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Creative Director
Santa Monica, CA
Apr 2015 - Present (9 years 6 months)
TrueCar offers up a hassle-free car buying experience selling over 63K cars a month to the 6 million customers who use the their platform. The company, which has sold over two million cars to date, is responsible for over 4% of every car sold in the US and last year it helped move over 600,000 of them, earning $207 million for a top line revenue growth of 54%. J.D. Power recently released its 2015 Automotive Mobile Site Study showing that TrueCar scored decisively higher than its third-party website competition like cars.com, Kelly Blue Book, and Autotrader.com in terms of information/content, navigation, appearance, and speed. TrueCar's current year-over-year market share growth is 55%.
I was brought on as a Creative Director to help TrueCar strengthen their voice and hone their messaging to consumers, partners and dealers across all platforms.
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Creative Director
Rosetta Marketing and Advertising
Jul 2012 - Present (12 years 3 months)
Rosetta Marketing, part of the Publicis Groupe, was named one of AdAge's top 10 agencies of 2015 and is the #2 agency in the world for customer engagement. I'm a Creative Director reporting directly to the Head of Global Communications. Previously, I was a CD on both the L&R (Loyalty and Retention) and Digital Retail accounts for Samsung Mobile, USA. In those capacities I oversaw Content Strategy, Partnerships, Technology, Retail, POS digital and Email advertising.
For 2014, Samsung's Email advertising engagement rate (CTOR) continued to be more than twice the industry average (Silverpop Benchmark Study) while Retail Engagement sessions with their in-store apps have recently surpassed the 50M mark. Last year, sales of their flagship device - the Galaxy S 5 - topped 10 million units in less than a month (roughly four per second), while sales of the Galaxy Note 3 set a new record for launch day sales, beating the achievement of its predecessor by over 30%.
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Author
Tor/MacMillan
Dec 2011 - 2013 (1 year 10 months)
Tor is the #1 Publisher of science fiction in the world. I was signed to a four book deal (I write collaboratively with my brother). The first novel went on to win the Prometheus Award for best science fiction novel of the year and the entire series – which has recently been translated into Chinese – has sold over 65K copie to date.
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Senior Copywriter
JFED Communications
Dec 2010 - Jul 2012 (1 year 7 months)
Helped to create and write advertisements, direct mail collateral, landing pages and CRM copy for numerous non-profit organizations under the aegis of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. In my almost two years there, JFED managed to raise $65M helping to ensure that thousands of families in need got the support and care they desperately needed.
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Copywriter
ToyQuest
2008 - 2012 (4 years)
Banzai, a line that focuses on fun, extreme outdoor water play for children of all ages, has consistently been ranked the #1 seller on Amazon in its category.
Three products I worked on for ToyQuest received coveted TOTY award nominations:
Banzai Skimboard Surfer, Banzai Falls Waterslide, and Minimoto Sport Racer – a vehicle in the Minimoto line of high-powered electric ride-ons that created a phenomenon among pre-teens.
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Copywriter
Spin Master Ltd.
2008 - 2011 (3 years)
My dual-expertise as a seasoned toy creative and science fiction author represents the best of both worlds for Spin Master: toy industry familiarity and proven world-building chops. For example I worked on packaging, online, and name development for Redakai – the company’s first foray into the collectible trading card category. Spin Master also developed an animated series based on the card’s characters that premiered on Cartoon Network in July 2011. As a result of the growing success and popularity of the game, the series became a smash hit, rating as a top 10 show among boys 6-14 and reaching an audience of 15.3 million kids (Nielsen Media Research). Today, Redakai is one of the most popular games on the market. Redakai was also a 2012 TOTY finalist for property of the year.
Another Spin Master product I both named and wrote for — Micro R/C Terrain Titans — was the third bestselling R/C toy in its category in 2009 (Toy & Review News trade magazine)
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Copywriter
Frontline Communications
2010 - 2010
Frontline Communications has a single client, but it’s a big one⎯Boeing. They needed a writer who’d be comfortable with the tech specs and military jargon necessary to communicate with a very specific demographic: U.S. congressmen, members of the Defense department, and high-ranking military officers both domestically and internationally. As an experienced copywriter, a seasoned author of military science fiction, and the son of a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, I fit the bill.
I was brought in to help the agency pitch the Boeing television account, which it won and the two other projects I worked on (Logistics Systems and Non-Boeing Platforms) helped Boeing secure orders in excess of $1B.
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Copywriter
Herbalife
2008 - 2010 (2 years)
I helped Herbalife generate names for products, created online and print advertising, oversaw scriptwriting for videos, and style guides for in-house and international use. I worked primarily on the weight management product portfolio, which includes meal replacement shakes, weight-loss enhancers, appetite suppressors and a variety of healthy snacks. The weight management portfolio accounted for 63% of net sales of approximately $2.3 billion for the 2009 fiscal year.
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Copywriter
VOX + Associates
2008 - 2010 (2 years)
Broadcast for Sony Pictures, Warner Home Video, Lions Gate and Starz Media
Wrote movie and television trailers for both the film and release-to-DVD/Blu-ray divisions. Four of the movies under my purview raised over $135M in domestic home sales.
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Senior Copywriter
Mattel
2004 - 2008 (4 years)
I was responsible for the branding of Mattel properties Tyco R/C, Hot Wheels R/C and Matchbox, which entailed all the naming, back-stories, and packaging. My responsibilities also included clearing names through the marketing and trademark departments and editing English text for up to nine foreign languages.
One of the products under my purview, Shellshocker, won the 2006 TOTY award, the equivalent of the Toy Oscars, for best boy toy of the year, and was the #1 selling RC toy for Mattel two years running. Further, two other R/C vehicles I was responsible for were listed by trade industry magazine, The Toy & Review News as amongst the top ten selling toys of 2009: Tyco R/C Stunt Cycle and Hot Wheels/RC Ford-F150.
In addition to my duties for Tyco R/C, I began working for Matchbox in 2005 as one of only two copywriters, during which time it became the fastest growing brand at Mattel. Revenue almost doubled to $100 million by 2007.
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Senior Copywriter
Herbalife International
2008 - 2008
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Writer
Red Sunset Publishing
2007 - 2008 (1 year)
Freelance writer for the paper.
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Senior Copywriter
Rick Colby & Partners
2003 - 2004 (1 year)
Continued my work on Bandai’s three flagship characters, Power Rangers, Digimon and Gundam.
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Senior Copywriter
Foote, Cone & Belding
Jul 2002 - Jan 2003 (6 months)
During my tenure at FCB, worldwide gross sales in the Boys-Entertainment category increased by 7% due to growth in Matchbox products and increased international sales of Hot Wheels and Tyco R/C Radio Control brands. The increase also reflected strong sales from licensed properties such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe – a line I was called on to rewrite from the bottom up, as the original commercials had tested poorly.
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Copywriter
J.Walter Thompson
2002 - 2003 (1 year)
The U.S. market accounted for approximately 20% of net sales of which Bandai’s three flagship characters (two of which I worked on) Power Rangers, Digimon and Gundam constituted the majority. Additionally, in 2003 JWT’s $1.2 million advertising campaign helped Gundam capture 29% of its market, handily beating Bandai's $20 million sales goal by several million dollars. JWT won an Effie award for advertising effectiveness.
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Creative Director
Gesher
1998 - 2000 (2 years)
My job was to develop an innovative, multimedia-based curriculum for teaching Bible in Israeli secular schools. The impetus was to help educators develop new and challenging ways to teach the subject. Created in close cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Education, that program has now been used by more than 70,000 students in over 1,000 secular junior high schools throughout Israel (over 25 percent of Israel’s seventh- and eighth-graders).
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Copywriter
Ogilvy & Mather
Jul 1990 - Jan 1999 (8 years 6 months)
In addition to my work for Microsoft, I was one of two staff copywriters working on the Barbie brand in the early 90’s. According to Mattel, by the end of 1993 two Barbies were sold every second somewhere in the world. Considering the average price of a Barbie doll was $20.00, this made the brand, for the first time ever, a $1 billion business, accounting for 52% of Mattel's revenue.
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Creative Director
The Learning Company
Jan 1994 - Jan 1998 (4 years)
I worked as a Creative Director for The Learning Company's Development branch in Israel. I was tasked with overseeing all the GUI's (Graphic User Inter face) for the TLC's website, CD's and DVDS that fell under my purview. This entailed being familiar with not only the content but also with the architecture, technical innovations, and demands of our international partners. My first project, Artrageous! - An Interactive Adventure into Art, won the Technology and Learning Home Education award.