Mike Lear

Mentos Spider Swiper App

2012-01-04T10:39:00.000-05:00

How many times have I pitched an idea for an app only to have it die? About a million times. But this time, the situation was right for Mentos. They decided to run this commercial again (I didn't write it, credit goes to BBH) and we needed a way to extend the story into mobile. We were fortunate to work with veteran game designer Graeme Devine through Tool of North America. Graeme was lead designer of 7th Guest, 11th Hour, Quake III and Halo Wars.

You can view the press here on Mashable, PSFK, PSFK again and Creativity.

You can download the app here.

And view the demo here.

It reached #4 in the App Store and made #5 on the Adcritic Top 20.

Stijl Cycles Team Vid

2011-11-24T16:09:00.001-05:00

This is why we take on small, cool clients like custom bike builders...
Client: "Hey dude, come on over tonight if you want, we're having some beer and BBQ and the race team is going to be building up their custom rides."
Us: "Hmm, yeah maybe we should film that?"
Client: "Sure, whatever ya'll want to do...."

www.stijlcycles.com

Special thanks to the guys at Mondial for making this happen on a super profesh level.

Mentos - Negative Tweet Eliminator

2011-10-27T22:11:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite pieces, ever. This Facebook app pulls innegative Tweets (any Tweet with the word "Fail," "FML" or"Hate.") in real time. Then Dragee, Mentos' mascot of positivity,destroys them with magic dust, rose petals, balloons - removing the negativityfrom our midst. Users can click the live Tweets to see the originalTweeter’s account, and Dragee’s actions randomize so it’s always a freshexperience.

It showed up in quite a few places, PSFK, BestAds, Social Times, Time, Scoop, Digital Buzz Blog, UltraSocial.UK, and Creativity.

You can experience it live here.

Number 1 on Adcritic:

Mentos' UP2U Gum Web Experience

2011-09-19T14:17:00.000-04:00

Recently we were fortunate to work with Unit9 in London to create www.chooseup2u.com for UP2U gum, a new gum from Mentos.

Mentos’UP-2-U gum has two flavors in each pack. To highlight this attribute, wecreated an experience that allows users to seamlessly toggle between two filmsrunning simultaneously. There are four film pairings, one pair for each flavorcombo of UP2U gum. Users are immersed in a first-person POV world where theycan become a hip hop star meeting Naughty by Nature back stage in one instant,or become an astronaut in the future in the next.

Here is the making-of video from Unit9.
A nice write-up in Creativity where we made the Top 5 is here.
Winner, FWA Site of the Day, here.

Nice to see it on the Adcritic Top 5:

Mentos UP2U Gum TV

2011-09-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

We just launched this national spot for Mentos' new UP2U gum. Being on set with an eight hundred pound tiger made for an exciting day. The version that saw the most attention is here. In this version, the tiger speaks. There was of course the agency/director cut where he does not.

Mentos' Dragee Interactive Banners

2011-09-02T16:29:00.000-04:00

We also created interactive banners for the campaign where you could try to thwart Dragee's positivity.

Mentos Life Guidance Videos starring Dragee

2011-08-26T10:44:00.005-04:00

Maybe you have a friend that's super vain. Or a friend who is unlucky in love. Or maybe one that's just, you know, really boring. With the Mentos Life Guidance Video Facebook integration campaign, you can send friends the message.

Mashable did a story on it here.

Below is an example of one of the vids as your friend would see it on their wall. In this case your friend is named Erin. This video integrates the name, pulls the friend's actual number of posts per month, every post they've ever posted with the words, "me," "my," "mine," or "I" and every photo they've posted of their life.

A second example is for your friends unlucky in love. Dragee says your friend's name, pulls in photographs, and even opens a package of mints that have your friends' picture etched on them. And then he eat them. The mint, not your friends.

You can experience everything here.

Mentos Dragee Teasers

2011-08-26T10:37:00.000-04:00

We also created Dragee :15s for pre-roll, etc. They turned out pretty funny and allowed us to use a few lines we had to cut from the long format.

Kash. It's possible he will live forever.

2011-07-21T12:15:00.000-04:00

Now on babies everywhere...

Featured in Breaking-In.

2011-05-15T22:37:00.002-04:00

It's one thing to be mentioned in a book. It's another to be mentioned alongside so many amazing creatives. So honored. Click to see an exerpt from my interview, or the featured samples of my work.

Mentos Digital Short #3 - Dragee plays in traffic

2011-04-01T10:22:00.002-04:00

Dragee believes he can cross a busy street using only positivity. Click the pic to see the video.

New Home for Mentos' Dragee

2011-04-01T10:05:00.002-04:00

Today we launched a new tab for our Dragee campaign for Mentos that hints at what is yet to come. Click to view it live in Facebook.

So um, our bike client really likes their new logo...

2011-03-18T11:38:00.002-04:00

Wow. We had no idea they were going to do this. Well done Stijl.

Click the pic to go to their Facebook page.

Lots of Press for Mentos

2011-03-01T19:46:00.008-05:00

It's been overwhelming how much press the Mentos work has received - the Gum Gallery and Dragee. We've been in Creativity, Shots, Best Ads on TV, Contagious Mag... And still going. It's all quite humbling. We're really glad it's being so well received.

One highlight today was hitting the number one spot on Adcritic.

Dragee for Mentos 2, "Cobra."

2011-02-26T21:45:00.010-05:00

We released the second of three digital shorts for Mentos today. I'm so proud of this work. Special thanks to ArtJail on this one.

Featured in Creativity, here.

Click the pic to see the video:

Mentos Gum Sculpture Gallery

2011-02-18T11:00:00.002-05:00

Mentos was about to launch their new big bottle of gum. We knew they wanted to be in magazines, but we thought we could do more.We contacted a group of nationally ranked young sculptors and asked them to explore what could be created from gum - a lot of gum. The results were astounding. The entire process was documented in a film now on the MentosUS Facebook page. And the creators of the best two pieces were rewarded with ads featuring their work running in two national magazines. My Creative Director was Keith Cartwright and my partner was Dustin Artz.

Press included Creativity, Contagious, Limite, and TrendHunter.

Click the ads to see all the work...

Introducing Dragee (drä zhēˈ) for Mentos

2011-02-14T11:00:00.016-05:00

Today we launched our best work, so far, for Mentos. This campaign will roll out over the next few months, with lots of digital work added in the mix. My Creative Director was Keith Cartwright and my partner was Dustin Artz.

Click the pic to view...

New Logo for Stijl

2011-02-04T10:14:00.009-05:00

Chris Peel and D'Arcy O'Neil worked to created new marks for Stijl, our custom bike client, I was the CD. More work to come soon. Visit Stijl at http://www.facebook.com/stijlcyles

We won Mentos

2011-02-02T21:21:00.007-05:00

We recently pitched the Mentos business, and won with work my partner and I did. I've taken over posts on their Facebook page, and our first campaign work breaks very soon. Exciting times.

WeWantaBikeClient.com

2010-09-26T21:26:00.005-04:00

I used to do ads for Shimano, Bell and Giro. And I miss that culture. I've ridden bikes all my life - BMX for years. I raced road bikes. I used to huck a freeride bike off stuff. And now I'm into Cross-Country. There's even a downhill bike in my garage now. Anyway, my partner D'Arcy O'Neill and I are on a mission to do some great work for a bike client again. We started by going to Interbike last week, and by launching this site: http://wewantabikeclient.com/

(click the image to visit the site)

GEICO on 30 Rock

2010-09-26T21:23:00.002-04:00

Man, it just never stops with GEICO. We have not run Kash commercials in months and he still shows up in culture. Pretty cool.

Walmart Faded Glory (agency cut) - Directed by Eduard Salier

2010-06-01T20:28:00.007-04:00

My team of Robin Bidwell and Leslie Edwards were tasked to tell the story of how Faded Glory clothing at Walmart has been completely improved. I was the CD on this project, along with my wife Kelley Lear. The spot was directed by Eduard Salier of Paranoid Films.

New Walmart Campaign

2010-04-27T22:03:00.008-04:00

I just wrapped up 11 commercials for Walmart and Proctor and Gamble. The neat thing about them is that they all ran in sequence over the course of one evening during a Walmart-made movie on NBC. Each spot had an "Up next..." component at the end to tease a spot in the next commercial pod. Fun stuff. I was the writer and ACD.

Modern Copywriter Post

2010-04-22T12:47:00.003-04:00

Me? Really? Well, that was very kind of them to think so. Cool site, very flattered to be on it.

The Gecko Video Parodies - Case Study

2009-10-26T22:11:00.003-04:00

Featured on Creativity, here.

The Kash Campaign Case Study

2009-10-26T22:02:00.003-04:00

I've had so much fun working on this.

Richmond's Top 40 under 40

2009-10-13T13:55:00.003-04:00

I was fortunate to squeak into the city's Top-40-Under-40 this year. Quite an honor that I'm very proud of.

I swear, last post on Kash.

2009-10-01T20:31:00.002-04:00

But he made it on Letterman last night.

Kash makes the top 10 funniest icons...

2009-09-23T16:18:00.001-04:00

Pretty cool company to be in.

http://tinyurl.com/laytx2

Leno liked Kash too!

2009-09-15T11:07:00.005-04:00

Cool to see this on Leno's premiere, Kash appears 2:37 in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJFBYzUglEE

Kash on Colbert

2009-08-18T11:57:00.003-04:00

Very honored to have Mr. Colbert talk about Kash.
http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=240768

Kash "Basketball"

2009-08-01T11:20:00.002-04:00

Probably my favorite Kash spot.

Kash "Car Vac"

2009-07-31T11:41:00.000-04:00

Kash "Mirror"

2009-07-31T11:39:00.001-04:00

Kash "Box"

2009-07-31T11:35:00.001-04:00

Walmart Digital

2009-07-28T15:49:00.010-04:00

Just a little rich media banner for Walmart. Fun stuff.

ESPN INDY 500 Spot

2009-07-16T21:50:00.004-04:00

"Ok guys, we need a spot for INDY, we have no money, we want to use existing footage, oh and make it feel really important and epic."

Well, we did our best.

Gecko Videos make #2 on the viral vid chart

2009-04-11T21:33:00.001-04:00

Pretty cool, we made #2 on the viral video chart.

GEICO Parody Project

2009-03-30T09:39:00.004-04:00

The idea was to create a presence in the online video community for GEICO that was authentic and true to the community. We didn't go crazy with effects, instead we kept it consistent with what you find made by the millions of home video authors/directors. And by partnering with a few of the internet's stars, hopefully we made it entertaining. This is the Youtube channel, but the work can also be found on Break.com, Metacafe and Slide.

Featured on Creativity, here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/itsthegecko

FUZE Black & Green Tea

2009-01-30T12:39:00.004-05:00

This is a stunt we pulled off in NYC for the launch of Fuze Black & Green Tea. I was the writer and creative director. It got a huge amount of attention.

Another link from the production company Alt Terrain, can be found here.

Kash "Date"

2008-12-18T18:54:00.005-05:00

Kash "Roofers"

2008-12-18T12:05:00.000-05:00

Kash "Ranch"

2008-12-18T11:48:00.000-05:00

Kash "Meeting"

2008-12-18T11:25:00.000-05:00

Obama Banners

2008-11-09T10:31:00.006-05:00

I had this idea for the Obama campaign. It was incredible to me that when you Googled some carefully worded phrases, there were mountains of damning evidence in those searches. Instead of telling someone not to vote for McCain, I figured people could find out the truth for themselves. When you click on a banner, it simply takes you to the Google search results. Go ahead, click one...

Obama '08 - Ecard site

2008-10-31T07:41:00.016-04:00

I couldn't just sit there and do nothing. So I did what I know how to do. I gathered a team of creatives from The Martin Agency and VCU Brandcenter and I said, "let's make SOMETHING." There were a ton of ideas, but this ecard site was the one we could make happen. We targeted undecided moms, and called upon their college-aged kids to convince their mom to vote Obama. A well-informed and supported ecard would at least start the dialogue.

Penned from students at the Brandcenter and constructed by a team at TMA, it launched a day or so ago and already has about 10,000 views. We continue to spread it through college Dem groups in swing states and by posting it on every blog we can find.

http://nomomleftbehind.net/

Genworth Print

2008-10-26T21:42:00.000-04:00

VOICEOVER DEMO

2008-10-25T16:00:00.002-04:00

I started doing VO work a long time ago. About the time I did this demo. Probably time to make a new one. Please call 804-380-5123 to hire me (non-union only for now).

Genworth Financial

2008-02-25T21:13:00.000-05:00

A spot we did for Genworth Financial. Part of a global campaign for them.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio - "Domino"

2007-10-25T22:04:00.000-04:00

After taking over the reigns as creative director on SIRIUS, my team of Ron Villacarillo and Lee Remias made this.

UPS Nascar - The Making of the Race Truck

2007-10-25T21:48:00.000-04:00

So we needed to have a UPS truck that could act like a race car, drive like a race car and of course look like one. So my producer Brian Cooper said, "Well, let's build one." So we built one. We started with a stock UPS truck and turned it into an 800hp racing machine. We filmed 100 hours of the making of the truck, created a show, but never found a buyer. This is a simple piece we cut to showcase the show idea. There is a 22 minute show already written and edited should anyone be interested...

Hoopla

2007-10-25T21:31:00.000-04:00

I am very proud to have my work and pictures of me with a horrible mustache in this book.

The Onion - Round 2

2007-10-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

Luke Sullivan turned The Onion over to me at The Martin Agency in 2005. These are some ads I wrote in that batch of work.

SIRIUS - Nascar Ad

2007-08-25T21:29:00.000-04:00

UPS Nascar - "Draft"

2006-10-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

I wrote many of the Race the Truck spots over the years, but this was my favorite.

UPS Nascar Campaign Teaser - "Donut" (with flames)

2006-10-25T21:44:00.000-04:00

We did not mean to catch the UPS racing truck on fire, but I'm really glad it did.

GEICO - NYC Campaign

2006-07-25T20:57:00.000-04:00

A ridiculous campaign we did for GEICO in the NYC market only.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio "Trunk"

2006-03-25T21:38:00.000-05:00

A fun spot I wrote for SIRIUS, Baker Smith directed.

UPS Truck Toast

2005-10-25T21:43:00.000-04:00

Remember when all those strange images started showing up on people's toast? Well we 'found' one too. It was a UPS truck. We got a dozen friends to bid it up to over $30,000 which attracted quite a bit of attention on ebay.

The UPS Truck Toast:

Luke's Book

2005-10-25T17:34:00.000-04:00

One Show pencils and other awards are really cool, but the coolest thing was getting my work and a quote in Luke's book. Thanks Luke.

Ford Voiceover

2005-10-25T15:38:00.000-04:00

I didn't write this spot, but I did do the voiceover for it.

The Onion

2005-10-25T15:29:00.003-04:00

I've had a lot of success with The Onion. But these were from the campaign that started it all. Luke Sullivan had us do this in our down time. A few years later we finally sold the ads to The Onion. I then went on to do several more campaigns for them.

MINI ROBOT CAMPAIGN

2004-10-25T17:04:00.001-04:00

This was a fun one. I wrote everything except the book - Bob Cianfrone takes credit for that. The video just below explains the campaign. Below are all the links to CPB's website showing all the sites we created in this massive hoax. Highlights include being Slashdotted, WIRED magazine contacting our character for an interview and Disney engineers writing to ask how the hell we built this robot.

The main site, r50r.co.uk, it was built to look like lab notes of our engineer. I worked with a robot expert in Los Angeles. I would write, and he would rewrite it to be authentic. We seeded this site on many geek and MINI fan websites. We had a million hits in a couple of weeks.

Just in case you Googled the publisher of the fake book we made, we created a publisher's website complete with reviews.

And if these "robot incidents" were actually happening, well someone would blog about it, right? So we created a blog. Special props go out to the interns who created a 4'X3' wooden model of the robot foot and made and filmed the footprints.

And say you wonder, just who the heck is this Rowland Samuel who wrote this book? If you Googled him, you'd find his website. All looked pretty legit.

And before he got into building robots, Mr. Mayhew had a webpage. Just in case anyone went looking for his stats. We made sure they found them.

MINI ROBOT - Toy

2004-10-25T17:02:00.001-04:00

We produced these as part of the robot campaign.

Virgin-Atlantic Upper Class Book

2004-10-25T16:50:00.000-04:00

The first thing we produced after winning Virgin, this book was left on your pillow after you requested turndown service in Upper Class.

Google Campaign - ABC News Coverage

2004-10-25T16:20:00.000-04:00

Google NPR Coverage

2004-10-25T16:19:00.000-04:00

As a fan of NPR, I was honored to have them cover this campaign. Click the image to read and hear the radio story.

GOOGLE Campaign

2004-10-25T16:16:00.000-04:00

Google asked for a filter to weed-out candidates. We couldn't help but make them a little famous in the process.

Google Print

2004-10-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

MINI Outdoor

2004-09-25T16:03:00.000-04:00

Jim Fiscus Photography

2004-06-23T21:36:00.000-04:00

I did these ads for Jim Fiscus and he ran them in Archive. He then instantly became one of the most famous photographers in the world. Judging from his work, I think I had very little to do with it.

Virgin-Atlantic Pitch

2003-10-25T17:32:00.000-04:00

This cost about $14.56 and helped CPB win the Virgin-Atlantic account. I had the idea to scatter 1,000 red paper airplanes all over the agency on the day the client came to tour the agency.

MINI Small Space

2003-10-25T16:46:00.000-04:00

MINI TV

2003-10-25T16:27:00.000-04:00

MINI didn't do much TV, but I was lucky to get a spot produced. This one was for aftermarket upgrades. Dealers loved it. And yes, the tattoo was real.

Molson Radio

2003-10-25T16:06:00.001-04:00

The client wanted to talk about their Saskatchewan barley. I thought, wow, it's gonna take a porn star to sell that.

Shimano Dura Ace

2003-10-25T15:41:00.000-04:00

Surfrider Foundation

2003-10-25T15:32:00.000-04:00

One of the smaller clients we had at Crispin.

IKEA - Furniture Drop

2002-10-25T15:52:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite ideas ever. We set up living rooms and encouraged people to steal them (the premise being buying the stuff at IKEA was pretty much the same as stealing). The first 'room' was gone in 8 minutes. We thought we had failed. But when it made the evening news, we realized we got about $100,000 of media coverage for our client for about $4,000. IKEA went on to do this many, many more times.

TRUTH

2002-10-25T15:47:00.000-04:00

I was very fortunate to work on Truth. Here is a sample.

IKEA - Tax Free Weekend Promotion

2002-10-25T15:44:00.000-04:00

This was in the LA area only. We had a thousand stickers up all weekend, and they were all taken down on Monday.

Compass Bank Radio

2002-10-25T15:43:00.000-04:00

Yeap, Crispin had a bank for a client. I always liked this radio I wrote for them. Sure, we've all done the psa-parody thing, even back then - still, I think we did it well.

Russell Athletic

2002-10-25T15:16:00.000-04:00

I was fortunate to work on Russell for a few years. Great client. Fun work.

Russell Athletic - Outdoor

2002-10-25T15:12:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite things we did for Russell.

Russell Athletic

2002-10-23T21:52:00.000-04:00

Russell Athletic Baseball

2002-10-23T21:48:00.000-04:00

Counter Agricultural Chemicals

2002-10-23T21:26:00.000-04:00

Atlanta Falcons

2002-07-25T20:07:00.000-04:00

I didn't do much for them, but I did like these headlines. I was recently reminded of them when I saw them in my long-lost art director's book.

Counter Agricultural Chemicals

2001-10-25T15:24:00.000-04:00

The first campaign I did under the guidance of Luke Sullivan.

ShowSouth Poster

2001-10-23T21:29:00.000-04:00

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

2001-10-23T20:43:00.000-04:00

I always loved these, even though the lines were just okay. Paul Huggett designed the heck out of them.

Southeast Toyota Dealers

2001-09-23T20:49:00.000-04:00

These are pretty old, but they were fun to make.

Atlanta History Center

2000-10-23T20:59:00.000-04:00

I only worked at Huey-Paprocki for three months, but in those three months I learned a lot from those guys.

Publix Super Markets

1998-01-23T20:24:00.000-05:00

Publix was a great client, I learned so much working with them. These are two ads from a large campaign I got to write a dozen years ago.

"This holiday, take the stress out of the kitchen. Keep it in the family room where it belongs."

"There are plenty of tricks for ripening fruit. We prefer the leave-it-on-the-tree trick."

Ramses Condom Aerial Banner

1996-06-23T20:47:00.000-04:00

Not even a year out of school, I wrote a banner for Ramses condoms, a devision of Durex. They flew a banner shaped like a condom over Giant's stadium that stated, "Ramses, Roll One One." Some found it offensive, so much so that the FAA tried to ground planes carrying the banners. Rush Limbaugh, as well as the New York Times did stories on it. Surprisingly it wasn't about the possible offensiveness, Rush was angry at the censorship.

Click the image for the story.

Tampa Zoo

1996-05-05T20:12:00.001-04:00

This is the first good, real campaign I did right out of school in 1996. It was non-traditional, and it got in the One Show.