GRAND-PRIZE WINNER: AT&T Film Awards, Best Emerging Filmmaker

Problem: In a politically divided America, bullying and violence shifted the rhetorical discourse — smearing those that look different from ‘us’ as our ‘enemies.’

Solution: Partner with Samuel L. Jackson and Academy Award winner Kathy Bates to develop an animated film and protest-anthem to help Americans see the ‘other’ as their brother.

Result: MOOSE premiered to an overflow audience of 1,200 at Warner Brothers Studios, and was crowned the grand prize winner of the 2018 AT&T Film Awards by Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay, who celebrated the multimedia project as “film activism.” Jonah Ansell was named “Best Emerging Filmmaker.”

PROBLEM: Create a multimedia project to fuel awareness for mental health.

SOLUTION: Partner with Academy Award winner Kathy Bates, Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd, Grammy winner Neil Young, the Pet Shop Boys and ROOKIE Magazine founder Tavi Gevinson to unveil the film in conjunction with a live performance of “Heart of Gold” at New York Fashion Week.

RESULT: Transformed New York’s Standard Hotel into a quirky invite-only science lab for a film premiere hailed by the New York Times as a “must-attend event of New York Fashion Week.” Unveiled a 40th anniversary cover of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold. The film went on to qualify for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, with the unveiling drawing praise from MTV, USA Today, LATimes, Vogue, Jezebel, The Onion A.V. Club and over 300 global outlets. Due to the success of the project, a graphic novel of the same name (Academy Chicago Publishers) was later unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

Led creative for large-scale commercial, billboard, print, digital, radio, mobile & movie theater health campaign to educate parents about the harms drugs specifically caused to teens. Formalized branding and web design to ensure consistency and clarity of message. Spearheaded creative concepting, messaging and tagline development - putting a playful spin on the ineffective So No To Drugs campaigns of the ’80s-90s, increasing mobile engagement by 371%, website visits by 242%.

Led creative direction and development of “Driving High is a DUI” California statewide campaign, promoting health facts and healthcare to ensure at-risk millennial and Gen Z audiences stay safe. By applying customer insights and consumer insights, created six original live action and animated commercials; overseeing creative direction, copy development, music and FX. Led paid digital advertising campaign to engage target audiences across California (San Diego, Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento, San Jose, San Francisco), surpassing program reach and engagement goals by 800%; spotlighted in California Office of Traffic Safety’s quarterly newsletter.

WINNER: Best Strategy, Emergency Planning Council, Ventura County, CA

Designed and led emergency preparedness initiative backed by White House, CDC & FEMA. Built strategy, led creative and steered 80-person interagency coalition to fuel 30M+ impressions with 95% message retention. Developed four original commercials, program website, radio spots and print content in three languages to ensure comprehensive reach and ability to meet target audiences where they live and play. Won coveted "Best Strategy" annual award by Emergency Planning Council, earning global coverage in outlets such as: CBS, NBC, Forbes, Esquire, NPR, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post. Delivered keynote at annual FEMA summit. Program success spotlighted as a CDC/NATO case study.

Problem: The “D.A.R.E.” program was designed to keep kids off drugs, but actually caused drug use to rise.

Solution: Analyzed data to discover an exploitable gap – Southern California health educators were only reaching teens; failing to enlist parents as partners who could positively shape their teen’s behavior.

Results: Created the What’s Your HighQ quiz to teach moms and dads the truth about today’s drugs. Equipped parents with the tools to initiate a prevention dialogue with their teen. Multi-year program helped reduce teen drug use by 12%, earning features on ABC, CBS and NPR, twice spotlighted at the annual California Substance Use Disorder statewide conference. Parental engagement was supported with a multi-year in-school education program where bilingual lecturers educated over 20,000 middle school students, successfully increasing awareness of health harm in 92% of all students.

#Different

In response to California legalizing cannabis, led creative for “Different,” a comprehensive campaign designed to educate parents that weed affects teens differently than adults.

Created three commercials to help parents realize that cannabis, though less harmful for adults, is uniquely harmful to the teenage brain.

Spearheaded creative concepting, messaging and tagline development – using each spot to build out a specific and nuanced wrinkle of the larger prevention dialogue.

Created and designed webpage to house content and invite parents to engage with larger aspects of the health dialogue.

Paid digital geo-targeted campaign and in-market events fueled parental engagement and successfully educated parents at key calendar intervals (i.e. the week leading up to 4/20).

Problem:  Bud Light sought to elevate itself beyond mere sponsor or vendor in the eyes of outdoor music festivalgoers

Solution: Make Bud Light the lynchpin that gifts millennials their best music festival experience.

Result: Helped internally showcase how a clever, Bud Light-invented RFID bracelet could deliver real-time VIP rewards to customers at the point of sale – allowing average joes to skip the line – earning recognition in Adweek for establishing industry standard best practices on how to deepen brand loyalty and maximize impact at point-of-sale.

Developed messaging and content to position Winklevoss-backed financial services social network for its media launch, crafting original content and messaging.

Earned features on CNBC and in the Wall Street Journal; establishing SumZero as an elite community for buyside professionals to exchange and share investing ideas; connecting hedge fund, mutual fund and private equity players to deliver better results for their clients.

WINNER: Travel + Leisure’s Best Social Media Customer Service

Problem: In an increasingly competitive AirBnb era that knocked hoteliers on their heels, Hyatt sought to modernize its ability to deliver unparalleled customer service.

Solution: Enable Hyatt to invite customers to summon concierge by the click of a mouse vs. the ding of a bell.

Result: Created @HyattConcierge, a Twitter-powered 24/7 digital concierge service that centralized Hyatt’s ability to staff and deliver concierge service to customers globally (700 properties, 50 countries), before, during or after their stay. Winner of Travel + Leisure’s Best Customer Service award, earning features in USA Today and generating over 300,000 inbound/outbound hotel guest engagements.

Problem: Research revealed women, not men, dictated the purchase decision of which hair product a bro would buy.

Solution: Make guys seek out girl-approved hair.

Result: Created The AXE Wing Girl, a Unilever powered Twitter-oracle to whom millennial guys could turn to request feedback/approval on their hairstyle before going out for a hot date. @carlywithaxe named a top 100 relationships/dating expert online.

Conceived of and designed a social media measurement metric: The Recommendation Index, an evolution of Net Promoter Score. Featured in NYTimes. Named Iron Sabre Award Product of the Year.

To confront the growing life expectancy gap between black and white Chicagoans, developed messaging to articulate the concept of “The Death Gap” to make it easy and actionable for community leaders and institutions to pursue health equity; featured as the title of the 2017 University of Chicago Press book, as well as the title of a 2018 TEDx Chicago “Ted Talk.”

Problem:  International Truck & Engine, a $10B big rig manufacturer, sought to release its first street-legal pickup but struggled to be welcomed as a relevant player in the consumer market.

Solution: Help consumers appreciate the sheer power and size of the International CXT by bursting through the ‘wall’ of the Chicago Auto Show to introduce a truck so massive it can’t be ignored by consumers

Result: Helped a B2B firm explode into the B2C market by attracting 125 global media outlets to attend the unveiling of the world’s largest pickup truck. The CXT became the #1 most-shared story on social media on the same day Oprah gifted Pontiacs to her audience.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Veterinary Innovation Challenge, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania & AVMA

Problem: More than 50% of American dogs and cats are overweight, can become sick or even die from preventable diseases.

Solution: Articulated a 360º pet-care management system and LED dog collar called SPEAK – to digitally alert owners how to better care for their pet. Tagline: A pet that speaks can reach its peak.

Result: Awarded grand prize at the University of Pennsylvania and AVMA’s first annual Veterinary Innovation Challenge

WINNER: New Media Agency of The Year (Holmes Report)

Problem:  An Omnicom social media marketing startup sought to achieve sustainable client growth – and needed to formalize how it attracted and won new clients

Solution: Use the power of story to craft more focused and impactful Client campaigns

Result: Led marketing and business development divisions for Omnicom’s Zocalo Group, steering firm to 4x revenue growth in two years; earning recognition as New Media Agency of the Year (Holmes Report). Pitched and winning new clients such as: Subway, Unilever, Hyatt, Nissan, Dell, Microsoft, Capital One, etc. Personally conceived new products and product offerings, including The Recommendation Index, a measurement suite, which was named the Iron Sabre Award Product of the Year (Holmes Report).

Raised capital, built strategy and launched a pop culture magazine and e-commerce platform for millennials; defining brand vision, editorial calendar, and workflow for a 30-person team of writers, videographers, graphic designers, SEO/SEM specialists to drive 200k monthly visitors, earning a nomination for a Chicago Innovation Award, and features in Entrepreneur. AdWeek. PR Week, ESPN, Sports Illustrated and HBO. Established cost-effective, content-rich, social media awareness campaigns, spurring $750k in annual sales (Walmart and Kohl's), selling company to National Lampoon® for 5x initial investment.

NOMINATED: Chicago Innovation Award, by Chicago Sun-Times

Problem: A startup sports merchandiser sought to drive traffic to e-commerce site to grow affinity and sales.

Solution: The Fish Fry

Result: To fuel awareness for the firm’s sports-themed product offerings, created an online magazine and digital TV show to become a trusted, sought-out resource for sports-loving millennials 18-34. Fueled 200,000 visitors monthly, earning consistent features in Adweek, Sports Illustrated, Deadspin, Chicago Tribune, Yahoo! Sports and more. Nominated for a Chicago Innovation Award by the Sun-Times for creating compelling digital video content.

Problem: Domino’s devised a ‘dudely’ new pizza to fuel sales among the red-meat loving, NASCAR-devouring demographic, but needed the perfect way to introduce it

Solution: Become a NASCAR title sponsor to unveil the Steak Fanatic Pizza at a sold out race and award one lucky fan the chance to never leave the couch again.

Result: Led in-the-pit trackside interviews on behalf of Domino’s driver Michael Waltrip for the Domino’s Pizza 250, scoring hits on ESPN and the Detroit Free Press; simultaneously partnering with Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters to co-create the Domino’s Pizza Couch, a literal “man cave” built into the body of a sofa — video game system, flat screen TV, pizza warmers, Sirius radio — unveiled to acclaim on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Jonah Ansell has been invited to Pixar, Comic Con and universities across the country to share best practices on optimizing workflow across the creative process.

His award-winning strategies and case studies have been presented to FEMA, NATO and California health leaders.

He has lectured and led creative workshops for tens of thousands of middle school & high school students with the goal of helping teens develop better awareness around self-care and emotional health.