ROLE: SR. INTERACTIVE ART DIRECTOR

A challenger launch play: use culture equity + entertainment to put a little-known category alternative on the map—fast.

HomeAway was a newer name to many Americans, competing against hotels with far larger budgets. The strategy was to make the “hotel vs. vacation rental” contrast instantly legible by borrowing a universally understood truth: vacations go wrong in hotels. So we brought back the Griswold family and built a campaign that used the Super Bowl XLIV as the ignition point—then drove people online for the full story and interactive experiences.

What sold it
My partner and I created a 143-page campaign book in one week when our AE asked if we could come up with a Super Bowl idea. The platform sold as a fully integrated system, not just a spot.

Work

• Super Bowl spot (trailer-style ignition) during Super Bowl XLIV

• Short film continuation content (extended story experience)

• Campaign microsite / web experience

• Interactive game (“Griswold Getaway”)

• Digital banners + social

Social ignition (pre-air)
Before the spot aired, we created and ran Facebook and Twitter accounts for Clark Griswold and grew the audience to over 103K+ followers/fans organically (no paid spend). This gave the campaign a living character presence—and an owned distribution channel—before the Super Bowl moment.

My role
Concept through finish.

• Co-created the campaign with my copywriting partner, Matthew Weiner.

• Designed the microsite, banners, and the game (UI, layouts, visual system).

• Oversaw the interactive builds for the game and banners with development partners (QA, iteration, polish through delivery).

• Partnered across creative/production to keep the platform consistent from broadcast → digital → interactive.

• Co-created and operated the Clark Griswold social presence pre-air, building 103K+ followers/fans organically.

Proof

• HomeAway reported daily unique visitors up 500%+ the day after the ad aired, plus ~1M incremental page views immediately following the spot.

• Brand reporting cited 460,000 visits/min during the airing quarter (vs 275,000/min average during the rest of the game), and ~1M online views of the Griswold content post–Super Bowl; also noted meaningful click-through/search behavior from the microsite to the core product experience.

Awards

• Effie Awards — Gold (Travel/Tourism/Destination; listed as “The Return of the Griswolds”)

• The One Show — Branded Entertainment Merit (“Return of the Griswolds,” Publicis Seattle / HomeAway.com)

• Webby Awards — Honoree

• Shorty Awards — 2× Finalist

• American Advertising Awards Seattle — Gold + Silver(s)

• AAF District XI American Advertising Awards — Silver

• DiVA Awards — Award

• AD STARS — Bronze + 8× Finalist

• Golden Drum Awards — Shortlist

THE SITE

THE GAME

SOCIAL

BANNERS