Yet another example of my belief that “all jokes lead somewhere.” After a less than encouraging internal creative brain dump, my writer lamented that he wished this client could do something ‘fun.’ I pushed back, “Like what?” He shook his dead and admitted that he didn’t know. But he showed me his notes and I noticed a tiny primitive scribble of a man dressed up in an airplane suit. I asked him what THAT was, and he admitted that it was stupid, “see, he’s in the plane, but he still gets to do the things that regular people do.. just he’s.. you know… in a plane.” 15 minutes later, “Plane Man” was born.

In-flight phone calls and wi-fi were still a complicated process 15 years ago. It required detailed step-by-step instructions further complicated by the type of laptop you were using. Because you couldn’t depend on the flight attendants to be über technical support, Airfone was required to supply laminated seat back instructions for every flight. We asked, “Why can’t at least one side be fun?” The client agreed. We created 6 different scenarios that were rotated into circulation over the course of a year. Word from the airlines was that passengers were stealing the cards.

We were fortunate to help Verizon celebrate their 20th anniversary. In addition to this award-wining logo, we also shot, edited and produced a 3-part series of videos spotlighting their people and events that shaped their success.