My style of storytelling is rooted in the drive to create ideas that can make a concerted impact on our culture by telling an authentic, believable story.
McDonalds, fax-4-Kiwiburger
How do you relaunch an iconic burger to a new generation? You use technology they know nothing about, from a time they can't even remember 📠🍔 Introducing ‘Fax-4-Kiwiburger’, probably the first ever fax-to-win promo since 1991. Winner of two silvers for brand experience and interactive OOH at SPIKES Asia and Axis here in Aotearoa.
Puhoi Valley, ‘A little bit naughty’
Puhoi Valley flavoured milks and yoghurts are naughty little treats packed with delicious, indulgent flavours, that can’t help but make you feel a little bit naughty. To launch the products in New Zealand, we created a campaign that celebrates those equally little, defiant acts of naughtiness that we all indulge in from time to time. An ode to anyone who’s ever driven solo in the T2 lane.
Tower Motor Campaign
Tower is a trusted brand, unfortunately remotes aren’t as trustworthy 🚙 🎾
We conceived, wrote and developed this campaign to promote Tower insurance’s motor insurance offer, proving that just because you’re a serious brand with seriously good savings, doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun.
Genesis brand campaign
Genesis are the most popular power providers in New Zealand. So they needed a popular personality to match.
Introducing... George and her family. They’re like a lot of families in Aotearoa. They argue over who left the fridge door open, and who keeps having long, hot showers. Mostly though, they care about each other and making the world better through smarter, more sustainable energy choices. My partner and I helped conceive the OOH and social concepts for this campaign, that were launched alongside the AV.
New Zealand Police
Puhikura
Puhikura is the Police’s first major recruitment campaign focused specifically on wāhine Māori. Ever.
Puhikura was made to share with communities, to attract wāhine Māori recruits who care and want to make a difference. Each documentary film, created by Wrestler, set out to deliver an open look at some of the challenges, as well as the aspirations wāhine Māori have in joining Police, with the intent that the series will assist Police to continue to improve its relationship with Māori and its recruitment process to support their application.
Fern Ngatai (Ngati Porou & Tainui) provided her expertise in Tāmoko and Toi Maori through her intricate, bespoke line work of the frames within the campaign materials. With specific colours to articulate the wairua of each wāhine and their characteristics. These works were nominated in four different categories at the annual Best Design Awards. The wāhine of Puhikura shared their experiences and whakaaro as a way to help others into the future, and to contribute to healing, connection, and trust. It is hoped their stories can support all wāhine Māori interested in working in the Police. These stories are a taonga now and into the future.
McDonald’s Breakfast
‘Breakfast Done Properly’
Breakfast, once considered the most important meal of the day, in recent times has become an afterthought, with over 50% of adults choosing to skip it. So, through McDonald’s iconic menu, we wanted to help the nation remember how good it feels to start the day with a properly satisfying breakfast. ‘Breakfast, done properly’ is the platform we conceived, that all McDonald’s Breakfast advertising in the UK will sit under going forward.
McDonald’s Breakfast: Breakfast Done Properly
Mass Mutual
‘Small acts of Mutuality’
Mass Mutual is the third largest insurance company in North America. For such a large company, we decided to think small…miniature to be exact. During the Kentucky Derby in South Carolina in the summer of 2018, we made the most of their branding partnership with the event, and created tiny billboards and vignettes dotted around the venue, since high net worth individuals use binoculars in the stands to get a closer look at the Derby. Read more about the success of the campaign here:
https://johannesleonardo.com/project/small-acts-of-mutuality
Vroom
Bezos family foundation:
Vroom healthcare installation in Mt.Sinai hospital in New York City.
We helped new parents turn everyday interactions into activities designed for early learning and development, during a time when children’s brains grow the fastest. We created signage spanning 6 different hospital units, with 70+ individual deliverables ranging from large scale elevator wraps to a booklet of activities that parents can do with children in the waiting room, to creating posters/decals for staff areas.
Adidas Originals
‘Your colour, Adi colour’
There’s something about the way colour makes you think specifically and sincerely about a particular time, feeling or place. Every colour tells a story about who we are, where we’ve been and how we feel. Playfully iconic, the timeless Adicolour apparel is reimagined in full rainbow spectrum for the ‘19 Fall/ Winter drop. ‘Your colour, Adicolour’ (written by yours truly) remains the official messaging for the Adicolour Adidas range.
Adidas Originals: Your Colour. Adi Colour.
Amazon
‘Binge-cheating’
Every couple knows that you never, ever, skip ahead an episode without the other one knowing. It’s just one of life’s unwritten rules. But every couple also knows the temptation, especially with a selection of shows as binge-worthy as Amazon. We created this TV spot as part of a series in 2019, and it aired in early 2020 as part of Amazon’s multi-platform, all-inclusive, one-stop-shop brand messaging.
Amazon: Binge Cheating
Proactive Print Ideas
During the first 2020 lockdown, after inevitably getting tired of making puzzles and baking sourdough, my creative partner and I got busy picking a few brands to write some platform lines for. We liked them so we made a couple of print ads to go with each platform line. Here’s the result:
