The Oregonian

Before Craigslist, newspapers had a classified sections and they even advertised them. This Oregonian ad not only spoke the truth about how much more wiser it is to buy used vs. new it even managed to get into the CA Advertising Annual.

Dr. Martens Trade Ad

After we launched our national print campaign for doc martens, we followed it up with some trade ads. This one that David Baldwin wrote was very popular with retailers all across America.

Dr. Klaus Maertens

A little research goes a long way. When there's a fork in the road it'll help point you in the right direction. That was the case with Dr. Martens. This was the first ad in a national campaign that launched the brand in the US market. Doc Martens had been getting popular within the music industry and the grunge scene in Seattle and there was definitely a strong underground following. But the brand also had a rich heritage in England, sort of like Levi's here in America. Our research indicated that if we tried to be cool and play the hipster card we'd sell out the brand and loose our biggest group of core customers. So instead we went with heritage. It was the right approach. The brand grew in popularity and didn't alienate the core. Lars Topelmann was the photographer on these. It was one of my favorite productions and my first trip abroad. Epilogue: All good things have to come to an end and such was the case with Docs. A couple years into the heritage campaign the client made a change in direction and wanted to promote the music/cool/hip side of the brand. The brand has yet to recover.