BACKSTORY

In early 2016, our account team scored a rare proactive meeting with then-Team Detroit to discuss a partnership around Ford’s ongoing Mobility campaign. As Director of Innovation and International at Aol’s Partner Studio, my team and I handled the biggest (and wildest) pitches. But my directive here was relatively straightforward: ignore budgets, deliver huge thinking, and blow them away. 

What I pitched combined editorial content, interactive games, and an experience that would literally attempt to reshape parts of Detroit into the city of the future — harkening back to Ford’s past “city of the future.” And to raise the stakes even more, all that content was spread across and calibrated to various publishers within Aol’s giant media group. 

It was ambitious enough to earn the praise of Team Detroit’s Creative Director, who said — and, yes, I’m still inordinately proud of this — that it was the first time in two years she hadn’t been bored by a pitch. From it, we eventually partnered on a campaign worth about $2 million.

I’m still gonna build that city. One day.