Dan Ledman

PHOTOGRAPHY CAMPAIGN

Owned by Berkshire Hathaway, NetJets was and is the first private business jet charter and aircraft management company in the world. They treat every owner with unparalleled service with a focus on safety, reliability and access. With an innovative shared ownership model, customers are able to have access to private flight travel without the inconveniences of ownership: maintenance, access, plane repositioning, etc. We partnered with NetJets and the visionary Kurt Iswarienko (photographer, Director) to create a beautiful campaign elevating their rigorous safety measures, commitment to details and the access NetJets offers their owners.

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Director/Photographer: Kurt Iswarienko
NetJets Creative Director: Jen Meredith
Executive Creative Director: Dan Ledman, Mark Hillman
Creative Director/writer: Meredith Yuskewich
Agency Producer: Barry Zeidman

CAMPAIGN

How do you signal the launch of Tomcat Advanced, Tomcat's new premium "more palatable" (yes it contains bacon & oysters) purple mouse bait? Easy. You open a restaurant.

We used classic chain restaurant advertising tropes (Chili’s, Red Lobster, Olive Garden) as a jumping off point for the campaign, using humor to disarm people in an uncomfortable category (mice are not something most people enjoy dealing with).

We worked with Vayner Media for a full funnel campaign to celebrate the opening of the Tomcat Bistro where the only thing they serve is purply, tasty bait! We were lucky enough to partner with the talented Anthony Farquhar-Smith who has worked with Tim Burton on Corpse Bride and was lead animator on Wes Anderson's delightful Fantastic Mr. Fox.

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Agency: Vayner Media
Director: Anthony Farquhar-Smith
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Manager: Mark Field
Integrated Marketing Director: Jackie Shardo
Integrated Marketing Manager: Jill Heschel
Brand Director: Emily VonStein

BRANDING

For over 100 years, Bonnie Plants has been the leader in the consumer vegetable and herb category (if you have purchased a tomato plant or basil plant, odds are it was from Bonnie, but you prob didn’t know it) and with over 70 privately owned growing stations, has the largest network of nurseries, which means plants do not have to travel far to our stores.

Even with a lead in market share, Bonnie still has a significant lack of awareness (less than 35%) and a tired brand identity (Scottish tam o shanter hat?). We worked closely with our agency partner Ologie to create an entirely new visual language that celebrates Bonnie’s heritage while positioning the brand for a contemporary grower. The new brand identity will be rolling out in 2023.

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Agency: Ologie
Agency Creative Director: Paul Davis
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Manager: Brian Schmitt
Integrated Marketing Manager: Robyn Perry
Brand Manager: Michael Morris

CAMPAIGN

Bonnie Plants, the category leader in herb and vegetable live goods, often focuses on the plants themselves. With over 300 varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and many other herbs, it's easy to understand why: Bonnie’s mission is to provide gardeners a variety of healthy and exciting options for their gardens and they’ve been doing it for over 100 years.

But anyone who plants plants, does so because they want to cook amazing things with their harvest. So we created an upper funnel brand awareness story to remind people one of the main reasons they garden: so they can eat healthy and delicious things! We wanted to ignite the imagination and not just focus on the plants themselves or the “planting” process.

We partnered with the uber talented Buck animation studio to create a thrilling and mouth watering journey across the globe ... from a backyard garden, to an Italian kitchen, to an Ethiopian street fair and back again. Thanks to the team at Buck for helping us bring our vision to life.

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Agency: Buck
Chief Creative Officer: John Sass
Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Writer(s): Dan Ledman, Adam Hanft
Animation/VFX/Sound: Buck
Producer: Robyn Perry

CAMPAIGN

Taking care of a lawn is hard work and homeowners have many questions about their lawns. When is the best time of year to fertilize? How often should I mow? What are grubs? When do I treat for crabgrass? And who better to help people with their lawns than Scotts.

The challenge is not everyone likes to learn the same way and sometimes educational content can be a snoozer.

So we created “The Scotts Way,” an instructional animated series for hand raisers who need tips on how to get that beautiful Scotts yard. We were inspired by the wildly fun Instructoart style and felt it was the perfect way to connect with millennial homeowners in an irreverent and relatable way. We started with longer form YT content, but sliced and diced into shorter social :15s and more easily digestible tips for channel specific consumption. We worked with the talented design team of Jeremy Slagle of Slagle Design (illustration) and Joey Judkins of JJ Motion Studio (animation/sound) who helped us bring our vision to life. There are 17 episodes so far.

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Animation Director: Joey Judkins
Animators: Joey Judkins, Zak Tietjen, Pip Williamson, Ross Plaskow
Illustrators: Jeremy Slagle, Caleb Slagle
Sound Design: SonoSanctus
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Manager: Mark Field
Manager, Digital Content: Su Reid-St.John
Manager, Social Media: Avriel Rayls
Social Analyst: Morgan Dominique
Project Manager: Leslie Lezon

CAMPAIGN

Part of our relationship with Tidy Cats was to continually look for ways for the brand to stay relevant outside of pure product promotions. Staying relevant, demonstrating core values and standing for something beyond “our products are great” is important for every brand, but can be especially challenging for a cat litter brand. But thankfully, well…. cats.

In the spirit of continuing to use humor to connect with their passionate cat owner audience, we chose to spoof Shark Week - the popular Discovery Channel phenomenon - and create Kitten Week. Among other tactics, we shot a series of webisodes featuring terrifying kitten attack survivor stories, using classic shark attack re-enactments as our inspiration. We shot the entire series in one day at a house in New Albany with an SLR and a 6” LED light panel. That's me with the terrible beard. Great work by our one man production army Jason Poteat: DP, AD, shooter, gaff, grip, editor.

Campaign was an Addy Award Winner for Best in Show.

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Agency: IBMiX
Creative Director: Joe Niedecken, Mark Hillman
Director: Dan Ledman
Motion Graphics: Dan Ledman
DP/Editor: Jason Poteat
Producer: Colleen Duffy
Writer: Luke Oppliger, Jason Poteat, Dan Ledman

BRANDING/ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

In 2016, Columbus competed against 77 cities nationwide to win the Smart City Challenge: a $40 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to turn Columbus into a Smart City through several technology driven initiatives. Smart Columbus was born.

As the Smart Columbus continues to grow, they will move into a brand new space along the Scioto Mile in downtown Columbus. We partnered with them to create a public facing Experience Center learning exhibit space as part of their new office. The new 3,000 square foot showroom at 170 Civic Center Drive will be open to the public six days per week, and serve as a place where residents can view how the various programs will work through a series of interactive displays, test drive new electric vehicles, and can sign up to be involved in other participatory programs.

The Smart Columbus Experience Center opened in downtown Columbus in July 2018.

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Executive Creative Director: Chuck Wagner, Dan Ledman
Creative Director: Meredith Yuskewich, Todd Yuzwa
Associate Creative Director: Jason DiPietro, Kevin Larson
Art Director: Richie Teleron
Writer: Meredith Yuskewich, Rikki Austin
Animation/design: Jason DiPietro, Kevin Larson, Chris Zajd
3D animation/design: Chris Zajd, Brooke Cardoza

CAMPAIGN

To accompany the launch of Scotts Rapid Grass, the amazing new grass seed that grows 2X faster than seed alone (no joke, new lawn in 2-3 weeks), we created a dynamic campaign that focuses on the one thing people growing new grass truly care about: speed. We were inspired by films such as X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) that played with time differentials and dynamic speed contrasts in order to communicate the idea of how it will feel to the customer to have a beautiful new lawn so quickly.

We were lucky enough to partner with Director Wally Pfister (best known for his work as Cinematographer with filmmaker Christopher Nolan on films like Memento, The Dark Knight Trilogy, and Inception) who brought his unique perspective and dynamic eye to the content.

Everything else just seems… slow.

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Agency: Vayner Media
Director/DP: Wall Pfister
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Manager: Mark Field
Integrated Marketing Director: Jackie Shardo
Integrated Marketing Manager: Melissa Lyle

DIGITAL SIGNAGE

Barnes & Noble continues to be the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the country. Brick and mortar plays a significant role in their omni-channel strategy and as such, we are continually looking for ways to help them differentiate and to create experiences for the consumers that give them reasons to continue to visit the store vs seek other means of inspiration.

We work directly with Barnes & Noble’s in-house marketing team to create an animated promotional, video content series for their giant, 3-screen, 4k in-store kiosk displays. The monthly campaign features new and bestselling books. We use the cover artwork and book concepts as fuel for the short animations which are designed to inspire seeker shoppers who are looking for that next great read. We help decide which books to feature based on the creative possibilities each book and story present. The animations are coupled with real-time ratings & reviews and quotes from critics.

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Executive Creative Director: Rich Ruggerio, Dan Ledman
Associate Creative Director: Ben Hurte, Jason DiPietro
Animation/design: Jason DiPietro
Animation/design: Kevin Larson
Animation/design: Chris Zajd
Animation/design: Brooke Cardoza
Animation: The Garden
Producer: Colleen Duffy

PACKAGING

Today there are better ways to do practically everything — to watch movies and rides, to get groceries and ideas, to do your laundry, to make friends and share memories. So why not a better way to grow plants?

Surprise is a growing mix sold online made of wood fiber + coir that can be used anywhere, is lightweight, made with renewable ingredients, gnat resistant, grows plants 2x bigger (vs. unfed), feeds up to 6 months, and comes in a resealable packaging. It is lightly compressed to save space and is fluffy in texture. It is truly a revolutionary new “soilless soil” that can change the way people garden.

We worked with Marks agency in Cincinnati who gave us something arresting, something unique, something new and fresh in the category. Knowing this is a DTC only SKU (it will not be sold in brick and mortar stores) gave us opportunity to appeal to a younger audience who is drawn to brands that are disruptors in their categories. With a subtle endorsement from Miracle-Gro, we purposefully distanced ourselves from the master brand to allow Surprise to stand on its own and shed the perceptions of traditional big box garden soil (expensive, heavy, riddled with chemicals). We leaned in hard to a sustainable, upcycled message we could truly take credit for and we knew would resonate with a younger generation of gardener.

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Agency: Marks
Associate Creative Director: Jeff Raulie
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Managers: Brian Schmitt
Marketing Manager: Summer Myers

CAMPAIGN

Gillette Venus asked us to develop a campaign around their exclusive partnership with Kendall & Kylie Jenner. So we partnered with Gillette’s PR firm and developed a digital series focused on Kendall and Kylie sharing tips with fans about fashion, makeup, going out, ways to feel confident and how they like to have fun. We filmed in their home for two days. Bruce showed us his remote control helicopters. Chris cooked us eggs at 5am. The eggs were fantastic.

As you can imagine, engagement was high. Fans showed up on Facebook, Instagram and on Twitter to listen to anything the Jenners had to say about… well, anything.

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Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Director/writer: Jen Meredith
Camera operator: Dan Ledman, Kevin Larson
Editor: Kevin Larson
Design/animation: Zack McFarlen
Producer: Colleen Duffy

BRANDING

No comparison, no compromise. Scotts ProVista sets a new standard for turf grass (sod) and an undeniably beautiful lawn:

Beautiful grass
ProVista is extremely resistant to weather extremes – dense shade and extreme heat/sun – which allows for an even lawn, regardless of shade conditions.

Cost Effective
Slow growth means significantly less mowing—saving on average $1,800 per acre each year in fuel costs.

Complete Weed Control
Resistant to fertilizers and dense enough to crowd out weeds, ProVista will slow-grow in sun or shade—saving time and money. You can literally put RoundUp on ProVista turf and it will not damage the grass.

Good For The Planet
ProVista grass maintains a deep, dark green—needing 20% less fertilizer and 50% less mowing than conventional lawns. Less mowing means less emissions.

With so many unique benefits and a variety of audiences (home builders, landscapers, growers and homeowners), we needed to create a strong brand identity for ProVista that celebrated its unique qualities and helped it stand apart from other turf/sod options. We worked closely with Bonfire Red to create a stunning design system that worked across a variety of grass types, audiences and applications.

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Agency: Bonfire Red
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Brand Director: Ben Wideseth
Integrated Marketing Manager: Molly Taylor

PACKAGING

Ortho’s New Mosquito Suppressor product – Ortho Stealth – uses mosquito breeding habits against them to suppress the mosquito population in your yard and provide continuous relief from pesky mosquitos. You place Ortho Stealth some place outside and inconspicuous in your yard. Mosquitos fly into the device, become infected with the active agent and fly back to the rest of the population. It kills up to 80% of male mosquitoes within days and prevents up to 95% of future mosquitos.

We were inspired by the tactical precision of the product itself and leaned into video game and military visual creative constructs to guide our exploration. We worked with the fabulous Paul Demyanovich of HiFi Brands to create a package that truly pays off the name and the single minded proposition of Ortho Stealth. Sleek. Covert. Clean. Hidden. Effective.

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Agency: HiFi Brands
Design lead: Paul Demyanovich
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Manager: Charlie Larger
Brand Manager: Sam Stecher

PACKAGING

We needed to develop dynamic packaging design for Spring Ahead, a new all-purpose shake-n-feed fertilizer product by Miracle-Gro, in efforts to win the eyes and hearts of new-to-gardening consumers. The key benefit of Spring Ahead is the sustained feeding promise - up to 6 months of feeding, something remarkable and revolutionary to the category.

Today, young consumers are investing in plant decor due to a longing to nurture, but moreover: a desire to nest and imbue their homes with a lush aesthetic. When we took a look at the current shelf set in the garden centers where Spring Ahead would live, we noticed the competition was extremely disconnected from other lifestyle-driven brands. These products tended to focus on the specific, measurable results experienced by one’s yard, making gardening feel more like a task than a hobby. We set out to make something beautiful and arresting that would align with the values of a millennial shopper. We wanted every day gardening and plant care to feel like something enjoyable, not like work. We wanted people to smile every time they reached for the product on their shelf, almost like a collectable piece of art.

We worked with Marks agency in Cincinnati who gave us something arresting, something unique, something new and fresh in the category. It’s not every day you can take packaging creative and extend it to a suit, but we did.

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Agency: Marks
Associate Creative Director: Jeff Raulie
Brand Creative Director: Dan Ledman
Creative Managers: Xan Palay, Brian Schmitt
Integrated Marketing Manager: Summer Myers

CAMPAIGN

Kingsford has been the gold standard for charcoal, barbecue and grilling for the past 100 years. We helped them create a summer grilling season campaign to supercharge their traditional charcoal product line with the help of Coach Carl. Through a series of video shorts, a robust Twitter campaign and a sweepstakes, Coach Carl dispensed invaluable (kind of) grilling tips and engaged with hungry brand enthusiasts all season long.

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Executive Creative Director: Mark Hillman
Creative Director: Joe Niedecken
Director: Dan Ledman
Producer: Colleen Duffy
Writer: Luke Oppliger
Editor: Jason Poteat
Motion graphics/animation: Zack McFarlen