I created this campaign as an effort to push Shane's catering services, and a new option for businesses and families: the Picnic Pack. The idea was that customers could have a picnic anywhere. I thought up three video ads for the campaign, in which actors dressed in ant suits are walking through the grass, trying to find a picnic. Eventually, they realize that thanks to the new Picnic Pack, picnics are not restricted to the outdoors. Because we did not have a very large budget, the videos would air on YouTube to allow for viral marketing.

And yes, the all of the voices in the video were that of yours truly.

Another proposal my team developed for the Shane's Rib Shack campaign was the creation of Web site templates for franchised Shane's Rib Shack locations. We looked at competitors like Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q whose Web sites focused heavily on finding restaurant locations. Since Shane's was still a small franchise, we decided to emphasize this idea by giving each franchisee its own site. The easiest and most effective way to accomplish this was to have site templates for which each restaurant could fill in its own information and pictures.

When a customer would visit the Shane's Rib Shack corporate Web site, they would immediately see a map of all locations, which they could then click on to narrow their search. Additionally, users could simply enter their zip code into a textbox to be instantly redirected.

Once a user came upon a franchisee page, they would be presented with a fully animated Flash experience (see image). Clouds drift across the top of the page, birds fly in the background, smoke rises from the Shane's Rib Shack logo, and a wheel with links spins around. The location is clearly indicated at the top, and users can quickly switch to another by entering a different zip code. At the bottom of the page walk the ants from the Ant-i Picnic campaign (see above), with a link to view the viral videos.

Clicking on a link creates a "splat" over that link's button, and directs the user to an HTML-based page (see Contact Page example). This is where information that a franchisee submitted would be displayed. Once again, an ant reminds the user to check out the viral videos.

Our team decided that a radio ad that aired during the morning and afternoon rush hours would be a great way to appeal to business professionals. We wanted to show that a customer would be able to get all the heartiness of a sit-down meal without having to sacrifice time in his or her busy schedule.

The transcript for this ad was written by one of my teammates. It involves a hungry driver whose GPS navigation system goes beyond giving directions and begins to lead him to Shane's Rib Shack.

I was responsible for the actual creation of the ad. I had never before produced a radio commercial, and it proved challenging to convey exactly what was going on purely through sound. It also proved to be a lot of fun. I lent my voice to the driver and the voiceover at the end, and my girlfriend Amanda voiced the GPS, which I had to tweak a bit to get the robotic attributes down.