Jeff Grace

AT&T needed a breakthrough creative idea to help Samsung launch its new Galaxy Z Flip6 smartphone. The insight, getting a great deal can make you feel like a big deal. But sometimes you can ride a little too high on that feeling.

My wife Stacy and I founded KENT, the world's first compostable apparel company, in 2020. Only two years later we had a bidding war between four Sharks to invest in our company. To up the stakes even more, this was the first ever live episode of Shark Tank and the premier of the 2023 season. Click the link to see if we were able to close the deal.

THE CAMPAIGN

To break through the October clutter of candy marketing, we took a bold approach: taking over the entire two-minute ad pod with short horror films. These films didn’t reveal Mars branding until the very last moment, leaving consumers delighted (and sometimes spooked) as suspense built toward a fun branded reveal.

THE APPROACH

We scoured film festivals for the most promising up-and-coming horror directors. Rather than betting on just one or two filmmakers, we funded ten high-quality, low-budget films, with the goal of airing the four best. This approach gave the agency and filmmakers the creative freedom to keep the storytelling edgy, fresh, and genuinely terrifying.

THE RESULTS

Mars’ largest Halloween sales gain in five years (1.8 share point increase)

Cannes Lions (Bronze) & CanneSeries “Official Selection”

300% increase in social chatter across all brands

Highest ad retention of any ad in October

Led to the Hulu x Mars multi-year “Bite-Sized Horror” short film program, which inspired the creation of the Huluween platform.

NBA MVP Joel Embiid chooses a new look inspired by rookie NCAA phenom JuJu Watkins and AT&T's "choice of any plan" guarantee.

Part of AT&T's first post "Lily" campaign that earned almost 200 million mentions on social (a 200% increase from 2023) and the highest engagement of any brand that aired during March Madness (61%).

Draymond Greene, fresh off an almost career ending suspension from the NBA, gives one of his first public mea culpa, inspired by AT&T's "choice of any plan" guarantee.

Part of AT&T's first post "Lily" campaign that earned almost 200 million mentions on social (a 200% increase from 2023) and the highest engagement of any brand that aired during March Madness (61%).

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren discover their inner-Aguilera, inspired by AT&T's proactive recommendations.

Part of AT&T's first post "Lily" campaign that earned almost 200 million mentions on social (a 200% increase from 2023) and the highest engagement of any brand that aired during March Madness (61%).

AT&T was a signature sponsor of March Madness in 2024 and had the opportunity to run branded content during the half-time broadcast. So we got Curb Your Enthusiasm's J.B. Smoove and Keyla Monterroso Mejia to head-up "Connect U", a 12-part institution of learning dedicated to teaching fans the ins and outs of basketball hoops.

Part of AT&T's first post "Lily" campaign that earned almost 200 million mentions on social (a 200% increase from 2023) and the highest engagement of any brand that aired during March Madness (61%).

POST MALONE x WHATNOT 

“The Post Malone Magic Battle”

London Alley

Whatnot is a fast growing community marketplace where users can buy and sell highly sought after collectables in a live-stream auction.

Knowing that Magic: The Gathering was one of the fastest growing categories, we designed a live event in partnership with Post Malone -- global music superstar with a geeky MTG fetish.

The idea, to have Post square off with a randomly selected Whatnot user (via livestream lottery) in a best 2-out-of-3 Magic The Gathering Battle for $100,000.

The initial lottery drawing drew so many new viewers to the app, it literally crashed the servers, but was quickly rescheduled. 

The final card battle was the highest traffic day in the app’s history and generated more new account sign-ups in one week, than the previous six months.

Relaunched brand in 2020 under the banner “Super Natural Basics” and driving the singular focus of becoming the world’s first compostable clothing company.

Wrote, designed, and directed the video, social, and print campaigns launching new products, seasonal efforts, and social iniatives.

Have grown brand over 260% in two years and have been featured in Vogue, Teen Vogue, Elle, HypeBae, WWD, and The Financial Times.

CD/Writer/Director

Hulu wanted to create a more immersive second-screen experience in partnership with Samsung, one of its largest advertisers.

The concept was “Binge Buddies” (later changed to “View Crew”), an AR experience that lets viewers watch their favorite Hulu shows at home with the stars of those shows sitting right in their living room.

Made in partnership with Here Be Dragons, the proof-of-concept app and pilot content were filmed on a 360 volumetric capture stage in Los Angeles with actors Dylan McDermott and Kim Matula (the stars of LA to Vegas).

CD/Writer/Director/Creator/EP

Pilot for E! Networks

Cast: Meredith Hagner, Erinn Hayes, Crista Flanagan, Jordan Firstman, Alexi Wasser

Variety

Adweek

Writer/Director

Feature Film nominated for Best Feature at Tribeca Film Festival

Winner of Best Ensemble Cast at Napa Valley Film Festival

81% “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes

Cast: Alex Karpovsky, Wyatt Russell, Meredith Hagner, Melanie Lynskey, and David Cross

CD/Writer/Director

Holiday campaign to promote holiday napping to reduce consumer stress.

Jack and Jill use SAP's Low-Code/No-Code developer software to keep their enterprise innovating and collaborating so efficiently, that the team has no excuse to miss Jack's punk rock show on Friday night.

CD/Writer/Director/EP

Original Series acquired by Fox

CD/Writer/Creator/EP

Original comedy/drama series currently in development.CD

Director/Writer

Branded Content campaign for Lays

CD/Director/Writer

Brand video campaign to both secure initial seed funding ($688K) and introduce brand to a wider consumer audience.

CD/Writer/Director

Music video for The Adam Ezra Group in partnership with Iron Smoke Distillery. Shot during the pandemic with a skeleton crew as a tribute to all the live music that didn't happen in 2020.

Writer

Branded content comedic interview series where a pair of Fox celebrities “OK, Google” themselves using Google Home

Writer/Director

TBS co-branded promos for the Universal Studios feature film, The Secret Life of Pets

Writer/Producer

Stand-up comedy special on Amazon Prime Video

Writer

Branded content documentary series for National Geographic

Producer/Actor

Award winning Feature Film distributed by Oscilloscope

Cast: Julia Stiles, David Cross, America Ferrera, Erinn Hayes, Kevin M. Brennan, Blaise Miller, Todd Berger, Jeff Grace

Creative Strategist / Alternative Media Lead

Helped grow this little known import into the #1 mint in the United States in just six years. This viral, word of mouth campaign relied on only print, OOH, and targeted social campaigns to out compete nationally televised brands like Certs, Lifesavers, and Tic Tac.

Oversaw the launches of brand extensions into Wintergreen, Cinnamon, Gum, Strips, Sours, Holiday Tins, and Smalls.

Won Cannes Gold, Media Week Plan of The Year, and the Gold Effie.

Brand was sold to Wrigley for $1.6BN after success of the marketing campaign.

Fun Fact:

I not only write branded content on occasion for a living, but my first television role as an actor was opposite the world’s greatest fictional copywriter, Don Draper.

In the early days of YouTube, I was one of the first 30 partners through my comedy group, The Vacationeers. We created one of the platform’s first viral hits with a video called Google Maps, which gained over 20 million views and was featured on CNN.

These videos marked the beginning of my filmmaking and branded content career. One of our fans, Julia Stiles, collaborated with us on several short films, as well as a feature-length project titled It’s A Disaster