Critical Mass
O, Canada(ish)
CRITICAL MASS 2015 – 2023
Critical Mass enticed me away from Huge in the summer of 2015. They were starting a brand-new branch office in Manhattan – a pitch super-center, a tip-of-the-spear select team that would win work and ship it out to other offices. Beloved former coworkers were arriving in droves. They didn’t have a copywriter on staff and wanted someone to lead the discipline. They wouldn’t make me write any more social copy, ever.
They also took me out for a really nice lunch, but I didn’t need more convincing.
In the years since, CM has grown and evolved in ways I never expected. And, inevitably, I have grown as well. Killer work. Phenomenal partners. Inspiring leaders. True friends. A few questionable outings. Struggles to hear and to be heard. Mentoring others.
I did have to write some social copy, but even that was okay.
Was it perfect all the time? No.
Was it home? Yes.
Did I get to work with the legendary Ryan Frank? Also yes. The photo is us on our first day. He looks like a pro. I look like a goon off the street.
Here are a few projects from the CM days that didn’t quite merit their own pages, but are fun nonetheless.
Move To Canada, Eh?
GO NORTH, YOUNG MAN | COPY LEAD
Every time American politics whips a shitty (or, you know, gets progressively shittier), it’s customary to turn one’s eyes to the True North Strong And Free. And, because we’re Americans, we assume that assimilation would be simple. It’s just different money, bacon, and toppings on your fries, right? It’s not like there’s a border wall (yet).
It turns out it's not all that easy. Canada is a sensible place, and if you're serious about the émigré thing, you'd better have a job lined up. Critical Mass (a Canadian company) noticed a massive uptick in "move to Canada" mentions in the months running up to the 2016 election and, wishing to extend the maple-scented hand of comradeship, created MoveToCanadaEh in a bid to attract some potential expatriate talent. We wrote, designed, built, and launched the site in about three days.
Boy, this was a lot easier to joke about in 2016 before the… everything.
It started as kind of a joke and a way to blow off some steam. It ended up with coverage in the New York Times, a 2,310% increase in traffic to the Toronto Careers page, 244% more traffic to Calgary, and an increase of 50% to CM.com overall. Not bad, eh?
LegalShield / IDShield
SPEEDY JUSTICE FOR YOU | SENIOR COPYWriter
Hopefully, you never need to call a lawyer… but if you do, LegalShield wants to have your
back. Their reputation as a leading provider of pre-paid legal services was solid, but their web experience was lacking – both for potential customers and new associates. Critical Mass delivered a complete site redesign, creating a streamlined experience that helped people along the purchase path and explained why they might need these services in the first place. With compelling case studies and a brand-new tone of voice (developed in part by yours truly), we helped the audience reimagine LegalShield as an innovative digital brand.
We also did a few little social spots like these.
Quinnipiac University
GO BOBCATS | SENIOR COPYWriter
To connect with contemporary college-bound students, Quinnipiac needed nothing less than a complete digital transformation—re-platforming, a site audit, consumer research, persona development, user experience design, creative design, art direction, copywriting, and immersive content creation.
Our navigation, flows, art direction, and copy told a story of the one-to-one relationship between a Quinnipiac education and real life: “We’ll show you the world. You’ll find your place in it.” In addition to displaying the professional outcomes of a Quinnipiac degree, our design and creative teams got to work finding ways to help students visualize the educational experience that awaited them – not just what they could study, but how they would study it. Sleeves rolled up. Guided by experts. Less theory, more practice.