Jeremy joe smith

Agency Holiday Greeting

Creative Direction | Ideation | Script Writing | Production

This 2021 JRT Agency holiday greeting was inspired by the agency’s reputation for great high-performance motorsports and enthusiast marketing. I came up with the idea by wondering what would our agency’s version of a holiday wreath look like?

An email campaign shared the link to the video with our partners, who could then register for a Baked Burnt Rubber with Smokin’ Asphalt Icing Cookie Gift Box. My daughter’s cookie company, Damn Good Cookie provided the 400 cookies we sent out.

Pretty cool project.

I wrote, produced and directed the idea and the video. My ACD partner and I had the giant wreath fabricated, loaded it into a rental van and drove to Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina where we met a local drone operator for the shoot.

I filmed the trip on my phone, then edited a “making-of” video to introduce the greeting at the company holiday party. Of course, the party never happened. Thanks covid.

B2B Print Campaign

Creative Direction | Ideation | Writing

As ACD at the JRT Agency, I oversee a high volume of work created for Mopar, the parts and service brand of Stellantis. Much of this work is B2B – including dealer ads targeting the independent repair shops to whom they supply parts. It is always our goal to raise the creative bar on this work.

For this campaign, we asked, how can we make O.E. wholesale parts more interesting, more dramatic, more compelling? I’m proud of the results.

B2B Print Campaign

Creative Direction | Ideation | Writing

This is another example of our effort at the JRT Agency to make O.E. wholesale ad kits more creative, impactful and effective.

This is a campaign for replacement windshield glass. These were used as print ads, flyers, mailers and digital ads by dealers targeting independent repair shops.

Award-Winning Rich Media Advertising Campaigns

Creative Direction | Ideation | Writing

Idemitsu is the eighth largest petroleum company in the world, and the largest Japanese oil and lubricant supplier. They are the first-fill oil supplier for all of the leading Japanese vehicle manufacturers. And no one in the U.S. knows who they are.

So the JRT Agency is helping to introduce Idemitsu as the best oil brand formulated specifically for Japanese engines.

These are some rich media ads that I wrote and produced. The sports-themed campaign won a Gold Muse Award.

Website | Freelance Partnership

Creative Direction | Writing | Research

ClearView Insights is a company with a team of Ph.D. Psychologists who are among the leading experts in the field of Consumer Behavior Design. They can look into your company’s data and find things that can fundamentally improve your business. But hey – this website I wrote for them explains it all a lot better.

I created this website with my freelance partner, David Cilibraise and his agency, Caveat.

Website | Freelance Agency Assignment

Ideation | Copywriting

For this assignment, I was literally back in the saddle again – returning to the GTB agency as a freelancer.

I wrote this mini-site to reveal the official reintroduction of the Ford Bronco, perhaps the most highly anticipated Ford vehicle in the last decade.

Social Media Campaign | Freelance Agency Assignment

Ideation | Writing

Chevy relaunched the much anticipated Blazer SUV in 2019. On freelance assignment at Commonwealth//McCann, I created these social media executions with Art Director Jesse Gontko.

Our Creative Directors asked for new ideas that directly challenged segment leader, Ford Edge, and delivered the strategic message highlighting Blazer’s sharp new design and styling.

Social Media Video Campaign

Ideation | Songwriting | Music Performance & Production | Video Production

Former Team Detroit ECD, Scott Lange founded the Team Detroit Content Studio to create lots of digital content quickly. We created the #fordjams campaign as an example of the kinds of things we could do in the content studio. The Ford Jams are odes to vehicle features not typically advertised... like, turn signals, the center console and automatic window opening. 

I composed and performed all of the Ford Jams. CD, John Stoll directed the videos. We produced the entire project – recording, shooting, editing – in house. And we turned the whole thing around in about two weeks. 

Print Campaign | Freelance Agency Assignment

Copywriting

Global Chief Creative Officer, Matt Canzano needed some headlines for a meeting. Today. The client was Holden, Chevrolet’s brand in Australia. The headlines were for print ads for Holden SUVs. The direction: Sound like an Aussie and talk about capability and connectivity, but without making it about technology. Cool? Ok. Go!

Theme Line Writing

When this job started, I had nothing to do with it. The City of Detroit wanted a new logo, but they didn't want a new theme line. They said they had one from the Mayor Young Administration they were planning to revive: "Moving Detroit Forward." 

Then one day in an agency hallway, I overheard that the city agreed to hear some new lines, but they wanted the same "moving forward" message. 

So I pushed my way into the project.

With respect to Mayor Young, "Moving Detroit Forward" isn't much of a theme line. It's a strategy statement. A proper theme line for this city needs soul. Humanity. It needs to acknowledge that we are in this journey together, moving past some of the darkest times in our history. 

The city chose my line, "Rising Together" to accompany this beautiful logo from the Team Detroit Design Studio.

Hell yeah! 

Digital Video Series | New Vehicle Launch

Creative Direction | Ideation | Writing | Video Production | Editing

When Ford announced it was replacing the beloved Crown Victoria Police Interceptor with entirely new sedan and SUV Interceptors, the police community wasn't happy. The Crown Vic Interceptor had dominated the North American market with over 80% share at one point. Cops loved their Crown Vics.

To prove the new Interceptors were superior vehicles, ACD, Barry Cole and I developed the Official Test Drive. We recruited a group of real-active duty police officers from the U.S. and Canada to test drive the new models at the Arizona Proving Grounds. 

It worked. The officers were highly impressed at the performance and handling of the new vehicles – and their reactions were quite convincing. The video series was well-received by the law-enforcement community. 

Digital Video Series | New Vehicle Launch

Ideation | Writing

The launch of the rabidly anticipated, sixth-generation, 50th Anniversary Mustang was an historic event for Ford. So my creative team wanted to do something more special than the simple product videos Ford traditionally produced for vehicle pages on Ford.com. 

The 2015 Mustang had a new, vintage-inspired design that connected straight back to 1965. It was wildly approved by the Mustang community. So we talked Ford into spending more money than normal, and we took customers inside the designing and engineering of the new car with two documentary films. 

We partnered with Public Record Films from NY, and interviewed the lead product development professionals at Ford. The experience was incredible. The respect and reverence they felt for their jobs was awing. And Public Record did an incredible job of the capturing the true essence of their stories. I'm very proud to have been involved in this work. 

Digital Video Campaign | New Vehicle Introduction

Ideation | Copywriting | Production

When Ford introduced the C-MAX, it's first full-line of hybrid vehicles, the Toyota Prius was king of the segment, and had been for a decade. To prove C-MAX was here to take the throne, we developed The Hybird Games - a glitzy, over-the-top car Olympics that turned routine driving into a thrilling spectacle of competition.

The Games were hosted by Bob Brant (Jerry Lambert), an old-school, bourbon-drinking, Nixon-loving play-by-play man. You may have seen Jerry starring with Drake in 2016's T-Mobile Superbowl spot.  

Bob Brant's sidekick was color commentator Roger (Brian Palermo), a new-age, dirty-foot west-coast yogi. Brian appear recently in Pee Wee's Big Holiday.

The videos were shot by Academy-Award winning cinematographer, Robert Richardson, and directed by Eric Joiner of Tool of North America.

The campaign flew in direct contrast to the feel-good hybrid advertising in the market of the day. Supported by an extensive social-media campaign, including Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook, The Hybrid Games were a big success. C-MAX outsold Prius in its first three months and our video views beat our goals by more than 250%. 

I was the Copywriter on the campaign, with Art Director, Ryan Breight and Creative Directors, Jennifer Powers and Ed Cole, and ECD, Stuart O'Neil.  

Integrated Digital Advertising and Video Campaign

Creative Lead | Ideation | Copywriting | Production

Ford had a newly designed Expedition. And they needed to gain market share. What Ford didn't have, was a big budget. 

So Team Detroit partnered with Yahoo, Amazon, NatGeo and Grind TV to create a ground-breaking, multi-tiered, geo-targeted, cross-promotional digital advertising campaign. 

I was creative lead on the project. My team created and developed the Uncharted Expeditions concept: six groups of adventure athletes would getaway in an Expedition to some of the top outdoor destinations across the country to demonstrate the big SUV's capability, flexibility and performance. 

In close collaboration with Grind TV, we divided into two groups and set out to shoot the six main videos, plus six product highlight videos that lived on Amazon.com. 

We went paragliding in Wyoming, kiteboarding in Oregon, mountain biking in Utah, rock climbing in Tennessee, paddle boarding in Michigan and wakeboarding in Texas. 

The partnerships enabled us to maximize our production dollars in a way I've never seen done before. The work was featured in a massive digital media buy that targeted in-market customers in Expedition's most fertile regions across the country. 

I had already written the website for the new Expedition, and was given the opportunity to lead all creative phases of the project with my ACD partner, Chris Walton. It was a fabulous adventure. I'm most proud of the final edit of all six videos, which Chris and I directed in L.A. 

DTE Sponsorship Messages for LCA Screens

Creative Direction | Ideation | Copywriting

DTE Energy was a critical partner in the development of Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit, as well as an advertising sponsor of the Detroit Red Wings. So when the new arena opened, they needed messages created for all the digital screens in the building.

Freelancing at DTE, my team pitched the theme, “Proud to Power the District Detroit.” Ilitch Holdings had just branded the neighborhood around the arena “The District Detroit” and it was generating a lot of buzz. DTE’s headquarters are right there in the neighborhood and DTE was soon to open its own new public space, Beacon Park, just blocks from the arena. So the idea of powering The District Detroit had a good feeling to it.

My idea for the narrow LED screens that wrap around the inside of the arena, was to animate DTE’s product – its energy – with a bolt of blue energy that would fly around the screens and reveal DTE’s messages.

For the messages, I wanted to connect DTE to the fans in the arena in a positive way. People tend to not like their energy provider – that’s just life. I saw the screens in the arena as a way for DTE to show that it related to the fans – that the company was just as happy to be there in the arena as the fans were.

So I wrote fun lines that demonstrated DTE was proud to power all the cool stuff happening in that space.

In the end, the client loved my blue energy bolt, and they have continued using it for years. But they chose to use more conservative, less-fun messaging. Ah well. I still love the strategy and these lines.

The design and motion graphics were created by my partner on the team, Kevin Airgid.

Documentary Video

Creative Direction | Video Direction | Ideation | Writing | Production | Editing

On March 8, 2017, a massive windstorm struck Michigan and knocked out power to more than 800,000 DTE Energy customers. In the weeks that followed, it became clear to me that DTE should document the event and their response.

So I wrote a treatment for a documentary and pitched it to the VP of Corporate Communications. She approved my idea and I went to work.

I scoured the news and all footage captured by DTE’s in-house media department for anything relevant to the story. Then I wrote the script, recruited an editor and put the film together.

The final cut was intended for DTE’s internal use only. It made its debut at the shareholders annual meeting in late spring of 2017.

New-Model Reveal Site on Ford.com

Concept and Copywriting

Ford revealed the all-new 2016 Ford Explorer with a reveal site on ford.com that I created with art director, Andrew Smith. We set out to show the beautifully redesigned vehicle in its intended environment – on accessible adventures, where its new technologies and luxury appointments would be most appreciated.  

New-Model Reveal Site on Ford.com

Concept and Copywriting

Fusion is the second-most important vehicle in the Ford lineup, right behind F-150. Ford introduced the new 2017 model with this reveal site I created with Art Director, Ben Howard. This site is also the first appearance of the "By Design" campaign on Ford.com. 

http://www.ford.com/cars/fusion/2017

New Website Development and Launch

Strategy | Ideation | Writing | Production

Plugin Electric Vehicles represent the largest new revenue opportunity utility companies have seen in decades. Accordingly, DTE Energy is actively working to build infrastructure to shape the growing market. So they asked for a new website.

On freelance assignment with DTE, I worked with their digital communications team and their electric vehicle team to develop a content strategy and then write the site.

Print Campaign

Concept, Copywriting, Art Direction

This small-space print campaign was written and designed by me for the Double Olive, a legendary martini lounge in Dearborn, Michigan, owned by Detroit advertising veteran, Joe Aigus. Let's just say its reputation was well-earned. 

Music Video Series

Creative Directing | Video Directing | Producing | Performing | Editing | Catering

Live from the Sidewalk is a series of live performances by my band, Me + Joe Smith on the streets of our neighborhood in Detroit. 

The band performed the music, I did everything else... I conceived the idea, produced, directed, filmed, catered and edited all the videos myself. I was even the damn client. 

This project was a blast! We needed the videos to help get the band booked. And they worked. I calendar filled right up.

Social Media Promo Content

Short videos produced completely on an iPhone.

I shot these videos, composed and recorded the music tracks, and mixed and edited the final cuts all on my iPhone 8.

Graphic Design

Some posters I created for music shows.

When Dale Earnhardt crashed at Daytona, I was a copywriter at Ogilvy working on the Motorcraft NASCAR account. The next morning, Monday, my Creative Director, Doug Wood and I showed up at the office still shaken. The magnitude of that tragedy on the racing world was incalculable. Doug and I had to do something. He showed me a drawing – Earnhardt’s 3 with a halo over it. I spoke the headline. We pitched it to Motorcraft … we told them, you have to publish this … you should honor the man, the sport and your competitor, GM Goodwrench who was Earnhardt’s sponsor. In the end, they chose not to run the ad. But here it is. It still makes me feel better.

Independent Film

Songwriting and Performing

Producers, Brian Merkel and Dorota Koy teamed with 4exit4 Productions to create People Mover,  a short film capturing 24 local artists, cooks, thinkers and musicians as they came together to showcase Detroit's spirit, performing inside the train one day in April.

My kid, Isy and I had written a song together about our home on the People Mover track. Her mom had a place on the track, too, and we could travel between our two homes on the train without ever touching the ground.

The first video on this page is the full People Mover movie – we appear at the end. 

The second video is our full performance.