AT&T / SBC

George started his interactive career by establishing the voice of AT&T’s online monthly e-newsletter and helping launch the company’s forward-thinking e-mail marketing program (it was 2002). George spent three years strategizing the program’s editorial direction, researching and writing both short and long-form articles (1,200- to 2,500-words) that blasted to their six million users. He also concepted, wrote copy and occasionally acted as the creative director for dozens and dozens of websites, landing pages, banner ads and more.

One of his proudest work experiences while working with AT&T was crafting the idea and message for an integrated direct mail and online marketing campaign targeted to reach DSL late-adopters. This was the first and only time in three years that AT&T approved a project without making a single change. George convinced the client was to have an “Everyman” customer asking forthright questions in the print piece; this Everyman then answered these questions on the online offer page in an affirmative first-person testimonial. To this day, George feels proud to have slowly steered the “AT&T ship” toward a more customer-centered focus. This proved successful for sales: the number of responses to buy was twice what was expected.

George is also proud of his work on the Total Connections website, which gave customers three ways to select a package of communications products: they could choose a pre-configured package, go through a recommender engine, or answer a series of questions that would then assemble a package for them. George concepted, strategized, and wrote the copy and business rules for this 25-page website. Four months and 43 copy decks later, the site launched. Though it was only supposed to be an interim site that lasted only a month, it stayed online for over a year and sold $11 million in services.

Other notables projects included inheriting the enormous Olympics website, where George worked closely with the Flash designer to merge the message of an interim site with the look and feel of upcoming television spots. George concepted, wrote, and creative-directed the large Flash movie, incorporating stills from the shoot. He conceived of “shimmering” transitions to simulate live movement and tie the site in with the spots. Twenty-five decks and many late nights later, the site launched to rave reviews from the client.