Steve Morris Creative Director/Writer

I led the launch of the new “Make Waves” creative work at NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) the largest annual global gathering of musicians and suppliers in the world. Yamaha has the largest display booth every year at the Convention Center in Anaheim and they run and supply all the instruments and sound system/video infrastructure for the main outdoor stage. It was the perfect venue to introduce Yamaha’s new “Make Waves” brand ethos to the music-loving world.

My main day to day job as Creative Director and one of two writers, was to freshen up every single customer touchpoint - digital and analog - with the new “Make Waves” philosophy and visual palette. In order to unify the brand communications globally under one voice and look, everything had to be examined and retooled.

I also had the pleasure of leading the creation and roll out of new campaigns for every instrument Yamaha makes and for every market, such as instructors of marching bands in schools across the country, the work of which follows at the end.

Tower of Power performance was amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUeQYG8XNLA

The kids that choose marching band in high school are a special breed. They often get jeered at by the jocks or ignored by the popular kids who waste their days on social media. This ad campaign celebrated the spirit, dedication, camaraderie and passion for music that "band geeks" have. If you were part of a high school marching ensemble, especially one that competed with other schools for supremacy, you'll know what I'm talking about. They work their asses off to be perfect on game day and love every minute of it.

Mazda Japan considers this Anthem spot to be the most successful commercial to ever capture their brand soul. It triggered an avalanche of positive comments on YouTube and had over 20 million views within the first 3 months. Director: Jake Scott

No parent can ever forget their first drive home from the hospital with their newborn. Directors: Dayton/Faris

After a week of being a passenger, a driver gladly returns home to his car. Director: David Frankham

Print campaign espouses some of the reasons why driving really does matter.

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram connected thousands of people online. Experiential events at SXSW and unearned media on automotive blogs like Jalopnik sparked massive engagement. People connected with the Driving Matters mantra and it spurred memories and conversations about Mazda cars and the love of driving.

Racing matters to Mazda. In fact, they’re insanely passionate about racing and support it at every level. Race tracks are where theories get crushed or proven, calculated risks are rewarded, and Mazda learns how to make better cars.

Getting the right tone for your message is the most important part of communication. Guilting and browbeating never work. You have to show the problem if you want to fix the problem.

Off-season NFL training. It's anywhere you can find it. 

Off-season NFL training. The more agony, the more glory.

Eddie George shows us how running backs train for power.

Buccaneers' territory. It's where the pigskin meets the iron.

Buccaneers' territory. Whatever sport you play, it better be with a ball that's oblong and pointy.

After a string of losing seasons, the Redskins wanted to remind their fans, who were losing heart, of the team’s great legacy. These were giant murals painted on the stadium walls. 

Spreads for various kinds of training gear engineered to keep the wearer cool, dry and comfortable.

Adidas makes swimsuits, too. We made these ads for the half-fish among us who get excited about shaving milliseconds off the clock.

Adidas sponsors a diverse field of athletes from Latin American nations and wanted posters created for each of them for use in their home countries. 

An interactive print ad? Kind of. Curious readers called the numbers written on the dusty car and were connected with one of three pre-recorded women who were interested in the man driving the black Z. In the first two days alone, over 5,000 calls came in.

These two long-form branded content films were made for NFL fans using TIVO during games to escape commercials. Instead they found these films with Nissan vehicles quietly placed in the storylines. They were cut into shorter segments for each quarter.

When it comes to style or advertising, never blend in.

The assignment was to position Colorado’s Copper Mountain Resort as the anti-Hollywood ski resort for purists. So to weed out the weenies, beautiful art direction and snarky copy was the requisite call.

This is one of those unfashionable black and white newspaper ads. My partner and I got the assignment while everyone else was working on cool TV projects and such but we were stoked for the opportunity and the ad ended up winning a silver One Show pencil. Moral: keep plugging away and keep smiling. You never know where it will lead.

They taste great and they're really healthful. No really they are, sort of.

When it comes to advertising to kids, I've always maintained that the more twisted and sicker it is, the more effective it will be. 

Guerilla campaign for a skateshop in the Castro that went up all over San Francisco.

The Altima is so refined, even rocket scientists have a difficult time finding something wrong with it.

The strategy was to celebrate the Altima's sophisticated design and technology. As we stared at the car from every conceivable angle certain beautiful, well-designed parts stood out. Parts that taken out of context, would be normal to see in everyday upscale settings.

The print ran in Architectural Digest.

Forget sophistication, make way for the special edition 280-horsepower Altima SE-R, the faster, stealthier brother of the standard Altima. 

Maxima - Fast and Elusive

To tout the Maxima’s exceptional handling, we bought corner billboards and also had special bowed signs custom made.

We put this monument in NYC as a place people could be filmed and share their good deed pledge with their friends on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/911day/photos

Hundreds of testimonial videos from celebrities and everyday people were posted on Facebook and the site gained 300,000 fans in just 70 days.

One of many PSAs that ran in the month leading up to 9/11. Watch other videos and see how the campaign unfolds at http://blog.goodcorps.com/filter/I-Will

“I will” was a number one trending topic on Twitter for two weeks leading up to the event.

See how the “I Will” movement continues to grow and inspire positive deeds on this and every anniversary of 9/11 at https://www.facebook.com/911day

Business Insider wrote an excellent, in-depth case study.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-911dayorg-used-social-media-to-create-the-most-successful-social-advocacy-movement-for-victims-ever-2011-9

To read how it all originated go to this CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/19/911dayofservice/index.html

Thanks to GOODCorps (now ENSO) who enlisted my help to write the platform for this pro-bono project. Thanks also to my co-creative, Kevin Raich, and the LA office of Deutsch who helped develop and produce this work.