai UAE

2018 – 2019

No in-person interview, no meeting the staff, no meeting the clients, just fly half way around the world and parachute in to be the 4th Creative Director in 2 years. No problem, I’ve got this. When you have to hit the ground running in to an existing situation, listen to what the clients are saying, and then figure out what it really means. Next, find out what each staff person is good at and empower him or her to flex that muscle. It is a simple formula but it continues to be successful.

Leadership Contributions:

Stabilized client confidence in creative department
Instituted a proactive schedule for predictable projects
Broadened vendor list with A-level international talent
Served as Director and Postproduction Supervisor on 3 digital content films

Toyota UAE</br>'What Drives You?'</br>Digital Films

Toyota UAE</br>SUV Dominance</br>Campaign

TOYOTA UAE “WHAT DRIVES YOU?” DIGITAL CONTENT SERIES

These Toyota UAE “What Drives You?” digital films spotlight Toyota owners committed to making a difference in their community. Even when directing a small production such as this I maintain one philosophy. If you want to get more views than you paid for, create something people want to watch. Once the results were in, the campaign overall preformed at 153.88% of forecast. The Video Completion Rate was above 70% and the Click Through Rate was 3 times the industry average.

TOYOTA UAE SUV DOMINANCE OOH

The brief: Restore Land Cruiser as the premier SUV in the UAE. The solution must communicate quickly for both Arabic and English readers. Make the execution locally relevant. (Included are few "real life" photos that inspired us) The first image was so successful we are to apply the same strategy to their whole SUV lineup.

Consulting Executive Creative Director

IMPACT PORTER NOVELLI – Dubai UAE

2018 – 2019

When your Managing Director has two jobs, suddenly you have two jobs. When your MD is responsible for unpaid and paid media, you are responsible for unpaid and paid media. While my original assignment in Dubai was with BBDO, I really enjoyed working on PR projects again as well. It is fun to address business problems by creating newsworthy solutions. Of course, because of my traditional ad training we always collect assets at these events that can later become paid media messages

Leadership Contributions:

Instituted adding sharable image capturing by participants to PR stunts
Instituted capturing materials for paid media campaigns during PR stunts
Helped expand PR assignments to multi-media campaigns

Consulting Creative Director / Content Director

Faraday Future

2016 - 2016

While much has been written online about Faraday Future, those same pundits may not realize that they are proving a theory that I have long held. It is now possible to establish your brand in a 100% digital environment. At FF as new information became available, we were nimbly able to produce new content. Then, through earned media augmented by paid media we were able to generate millions of views for a product that is actually yet to exist. In my experience, we did in three months what would have taken a year in the traditional advertising model.

Leadership Contributions:

Administered three video productions in six weeks time
Produced and published eight video content pieces in ten weeks
Administered various digital and social projects including a 150 page product guide for tablets
All above assignments completed by a creative staff of six people

Faraday Future</br>CES Teaser</br>Campaign

FARADAY FUTURE CES TEASER CAMPAIGN

In preparation for its reveal at the Consumer Electronics Show, Faraday Future embarked on teaser campaign to build interest. While FF was ready to test their vehicle against the most famous brands in the world, they weren't ready for anyone (including the production crew) to get a good look at the car. Even with being completely clad in camouflage, these videos have collected millions views.

FARADAY FUTURE FACTORY UPDATE VIDEO

The only thing harder than shooting a video for a car you cannot show is shooting a video for a factory that does not yet exist. This was the first assignment for my group at FF. We got the assignment on Monday, bid on Tuesday, met the manager on location, wrote the script and shot on Wednesday, wrapped shooting on Thursday, presented a cut on Friday. It felt good to know I could still pull off a $15,000 project when I needed.

Consulting Creative Director / Content Director

PHENOMENON

2016 – 2016

This may sound familiar if you have seen my resume in the past. Phenomenon needed to rehire the entire creative team for their Tailored Brands client at a lower collective salary and slash the production budget by more than 20%. Well, if that is the assignment, you have to get it done. A good example of success was the Jos. A. Bank Suit Challenge. The clients loved the idea of filming real people in the financial district to see if they could tell the difference between Jos. A. Bank suits and more expensive designer suits. They just insisted that the production cost $150,000 less than what was already a bargain price. This project was at a standstill, to move it forward I assigned directing duties to myself and removed line items from the budget until we reached the client’s desired amount. In the end, the clients were happy, the agency was happy and the work tested well.

Leadership Contributions:

Transitioned current staff to new assignments
Restructured the team to include entry level employees with no reduction in product quality
Revised processes to accommodate new reduced production budgets
Sourced and installed more affordable vendors with no reduction in quality
Served as director on 3 productions
Introduced clients to numerous video opportunities beyond broadcast TV

JOS. A. BANK SUIT CHALLENGE

The research stated that there is no real difference between Jos. A. Bank suits and expensive designer suits. But, people don't read research, so nothing could be better than to have other real people deliver that message. As you can see in 360º deck this concept translates beautifully to a broad array of media and will have a long shelf life.

Consulting Executive Creative Director / Director of Content Creation

AMCI

2014 – 2015

This assignment was to help AMCI add branded content to their offerings of automotive testing, training and experiential exhibits. As I was able to demonstrate, by simply adding cameras and postproduction to practically everything they do, they can yield branded content. AMCI had experimented in video previously and was able to generate a few thousand hits on line. By creating new relationships with top vendors and creative talent, the new AMCI work attracted the social teams and web masters from their client roster. This elevated AMCI video views from thousands to hundreds of thousands of views.

Leadership Contributions:

Identified content opportunities in all divisions
Enlisted the services of top vendors such as Bandito Brothers, Company 3, Hybrid Edit and the Ultimate Arm image capture vehicles
Employed scriptwriters with creative as well as technical skills
Repurposed existing event assets into production set pieces
Introduced multiple clients to video opportunities outside of broadcast TV
Served as director on 3 productions

Consulting Integrated Creative Director

Saatchi & Saatchi LA

2013 – 2013

In June of 2013, I was brought on to do a couple of commercials for an incremental media buy. By October we had turned that assignment into the 360º campaign, Camry Thrill Ride.

CAMRY THRILL RIDE

The Toyota client was panicked. Camry had fallen from its number one seller position two months in a row. I was brought in to quickly execute two product-centric spots. However, the research showed that people were put off by the exterior of the car. They called it “boring”, “vanilla”, and “an old person’s car”. So with only two creatives borrowed from other groups, we built a 360 degree campaign. This included television, print, mobile, digital and a unique feature in which we let real people on the ride record a selfie with their own smart phone and upload it from the event. The research said people didn't want to get in the car, but who can resist a thrill ride?

Sr. VP, Executive Creative Director

INNOCEAN Worldwide Americas

2009 – 2013

In 2009, as World Marketing Group became INNOCEAN Worldwide Americas, I was employee # 2 for the advertising practice. In less than six weeks, we put together a team of about 20 people and took the hand-off of the Hyundai account from Goodby Silverstein and Partners. Since then, the advertising practice of IWA has since grown to over 200 employees.

Leadership Contributions:

Built creative and creative service departments
Led building of in-house broadcast, print and digital studio
Reinvented real people testimonials with 18 camera live events
Pioneered the use of YouTube talent for a holiday promotion yielding over 1,000,000 web hits
Launched the successful 2011 Hyundai NCAA Football promotion including digital, in stadium, on site activation, radio, magazine and TV
Re-launched the 2012 NCAA Football promotion as user generated content with over 6,000 fan submissions on Facebook
Served as director on 15 commercials and videos
Founding member of agency’s Executive Committee
Won Hyundai Dealer Advertising Association accounts: Central Region (35 million), California Region (20 million), Eastern Region (75 million), South Central Region (14 million)
Judged New York Festivals for branded content
Judged AdStars competition for PSAs

Hyundai</br>College Football</br>Promotion ‘11

Hyundai</br>College Football</br>Promotion ‘12

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PROMOTION (SEASON 1)

In the early summer of 2011, my group was presented with an amazing challenge. Hyundai was given an opportunity to purchase a national ad campaign for twenty-five separate schools through sports media marketer IMG. The package included television on CBS and ESPN, spreads in "ESPN The Magazine", hundreds of banner ads on various sports sites, and in stadium message boards for all twenty-five schools. The catch was it had to be up and running by Labor Day. Not only did we succeed, but many of the pieces ran for an additional three years.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PROMOTION (SEASON 2)

In the season of 2012, a few of the products had changed, thus causing the need for some of the spots to be replaced. The client desired to include user-generated content on television. We decided to take it a few steps further. Because we were able to start earlier, we built a fan site and collected over six thousand images from real fans across the nation. These images were used to make not only commercials, but also all of the magazine and digital ads.

HYUNDAI UNCENSORED

The Hyundai dealers had asked repeatedly for a testimonial campaign. So, I challenged my staff to reinvent the format. The result was Hyundai Uncensored. Real people were allowed to say anything they’d like about Hyundai while they actually drove the cars. Every comment captured was from someone who had no idea it could end up in a television commercial. But we didn’t stop there. We set up chat rooms and posted real people’s comments in all the digital on Point-of-Sale materials.

HYUNDAI UNCENSORED (REMIX)

Because of the previous success, we were asked to repeat the campaign. However, my staff and our clients said, “You did most of the work last time. Why don’t you direct the spots this time?” So, I did. This time we stopped real people at a gas station to highlight the Hyundai Mileage Claim and yes, we actually included a remix with DJ Steve Porter.

HOPE ON WHEELS

Right outside the meeting room, the account director and I quarreled about the client not ordering a :60 and he felt we should not present it. But after the longer version had run, the client looked up wiping his eye with his sleeve and said, “I don’t know what else we are doing, but the :60 is running in our in our first spot on Sunday Night Football”.

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Creative Director

TBWA \ Chiat \ Day

2008 – 2009

The Nissan\Infiniti client moved to Nashville, TN so TBWA\ C \ D was asked to make the local office full service, including creative. I fit seamlessly into this position because of my knowledge of the area and my previous experience at TBWA\ C \ D on Nissan and Infiniti.

Leadership Contributions:

Built new creative department in Nashville, TN
Revamped process for creative work moving through the agency
 Revised the client approval process for projects
Conducted client review of all current work for the purposes of updating
Led revision of all current work.

Director

Lemonaide

2007 – 2008

I helped build Lemonaide from the ground up, including designing the logo and business materials. The work I am most proud of at Lemonaide are the nine branded content films done for the Pedigree Annual Adoption Drive. The films were originally created only for their Annual Awards Banquet and the web. However, the client liked one of the pieces so much they had it cut into a :60 commercial to lead off the Westminster Dog Show broadcast, their biggest media property.

Pedigree Adoption Film Series

This project was done with only a camera operator, a soundman, an agency producer and myself. There were nine different locations across the country, none of them pre-scouted. Our crew simply showed up with a list of questions and shot what was available. For “The Story of Bear” the shelter was too small to shoot inside so we sat the subjects in the parking lot and framed out parked cars on either side.

Pedigree Dentastix

While working on other Pedigree work, this was a little idea that was too good to let die because of funding. So, we shot it in my house. The bathroom is actually the corner of my family room. The toilet was quite a conversation piece for a few days.

Hardee’s Chicken Club Sandwich

A creative team that I had known for some time had about a $300,000 storyboard and about 1/10th that much budget to shoot said board. So I treated it more like a play. There is only one camera angle in scene one, but it covers all the action. Then there is only one set up plus a close up in the bathroom scene. No one ever notices until it is pointed out.

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Group Sr. VP / Group Creative Director

BBDO

2003 – 2006

Daimler Chrysler (as it was known then) created the “California Initiative” to protect the lucrative west coast Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep business. I was asked to build a creative department as well as a creative services department to integrate into the existing account service field operation.

Leadership Contributions:

Built and led creative department 
Built and led creative service department and processes, including broadcast 
Directed over a dozen commercials 
Led the award winning House of Blues promotion for Chrysler
Worked on the launch of the Chrysler Crossfire
Worked on the launch of the Dodge Caliber
Instituted the successful practice of adding 100 showing outdoor media buys to all model launches

Chrysler</br>House of Blues</br>Promotion

California Dodge Durango Launch

The California Dodge Dealers had a healthy advertising budget and high unit sales number they were expected to achieve. However, the corporate office put a six-month moratorium on regional launch TV for Durango in hopes the dealers would run the tier 1 commercials in their tier 2 media. If you don’t know, dealer associations hate those kinds of tactics. Our dealer clients said “people just want to see the new model.” So, we made 24 different pieces of creative and flooded California with out of home media. It worked like crazy.

California Dodge Magnum Launch

With the launch of the Magnum, again a moratorium was put on regional TV advertising. But, this time the dealers were instructed not to shoot original photography for outdoor boards. That being the case we made several pieces of creative from the photos of a small brochure.

Chrysler House of Blues Promotion

Along with all the promotional material that is included in this type of sponsorship House of Blues offered posters framed like the art in their restaurants. My group recommended that the posters look like the Outsider Art featured in their decor. HOB loved the idea and provided a list of approved illustrators. The fees for these artists started around $20,000 per illustration. Our Chrysler client found this to be an issue because the entire sponsorship, had only cost $100,000. To save the idea I called a silk screening group I knew from Alabama that reprinted Outsider Art. They estimated the illustrations at only $1000 each. The result was so successful it ended up in the Communication Arts Magazine Award Annual.

Sr. VP / Group Creative Director

Y&R

2001 – 2003

I was the first creative management hire by the new ECD. My primary role was to create a package of commercials that frankly, the dealer associations rarely ran. My secondary job was to manage over 40 creative people to replace the package work the associations did not want to run. However, in our second cycle we were able to get 100% of the dealer associations to air the provided work for both Lincoln and Mercury. This was a first in the 22-year history of the account.

Leadership Contributions:

Seamlessly launched the Lincoln “Travel Well” campaign as brand and dealer association advertising
Created the “Travel Well” signature that appeared on all communications
Unified the creative departments in Irvine, CA and Dearborn, MI.
Combined underfunded projects of running footage, snow footage and the association package into one 2 million dollar production with a top director
Realigned the reporting structure to better serve the client
Produced an ad association campaign showcasing the talents of Dwight Yoakam, Macy Gray and Aretha Franklin

Lincoln Travel Well

The Lincoln brand team was launching the new Navigator SUV along with the new tagline “Travel Well”. However, the dealer advertising media buy was over 60% of the impressions being made on consumers. So, I took it upon myself to fashion a retail campaign that had the look, feel and sound of the brand ads but with the flexibility for dealer associations to change features and offers for each market. In addition, every commercial included a “Travel Well” ending. In fact, the brand team picked up the logo treatment developed by the retail team. No one asked me to do this, I just knew you couldn't rebrand the company in only one third of the ads.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Chris Adams

Chief Creative Officer, Superconductor

“Ed was my first boss and taught me how to see the creative opportunities in any brief and how to have fun working on any project. Later, he directed an amazing documentary about shelter dogs for me on Pedigree. It was some of the best work we did on that brand. While at Saatchi, I asked him the lead the team that turned a retail “sell-down” into the Camry Thrill Ride – a roll coaster for cars that led to the coolest Camry ads in years and sold a ton of cars in the process. No matter what the project, he always gets it done, and it’s always better than you imagined.”

Steve Shannon

Marketing Consultant / Former CMO Hyundai Motor America

“I worked very closely with Ed when I was CMO at Hyundai and he was ECD at Innocean. Ed is just an ace...no other way to say it. Whether it's a multi-million dollar Super Bowl spot or a UCG video made on a shoestring, he will do it brilliantly. With Ed you get no attitude, just an overriding focus on creative solutions to your problems. He's personable, pretty funny, and easy to work with. Ed is equally good with 'C' Suite execs or local franchisees, and actually pays attention to your budget. One last thing...his people tend to love him, and he is one of the best mentors of young creative folks I have seen in 32 years in advertising.”

Chase Madrid

Principal Creative Director at Riot Games

“Ed was my professor and later my first boss in advertising. He saw something in me before I saw it in myself. He ignited my career by opening a door to TBWA \ Chiat \ Day. I walked through that portal with all the foundational knowledge he instilled in me. Sharp insights with even sharper writing and art direction. If you have a marketing problem, he'll help you solve it with wit, levity, and intelligence."

Jim Sanfilippo

Marketing Consultant / Former COO INNOCEAN USA

“Ed Miller is a creative polymath, a quintessential leader, idea-meister, inventor-problem-solver, talent hunter, team builder, entrepreneurial agency work horse. He's a rabidly loyal, Auburn loving, SEC football fanboy, and a southern fare epicurean of the first order. And then, there's the good stuff.”

Joe Reynoso

Creative Director INNOCEAN USA

“Ed’s superpower is his ability to cauterize a team around a goal. The dynamics of working with him (even on the things nobody wants to do) are always positive and fun, making working with him a dream.