Jay Benjamin

Inspiring a new generation of young women on International Women’s Day with the real life story of Aurora Strauss - race car driver, Harvard student, and musician.

(We did this before Instagram existed. Smacks self in forehead)

With the introduction of the iPhone, Canon Australia sought to retain the higher ground of photography and bring more aspiring photographers up to DSLRs. We started with the insight that great photography isn't about technology, it's about inspiration. Canon 'Photochains' served as an invitation to photographers to join The World of EOS, a new online community, transforming photography from something people traditionally do on their own, into a social community. Canon increased it’s #1 position in the DSLR market in Australia and the platform went on to win the Media Grand Prix at Cannes.

Australia was a fun place to live. Not only did Thrifty let us make this spot to demonstrate the joy of “Thrifty Thinking”, they also let us hijack all kinds of media and news outlets to demonstrate the idea. I recommend working there if you can.

This is the part where I get to say we made an Off-Broadway play that sold out for two straight weeks following Superstorm Sandy.

Hands down the most fun project I’ve ever worked on, the New York Writes Itself platform went on to win Best of Show at the One Show Entertainment Awards and a Gold Lion at the first ever Branded Content & Entertainment Awards at Cannes.
 

This was an emotional project created in partnership with Walmart, the nation's largest employer of Veterans. Perhaps more than the work itself, I think the story I’ll always tell is about the number of hands that went up internally at Walmart to help usher Greenlight a Vet through the organization. Launched on Veteran’s Day during the World Series, the campaign went on to win a Silver Effie in the Retail category.

The one and only time I’ve ever sung in a presentation. People cried. Purchase intent went up 24.8%, a new benchmark for online video according to Google. Not because of my singing.

To inspire the giving spirit during the holiday season and help drum up some much needed donations to Walmart's "Fill the truck" charity gifting program, we asked kids one simple question. Their answers might surprise you. This little experiment became one of the most loved Holiday films of the 2015 season. 

'Vote Earth' motivated 1 billion people across 88 countries to switch off their lights, raising awareness of Climate Change, with a simple idea - Your light switch is your vote. The 1 billion votes were presented to world leaders including President Obama at the International Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, as a mandate for political action against global warming. The campaign has been accepted into the Clio Awards Hall of Fame. I’d give all the awards back for more progress on Climate Change.

Soooo apparently a large number of men suffer from digestive issues. Enter Fiber One, and exit…oh nevermind. Just watch.

People have a hard time believing big food companies when they say their ingredients are real. So for the country's most popular cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios, we decided to let the bees do the talking. 

World Humanitarian Day celebrates the people who dedicate their lives to humanitarian efforts. However, the organizations that help carry out their work are massively underfunded. #TheWorldNeedsMore is a new platform we created in partnership with the United Nations designed to take peoples' passionate words in social media and turn them into real action. It was a first of its kind marketplace for words that united the private sector with the people of the world.

Very cool photography competition that became an annual favorite for aspiring amateurs across Australia. Amazing how many creative people are out there that just need a little inspiration.

Experienced parents just know better. This multi-year effort helped rescue Luvs from being taken off the shelves of some very big box retailers.

For decades people have dreamed of a box of Marshmallow Only Lucky Charms. So we asked our friends at General Mills to make ten boxes for a sweepstakes like no other.

We first seeded the campaign on Twitter by telling Lucky lovers that perhaps the unicorn of cereals was real, and then launched with a music video sung by Biz Markie (RIP King) inviting people to participate.

All hell broke loose overnight with news channels picking up the story and fans of Lucky Charms all over the country entering the competition. We were prepared for the madness and responded to our fans' love on Twitter and Facebook with magical recreations of their entries. A few samples of the thousands here.

Eventually ten lucky winners were crowned and more content was created to celebrate them.

One of the most fun things I have worked on. And the highest engagement ever for Lucky Charms. 

On World Down Syndrome Day, we started a conversation around how those living with Down Syndrome see themselves and how they can be disadvantaged when people pre-judge them based on their condition. The main character, AnnaRose, who was played by Olivia Wilde, was given a chance to speak at the United Nations on behalf of those living with Down Syndrome. 

“Space Chimp” is a music video we created with Ben Lee (Universal Music) and the WWF to help people gain new perspective and to better appreciate our one and only home, Earth. To capture their attention, we released the video at the Video Music Awards in Australia where it would eventually earn a VMA nomination.

This was the launch of a new brand idea for Head & Shoulders which went on to become a global platform. The aim was to inspire a younger generation to go forth with social confidence, knowing their shoulders aren't covered in dandruff. We enlisted Odell Beckham Jr. as the new spokesperson for the NFL season and saw the biggest lift in sales of any previous Head & Shoulders campaign.

Technology can do amazing things, but it often needs a little explanation. Meet Goldivox, an interactive demonstration of Vocal ID’s groundbreaking technology that helps people donate their voices to those in need.

Leading up to the 2012 Olympics in Sochi, Chobani was one of the fastest growing brands in America. However, they were facing stiff competition from established yogurt brands who wanted to slow down the upstart from Upstate NY. Rather than engage in a battle of taste and texture, we decided to inspire the country with a great American story, that Chobani was built with heart in a small town. The Olympics campaign nearly doubled Chobani's distribution and within 6 months they became a billion dollar brand. 

Set to the Fleet Foxes "Winter Hymnal", we created this film for WWF Australia to raise much needed funding for their national environmental programs. The approach was simple. Show the impact each individual's support can have on the delicate ecosystem of Australia.  

A 7 billion dollar a year category that hadn't innovated in decades.
A high-tech kiosk set to change the industry.
And a need to tell NYC all about it.

This is KeyMe, the key copying kiosk in 150+ locations all around NYC.

For their first real foray into the public eye, we crafted a simple, visual, and compelling campaign to let everyone know that a better way to cut keys had arrived. Using location specific outdoor, underground, and online ads, we introduced people to the KeyMe kiosks they'd previously walked past, all while giving the brand a personality that had been sorely needed.

Immediately after launch, KeyMe saw a 27% increase in transactions, making the kiosks over ten times more profitable per-square-foot than any other section of their partners’ retail stores, and far exceeding our goal of a 15% increase.

To put it in layman’s terms, for the first time ever, a three-square-foot kiosk in the Beyond section outdid both Bed and Bath.