Freelance turned Full-Time • Creative Direction • Art Direction • Illustration • TV • Digital • Super Bowl • Product Launches • Brand Stewardship
A three-month gig for one of America's most iconic snack brands that kept needing something new to say.
What starts as a 3-month engagement becomes 3.5 years when the work keeps working. At Havas NY, I lead creative for Ritz Crackers across TV, digital, product launches, partner agency programs, and made sure everything that went out was worthy of one of America's most iconic snack brands.
The Ask:
Keep an American icon feeling fresh, fun, and culturally relevant in Points of Fun moments throughout the year.
Then launch three new line extensions from scratch.
Veggin’
My first brief was to introduce a new flavor: Ritz Roasted Vegetable. The idea wrote itself. Two crackers. A summer launch. Veggin'. Because sometimes the simplest execution works.
psst. I not only concepted the work, but illustrated every piece of creative across every channel.
#FunnerSummer
The Cannonball TV spot kicked off a Point of Fun season with a simple invitation: Tweet how you're having a #FunnerSummer. Display banners across the web and pre-roll on Hulu and YouTube kept the ask alive. And back on the Ritz site, a live social grid pulled it all together, turning fan tweets into a real-time celebration of summer fun.
We kept the summer going with two more spots. Crowd Surfing put Ritz at the center of outdoor festival season, reinforcing that the cracker belongs wherever the ritual is.
Ritz was def part of the conversation and when Harry Styles publicly proclaimed his love for Ritz Crackers, we didn't let the moment pass. We leaned in with a boy band spot that met fans exactly where their summer was.
Super Bowl: The Big Cheesy
The Super Bowl is the biggest Point of Fun on the calendar. So we built a game-day program around New Orleans-style entertaining. Our TV spot invited fans to submit their best game day party recipes at ritzkickoff.com for a chance to win a trip to New Orleans from Ritz.
In Martha Stewart Magazine we featured Emeril Lagasse's Game Day Recipe Round-Up with a New Orleans- style twist on entertaining.
The program kicked off on The Talk and also showed up during the pre-game show with Rachel Ray.
“I never met anyone who didn’t love a Ritz.”
–Emeril Lagasse,
Super Bowl: Ritz NY Blitz
The following year, we brought the fun to New York. Sure, our TV ran during the pre-game show, but the real play was what we built around it. Partnering with allrecipes.com, we developed a content series featuring Ritz Crackers recipes developed by New York’s iconic restaurants. Super Bowl food, elevated by the most iconic cracker in the game.
Page takeovers on allrecipes.com and highlighted visits to Lombardi's Pizza, Dinosaur BBQ, Serendipity, and Carnegie Deli and step-by-step videos for the Ritz White Pizza Meatball Dip, Ritz Country Fried Ribs, Ritz Humble Pie, Ritz Pastrami and Corned Beef Mini Ritz Sandwich.
Ritz in the Rags
Ritz is iconic. And iconic brands belong in the conversation. We bought fractional ad units across the biggest gossip magazines in the country: Star, People, Life & Style, In Touch, US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Oprah, Better Homes and Gardens, and tailored every single ad to its section.
Gossip pages got gossip. Fashion sections got fashion. Entertainment pages got tv shows and movies.
The creative played completely straight, with a wink and a nod that made you smile before you even realized why. Every ad felt like it belonged exactly where it lived. Twenty-five to thirty units. All spring. Every year. For three years.
Product Launches: Crackerfuls, Fresh Stacks, Toasted Chips
Three brand new line extensions. Three product launches.
No existing equity, no established audience. I led the creative development for each launch through TV, Print, and Display, building each product's identity within the Open for Fun world while giving them room to stand on their own.
Ritz Crackerfuls: Don't Get Caught in a Hunger Situation
Hunger situations happen everywhere. Ritz Crackerfuls is the solution.
Spotify
We built an interactive program on Spotify to bring the stash idea to life. Three :30 radio spots led into mood-based playlist generators, where stashing a Crackerfuls unlocked your playlist.
Twitter + Print
On Twitter, we surprised anyone complaining about being hungry with a Hungry Gear Stashing Kit: two Crackerfuls, a roll of stashing tape, and how-to strategy cards.
Stashing tips also ran in magazines like ESPN and InTouch.
Ritz Fresh Stacks: Short Fun is Fun
Moms love Ritz. But they don't always want to commit to a whole sleeve. So Fresh Stacks delivered the same fun in perfectly portioned, perfectly fresh packs.
Ritz Toasted Chips: Summer’s Hottest Chip
Salty snack lovers wanted permission to indulge, so Toasted Chips gave it to them with 40% less fat than potato chips and all the crunch they craved.
Engaged fans are rewarded with exclusive Toasted Chips summer swag.
The One That Got Away: Party Crasher
Not every idea makes it. But as we kept pushing the Open for Fun platform, we wrote a song. Ritz, as the ultimate Party Crasher, showing up uninvited everywhere, even funerals. It was funny. It was catchy. And it didn't get past internal. This was before TikTok and the legs on this thing would have been endless.
It’s a reminder that so much of our creative thinking ends up going nowhere . But it's always fun to keep trying.
The Outcome
Three months became 3.5 years and what happens when the work keeps working. From #FunnerSummer to the Super Bowl, from gossip rags to Spotify playlists, from three product launches to a song that deserved its moment, every idea laddered back to one simple truth. Ritz is iconic. And iconic brands show up everywhere.
Agency: Havas