Calvin Lai

Brand Campaign / Film / Photography
Agency: Monks
Role: CD

Bringing back the classic “Rolaids Spells Relief” campaign became quite the thrill when P&G bought our idea to modernize the campaign with a new throughline: Fairplains USA. Our team created a fictional town that embodies the brand’s core traits through its people and places – from the Fairplains Freebirds minor league baseball team to the hardest working kitchen in the country: Fairplains Diner.

Brand Campaign / Film / Digital / Social
Agency: Monks
Role: CD

AutoCamp isn’t camping or glamping. Fact is, there are no real words to accurately describe their unique blend of nature, luxury and community. So when this Hilton outdoor brand asked us to develop a campaign to drum up summer bookings, we created a new language that redefines vacations. These are new words for a new way to vacay. The AutoPedia is not only helping differentiate AutoCamp’s unique offering, it’s boosting summer bookings across all their locations.

Visual Identity / Brand Integrated Campaign / Film / Experiential
Agency: Monks
Role: ACD

It’s not often you get to celebrate a 100th birthday. So when Shure hit the century mark, our team unwrapped a new visual identity, produced a series of videos that invited three audience segments into the celebration, and then brought the festivities over to NAMM – the world’s largest gathering of music product brands. Instead of telling a 100 year-long story about Shure, we made it a story about the performers, studio musicians, creators, sound engineers and anyone who has ever picked up a Shure mic.

Product Campaign Launches / Film / Photography / Digital / Social
Agency: Monks
Role: ACD

For decades, Shure microphones have put their superior products at the center of all their campaign efforts. But knowing our audience, we insisted that the performers be front and center. We used multiple product launches as our platform to shine a spotlight on up-and-coming artists. Without further ado, please meet Jungle Bobby and Featurette.

Campaign Launch / Film / Digital / Social / CRM
Agency: Monks
Role: ACD

The Philips Hue Sync Box syncs your LED lights to what’s playing on your screen. It’s an immersive experience for anyone, especially gamers. So we created this idea for a global product campaign: Game changing sync. When your LED lights and favorite video games are in sync, it feels like everything else is in sync, too. The results: 58 million impressions and a 415% return on ad spend.

Campaign Launch / Film / Digital / Social / CRM / Package Design
Agency: Monks
Role: ACD

The ingenuity behind Philip Hue lightstrips is multi-faceted, from its app-controlled customizations and integration with other Hue lights to its color accuracy and vibrant output. Smart? Yes. Intuitive? That too. So we created this campaign – Simply Brilliant – to highlight all the ways these lightstrips truly outshine the competition. We surpassed all previous campaign performances for Philips Hue across the funnel – including 151 million impressions, 2.45 million clicks to the website and a 937% return on ad spend.

Internal Comms / Collateral
Agency: Monks
Role: ACD

Handbooks that address issues like diversity and inclusion can be super helpful tools for organizations. But there’s one problem: no one reads them. That’s why we wrote and illustrated a comic book instead for the Google France office. “The Kitchen Chronicles” was our answer to tackling the stereotypes of the Arab+ community with just the right amount of levity.

B2B / Partnership marketing / Campaign / Video / Digital
Agency: Monks
Role: ACD

French marketers have a persistent challenge: they’re constantly overwhelmed with information, some useful, some not so much. Our “Bringing data to life” campaign showed how HubSpot’s seamless Google Ads integration helps these marketers get the most out of the right data. Spanning three continents, our team’s amazing collaboration paid off. We helped Google and HubSpot surpass their campaign goals: 1.5 times more impressions and over 3 times more clicks.

Digital / UX-UI / Content Strategy
Agency: GALE Partners
Role: Creative Lead

As a global IT distribution leader that's ranked #133 on the Fortune 500 list, Arrow is perhaps the biggest company you never heard of. Our agency was asked to redesign its Enterprise Computing Solutions site from the ground up so that it could speak directly to the resellers, vendors and service providers that make up the IT ecosystem. I led the team that developed the UX, design and content for this 50+ page website, resulting in a 2.5X increase in web content engagement post-launch.

Product campaign / Collateral
Agency: GALE Partners
Role: ACD

Every Pella window is tested against extreme elements, like blistering sun, pelting rain and snow, severe winds and hurricanes – all so you can rest assured your windows will protect you from Mother Nature’s extremes. We showed potential customers just how rigorous these weather tests are by putting a postcard through the same tests. The resulting wear and tear made them unsuitable for mailing. But they could still make a lasting impression at branch locations across North America.

Customer Journey / CRM
Agency: GALE Partners
Role: ACD

My partner and I led a 10-person team of designers, writers, motion artists, production artists and developers to create BMW USA’s first-ever CRM journey for prospects and owners. By putting the drivers at the center of the experience, we helped grow the brand from the #3 best-selling luxury automaker to #1 within two years.

Product Launch / Direct Mail / Partnerships
Agency: GALE Partners
Role: ACD

Known as a performance-first brand, BMW had to convince prospective buyers that the All-New 7 Series flagship sedan also embodies luxury. Our solution: deliver them a piece of the 7 Series’ heightened sensory experience. Make that seven pieces – from the Ambient Air Suite to Vernasca leather trim to the Bowers & Wilkins stereo experience. Layer by layer, we ignited all the senses. The 7th Sense didn’t just change perceptions about luxury. It helped drive sales: 1,895 purchases in the first two months.

Campaign Launch / Branded Content / Social / Video
Agency: Fathom Communications
Role: Creative Lead

Traditional tourism ads don’t cut it anymore. So my team developed a campaign that goes beneath the surface to reveal Canada’s unique values. “True North” is all about putting aside the stereotypes in favor of stories that capture Canada’s true essence. To pull it off, we needed two things: open-minded clients and a talented content partner like Great Big Story. Luckily, we had both. The campaign generated well over 1 million views in just the first two weeks. And by the following year, 14.3 million U.S. tourists visited Canada, the highest figure in 12 years.

Campaign Launch / Digital Content / Video / Collateral
Agency: Fathom Communications
Role: Creative Lead

All Business is more than an advertising idea. It’s a 24 hour test drive where business owners get to put the van to work. My agency partnered with Escape Velocity Content to produce a mini-documentary series that followed four business owners for an entire work day. The campaign garnered rave reviews with the leadership team at Fiat Chrysler and triggered a nationwide dealership program. My role included crafting the identity, interviewing the business owners and writing the copy.

Campaign Launch / Radio / Retail / Sponsorships
Agency: Ogilvy New York
Role: Copywriter

Love it or hate it, mLife worked. A curious campaign that introduced a better, smarter mobile life. Our team transformed a landline telecom giant into a relevant voice in the mobile space, boosting brand recognition by over 50% and surpassing our clients' customer acquisition goals by 9% in the first year. My favorite part of coming to work during this era was writing and recording dozens of radio spots – letting the theater of the mind stretch the audience’s imagination.

Campaign Launch / Advocacy / Print
Agency: Bozell New York
Role: Copywriter

The Family Violence Prevention Fund asked our agency to help them direct domestic violence victims to life-saving resources. After learning that the majority of victims suffer quietly, we broke the silence with the “Hidden Scars” campaign, a poster series that made some noise in offices across the country.