TRAVIS COWDY

These days, we’re able to skip things we don’t want to see. Like pre-roll ads. Just click a button and it goes away. But not everyone is that lucky.

Millions of women in Africa walk hours a day for clean water. They can’t just “skip it.” To help Brita + Me to We’s campaign for change we filmed a real woman’s daily walk for water, creating a 4 hour, 17 minute pre-roll ad.

One Show 2020 - Silver Pencil, Merit
London International Awards - Shortlist
Atomic Awards 2020 - Silver
Applied Arts 2019 - Winner (2x)
Canadian Marketing Awards 2019 - Gold
YouTube Works 2019 - Best Response Driven Campaign

ACD/CW - Phil Coulter
ACD/AD - Stefan D’Aversa

How do you launch a craft beer in a flooded marketplace with a minimal media spend? You turn a DM piece into a billboard.

One Show 2019 - Merit
Applied Arts 2019 - Winner
Communication Arts 2019 - Award of Excellence
Media Innovation Awards - Bronze

A first for LinkedIn, we identified individuals who had recently been promoted to a high level executive role and celebrated their achievement by gifting them a pair of beautifully handcrafted Italian leather Lexus driving gloves.  

Atomic Awards - Gold - Niche Targeting
PROMO! - Gold - Best Use Of Data
CMA - Silver - Tech Innovation

To help launch the critically acclaimed film, “Snowden” by Academy Award winning Director Oliver Stone, we invaded the privacy of an unsuspecting public to drive home a point about the perils of the information age. 

Marketing Awards 2017 - Silver
Communication Arts 2017 - Award of Excellence
Applied Arts 2017 - Winner

We helped Leo Burnett Toronto win a sizable chunk of US business for TD with this hard-working creative. We devised a structured creative platform for their new line of credit cards. This is the first in a series of spots coming to air in 2024.

Over 95% of direct mail is never opened. So, to entice our adventure seeking, high income target, we created a physically engaging demonstration of the hill-climbing ability of the Lexus GX using the mechanism of a Manila envelope.

D&AD 2020 - Graphic Design - Shortlist
Communication Arts - Sales Promotion - Winner

To expose the truth behind the buying and selling of children in developing nations we juxtaposed it against the products and experiences that our own children enjoy every day.

One Show -  Two Merits
ADCC - Gold, Four Silvers, Two Merits
Bessies - 5 Silvers
Marketing Awards - Merit

SurfEasy needed to raise awareness of their unique plug and play privacy app. That meant educating the public about the inherent danger of using smartphones and computers on unsecure Wi-Fi networks.

We ran the campaign in subway cars just weeks after two of Toronto's busiest subway stations announced free public Wi-Fi to capitalize on the buzz.

Cannes Lions - Shortlist
One Show - Merit
ADCC - Two Silvers, Three Merits
Marketing - Silver
Applied Arts - Winner

When you’re a small business owner you play a lot of roles. We took this quite literally by casting one actor to play five different roles in a spot for TD small business banking.

The Science Of Rock N Roll is a travelling interactive exhibit for all ages which has been featured at science centres across North America. We created a campaign that rewards the curious, all while skirting any copyright issues. 

Communication Arts - Winner
Marketing Awards - Silver
ADCC - Merit (campaign)
ADCC - Merit - (single)
Applied Arts - Winner

Stop smoking ads had hit a wall. The usual scare tactics were falling flat and getting lost in a sea-of-same. We tapped into the “Sober Curious” trend to help the Canadian Cancer Society take a new more human-centric approach in getting people to consider quitting smoking by getting them curious about what that might feel like.

BMO wanted to promote their new online investor tool through online pre-roll, but getting people to watch pre-roll isn't easy. We wrote these 30 second spots for BMO with the first four seconds in mind. We then high-fived when we heard they got an 85% view to completion rate. 

Technology promises to make our lives easier, but that can come at a price. What happens when automation begins taking away the things we love?

This was the insight behind this 360 integrated campaign for the 2017 Lexus IS. Enjoy driving now, because it won't last forever.

CMA 2017 - Gold - Integrated
CMA 2017 - Silver - Digital
CMA 2017 - Bronze - Storytelling

We presented a lot of insightful original work to Target.

“Can’t you just flash a bunch of products with a cool song?”

At least we got some cool art direction and design out of them (and the music was bangin’ too - thanks Eggplant)

In early 2013, Target launched in Canada to much fanfare. It didn't last long but it was a wild ride while it did. To celebrate the launch, we literally painted towns red in a massive OOH campaign that spanned from coast to coast. Local landmarks and culture were highlighted in a unique illustration for each of Canada's ten provinces.

At kbs+, we don’t recycle ideas. We wanted to let our clients know that when creative isn’t bought, we don’t try to re-package it and sell it again. We scrap the work and start fresh with every project. We created Ideas To Burn by shredding the work clients rejected and pressing it into a log they could set on fire. We then sent this log to the clients who rejected our ideas in the first place during the coldest month on record in Toronto since 1875.

I spent a few years client side working on Virgin Mobile. This included overseeing creative strategy development as well as campaign look and feel. My team ran the digital and social side of the business which has been referred to as pioneering and best in class. 

We developed the 'Member Benefits' program in 2008 - a key differentiator which is still the foundation for the brand's marketing efforts to this day. We partnered with youth-oriented brands like H&M and Disney to offer exclusive deals to Virgin Mobile 'Members'