Magnolia is the premium home entertainment destination inside select Best Buy stores. Their demographic is older, wealthier and wants to know what the end benefit of what their getting is. For us, it’s all about showing them that benefit, with inspiration, education and all out wow. Videos show what’s possible in a smart home. Their online experience demonstrates all the unique products and solutions Magnolia can provide. And all marketing material is pointed at this one goal, show them the benefit to make them want it even more.
I am on a team of two creatives for the entire brand. I’m in charge of the voice, the tone and every word in every medium including print, radio, the website, direct mail, digital signage, in-store signage, social, videos and the bi-yearly magazine called M.
To help explain what goes into creating a smart home, we teamed up with HGTV host Matt Muenster to create this video. In the end, with his links from his social pages, and Magnolia’s paid media, this video got over 4.8 million views, making it one of the highest YouTube videos ever created by Best Buy.
Magnolia offers premium audio, video and smart home solutions. It’s all about inspiring and educating the customer to what’s possible. This video was designed to do just that.
If you really want to show someone what’s possible in premium audio, video and smart home solutions, show them those solutions on a yacht.
For MagnoliaAV.com we wanted it to be equal parts commerce and know-how. So whether you’re ready to shop or are looking for inspiration, this site has you covered. The opening image was the video below - showing off a smart home solution in action. Today, much of this content is located on the Magnolia sub page on BestBuy.com, but this original site is one that allowed us to really show customers what was possible at Magnolia.
To view the site in its original glory visit: https://web.archive.org/web/20180327024705/https://www.magnoliaav.com/
I own Magnolia’s Facebook which features everything from videos, to polls, to lifestyle imagery. The goal for Facebook is 1% engagement and we are more than doubling that with an average of over 2.5% engagement per post.
I also own Magnolia’s email channel, delivering to 130,000 individuals, with an average of 24% open percentage and a 2% click rate.
We created this video for the homepage of MagnoliaAV.com. Running in a loop, it expressed what a smart home could be in a quick, clean way.
One of the parts of working on the Magnolia brand is creating this 48 page Magazine that appears in print and online. It’s difficult to explain what Magnolia does, but M Magazine allows us to showcase our amazing installs, new brands, the latest innovations plus our amazing employees. Check out the latest issue online here at https://bit.ly/2XoS2U7.
As one of two creatives that works on this brand, I create all the copy for the magazine, and am also in charge of coming up with the stories, finding the installs that we showcase, creating relationships with vendors to highlight their brands, and a whole lot more. In the end, this is the flagship of the Magnolia brand and helps to provide all the assets for all the other marketing materials we create throughout the year. And the best part, with vendor funding for ads and articles, it more than pays for itself.
This home in Napa, California was one of many homes we photographed for M Magazine. My role was interviewing the home owners, the Magnolia sales folks and creating what the story would be. My challenge was always to match the beautiful photography with beautiful copy.
I love this story because nothing expresses just how far Magnolia was willing to go to bring premium home entertainment into people’s lives.
Introducing new products was a big part of M Magazine. Working with the vendors, the engineers of these products, as well as their marketing teams was essential, but more essential was telling these stories in Magnolia’s voice.
Brand stories are another big part of M Magazine. We’ve gone to some amazing brand’s headquarters. This story for McIntosh took us to their brand showroom in NYC, a five story showroom with some of the most amazing audio gear you’ll ever see.
For nearly eight years I work on the Best Buy brand team, helping to develop the voice, tone and look of the brand as it went from regional player to national powerhouse. From grand opening campaigns that introduced Best Buy to new markets like New York and Utah, to national TV campaigns like the ones below. It was a great journey working with great creatives, amazing directors and some really fun talent.
What if you could actually control the Black Eyed Peas with the push of a button. This campaign combines the hardware Best Buy sells with the music that filled half the store at the time, all brought to you by a helpful Blue Shirt to show you how it all comes together.
Control KG with one finger. Watch.
Control more than just your technology, control a band like the Pussycat Dolls.
It seems crazy to think about today, but getting a wireless laptop was once a really big deal. Who better to want to go wireless than a marionette. Together, with our hero Wayne, I helped create the first fully integrated campaign for Best Buy, using this character across all mediums.
Once Wayne, the marionette, gained popularity from his TV commercial, we took him to the studio and recorded him singing his hit song “I'm Free”.
Best Buy was looking for a way to create less expensive, highly branded TV spots for specific drive times. Here was our solution for Back to School.
Devin Hester runs this commercial back for a touchdown.
A lot went into creating this commercial. This is a neat look into that process from Gasket Studios.
We were tasked with coming up with a faux movie trailer that played within the host of real movie trailers that played before feature films at AMC theaters. The more realistic the trailer, the more the shock of a cell phone interrupting the action would be. This was a great way to remind viewers to silence their phones.
In a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style, we created this faux movie trailer to remind viewers to silence their cell phones. Beyond its action, the subtitles helped draw the viewer even further into the action. In the end, we’d created a spot that landed on AdWeeks top 25 most epic ads list.
Heading to Whistler we created this faux movie trailer that even included a faux movie website (below) that drove people to BestBuy.com in a subtle and fun way.
We created this real website for the faux Ski Icon movie. This not only had a cool ski game you could play, plus fun videos and highlights of our hero Scott Stone’s life, it drove folks to Best Buy in subtle, fun ways.
Geek Squad gets many of their service technicians from technical colleges that focus on computer repair and maintenance. In an effort to get these students to come and work for Geek Squad, we created these posters that were placed around these schools, as well as folded up and put into student’s mailboxes. From internships to full time positions, this was a fun and unique way to point out what makes being a Geek so unique – leading to the line, “These uniforms don’t fit everyone.”
Radio is one of my favorite mediums in advertising. Many of these spots were written for young listeners, designed to cut through the noise, make you smile and enjoy.
Played during Timberwolves basketball games, this 30 second Best Buy spot explains why listening to the game is nothing compared to watching the game on a Sharp television.
There’s a lot of tall players on a professional basketball team. If your short, you should never go to a game in person. This spot for Best Buy played during Timberwolves games explains why you should watch the games at home on a Sharp TV instead.
Pro ball players swear, a lot! This Best Buy spot, played during Timberwolves games, explains why watching the game at home on a Sharp TV is so much better than being there.
Your different - so you should shop different at Best Buy.
Your different - so you should shop different at Best Buy.
As part of Best Buy announcing new store openings in New York, they put on a free concert in Central Park and broadcast the concert on the radio. This spot played during each commercial break.
DirecTV from Best Buy assures you get every NFL game, every Sunday during the season. Classic NFL films music and voice-over bring this spot to life.
Aristotle once said, “You don’t persuade through the intellect, you do it through passions.” No one is more passionate than a Packers fan. To speak to these fans, we touched on their emotions, their love of the team, their love of Packers football. In doing so, we made them fans of Best Buy as well.
Best Buy Mobile was trying to get prime real estate inside malls. How do you become the first number they call when a spot in the mall opens up? Give them a phone that’s pre-programmed with your number on it. The relationship to the brand – mobile phones – and what we wanted them to do was a huge win, win.
The Loop is an internal website Best Buy created to encourage employees to share with senior leadership their ideas for improving the company. This campaign help bring awareness to this initiative.
This poster was the centerpiece for this campaign. As creatives we’re used to our great ideas dying all the time. But as employees, Best Buy wanted employees to know that they had a place to go and be heard.
We took this concept and placed it throughout the corporate headquarters. From the recycle bins, to light bulb shaped stress balls placed in every employees mail box. We got the word out there, and hundreds of employees responded.
When I became a homeowner, I became passionate about my yard. I would see landscape ideas and wonder how I could make them happen. This concept answers that question. Placed in parks and other high traffic landscaped environments - we framed solutions Bachmann’s could create in your home.
As a University of Minnesota alumni, I was excited to hear that the Gophers were finally moving out of the dumpy Dome and putting a stadium back on campus. Playing off of the idea that there finally wouldn’t be a roof over our heads during games, we came up with these ads to drive sales for the new stadium.
