1st post in 18 months…been busy creating an agency, reintroducing Lincoln and winning 2 Gold Lions and 1 Bronze at Cannes.

It has been a long time since I sat down to write a post on my blog. The fact is, I haven’t had time until now. Eighteen months ago I accepted a job as President of what would become Hudson Rouge. The mission was to create an agency for Ford’s Lincoln brand in New York City.  I was employee number one.  Our goal was to “introduce” Lincoln to a whole new audience who knew very little about the storied brand and mostly thought of it as something their grandparents coveted.

Over the course of the first year we hired almost 50 people in New York, created great space in New York City and eventually named the agency Hudson Rouge.  Hudson Rouge was a reference to the fact that the Lincoln Agency Team would be located both in New York City and Dearborn, Michigan. Both cities happen to be on rivers that played a major role in their development, the Hudson River in New York and the River Rouge in Dearborn.

While hiring the team in New York, getting to know one another, getting to know our colleagues in Dearborn, getting to know our clients, and developing the agency’s eventual home, we also dug into Lincoln and figured out strategically how to re-present the brand to America.  The new brand was launched on December 3rd, 2012 with this commercial: 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5_xFBcAab0

 

This commercial was just the tip of the iceberg. There was an incredible amount of work done to re-introduce Lincoln in a fully integrated fashion.  TV, magazines, newspaper, new website, extensive use of social media, content creation, events, CRM and the creation of a digital platform that represented everything we were trying to do for Lincoln.  The digital platform is called “Hello, Again.” “Hello, Again.” is all about re-invention, celebrating people who are brave enough to see things not simply as they are, but as they might be.  “Hello, Again.” launched with a partnership with Beck wherein he reinvented David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision” in a concert in the round:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnOmrDzRrGQ

 

“Hello, Again” was an amazing way to say that Lincoln is a brand re-imagined for a new possibility.  I used to say to the team that we needed to create a WTF moment for Lincoln, as in getting consumers to say: “WTF is going on with Lincoln? That’s not the brand I thought it was!”

I think that “Hello, Again” was that moment for a lot of people and I suspect it was one of the reasons that it won two gold Lions and a bronze at Cannes this year.  You can see more of “Hello, Again” here.

It was an incredible accomplishment for an agency that didn’t exist 18 months ago and I am very proud of the team we assembled and all that we accomplished on behalf of Lincoln in such a short time.

As of a few weeks ago, I am moving on from Hudson Rouge and looking for my next adventure, but I wanted to start writing my blog again and felt like explaining where I’ve been for eighteen months. Acknowledging the Hudson Rouge team’s accomplishments was a great way to close one chapter and start another.

3 Responses to “1st post in 18 months…been busy creating an agency, reintroducing Lincoln and winning 2 Gold Lions and 1 Bronze at Cannes.”

  1. Carmel says:

    I love what you guys are usually up too. This type of clever work
    and coverage! Keep up the terrific works guys I’ve added you guys to my own blogroll.

  2. Dilip Joshi says:

    Well done Cameron! I love your passion and style. You should be really proud of your work and am sure that the next adventure will be better than ever. Keep writing….

  3. Karen Wing says:

    Exciting times and nice work Cameron! You deserve to be proud. Hope all is well!

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