Well hey there. My name is Keri (or, if you ask Starbucks, it’s Carry, Cari, Kari, Karri, Kerry, Karrie, Khery, or my personal favorite, Cherry 🍒). I’m a strategically-minded storyteller with 15+ years of experience building brands, both agency-side and as an in-house, cross-functional leader. I believe creativity is the ultimate team sport. Let’s go.
The holiday Yule Log has been a seasonal slow TV staple since 1966. But for the Seattle Mariners' 2023 holiday card, we cooked up something a little different to bring a dash of summer ballpark to fans' winter wonderlands. So if you need some fresh background ambiance for your last-minute wrapping or holiday hangout, forget the crackling fireplace and cue up 60 minutes of sizzling franks, seasonal silliness, and Mariner Moose mischief. Ho-ho-hot dog!
Director/SFX/Edit: James Carlin // Creative Director/Copywriter: Keri Zierler // Final SFX/audio: Formosa Sound
Halo was Amazon’s first step into personal health and wellness. It was a membership that worked with wrist-worn Halo trackers, a smart sleep health device, and an app packed with science-backed tools and expert-backed guidance to help you improve your health (and better understand It).
I led all advertising and marketing assets from pre-launch of Halo’s first products through its expansion into content and sleep.
In the timeless battle to maintain your health over the holidays, Halo can be your secret weapon.
Directors: Will Johnson and Mike Tavarez from Scholar // Production, Graphics, and Audio: Scholar
“Swim” and “Chase” elevated everyday challenges to show that being healthy keeps you ready for whatever life throws at you.
Director: Erich Joiner // Production Company: TOOL of North America // Graphics and Post: Carbon // Audio: Hearby Sound
This video launched our second wearable, the Amazon Halo View, while reminding customers of Halo’s innovative features like Movement Health and Body Composition.
Directors: The Queen // Production Company: The Joinery // Post: Unit Creative Studio & Sound Design // Music: Marmoset
This video introduced the world to Halo, which combines a powerful app with a stylish, screen-free band, and introduced its key features: intensity-based activity tracking, sleep analysis, body composition analysis, tone of voice analysis, and on-demand workouts and content.
Animation: BUCK // Music: Grayson Matthews // Audio: Hearby Sound
AWARDS: 2022 Webbys — Honoree, Advertising, Media & PR, Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics
Alexa can help make the transition to college easier, so we wanted to show college students that Alexa is easy and fun to use with the Amazon Echo. 17MM out of 19MM U.S. college students are on Snapchat, so we collaborated directly with Snapchat engineers to create the first Snap Lens powered by a voice assistant.
Users spent over twice as long as the industry average with the lens, and it garnered nearly 55MM impressions.
My role for this project was Creative Director. Our intrepid creative team was Kaleigh Concannon (AD) and Regina Aletto (CW).
We wanted to show college students how Alexa and the Amazon Echo could fit seamlessly into their routines while making life a little easier. 17MM out of 19MM college students are on Snapchat, so we created content that seamlessly blended in with the original Snapchat shows they already love.
Welcome to Alexa Cove, a (fake) Snapchat show about Amazon’s helpful voice assistant Alexa and her college roommates, told one 10-second story at a time.
My role for this project was Creative Director. Our creative team was Kaleigh Concannon (AD) and Regina Aletto (CW).
Directors: Hannah & Adriana // Production Company: Alpen Pictures // Editors: Marty Cramer & Scott Manley // Audio: Hearby Sound
To amplify Amazon's 2019 Super Bowl Commercial, we created an integrated digital campaign that included online teasers, an on-device experience, and an voice-controlled online demonstration.
The teasers revealed the celebrities who would become a part of the top secret “Amazon Beta Testing Program” that would be “declassified” during the 2019 Super Bowl. The teasers prompted Amazon Echo owners to ask Alexa for more information about the testing program and were rewarded with fun easter eggs and exclusive information. Our voice-controlled online demo continued the narrative of Amazon's 2019 Super Bowl commercial and gave customers a chance to become a part of the Amazon Beta Testing Program from the comfort of their laptop.
Together, they worked with the commercial to show that sometimes big ideas start with even bigger failures. But Amazon’s okay with that.
AWARDS: Three 2019 OMMA (Online Media, Marketing & Advertising) Awards including best use of AI, Interactive Creative, and UX/ UI (TrueX Interactive Pre-roll)
This film announced the partnership between Bose and Alexa and brought the power of voice control out of the home and into a world full of little moments you might miss if you are always tethered to your phone screen.
Set against the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Emilie Mover, it made the list of most Shazam’d ads in its first week on-air.
Echo Escape is the world’s first escape experience powered by voice. Launched at New York Comic Con 2017, Echo Escape demonstrated the capabilities of Alexa and the Amazon Echo family of devices while players raced the clock to solve a thrilling CIA mystery and save the world.
Echo Escape was created and produced by Amazon D1, AKQA Portland, and Unit 9 with support from Intel and Amazon Studios.
AWARDS: Cannes Lions 2018: Shortlists - Entertainment (Emerging Tech for Games), Outdoor (Immersive Experiences, Interactive Experiences), Media (Ambient Large Scale) // 2018 One Show: Silver (Interactive/Experiential Innovation), Merits (Branded Entertainment Innovation and Innovation in Responsive Environments) // 2018 D&AD Awards: Wood Pencil (Experiential/Trade Show), Wood Pencil (Branded Content and Entertainment/Immersive).
The Amazon Echo and Alexa have thousands of skills and counting. We've made hundreds of Echo "Moments" to show off just a slice of what you can do hands-free with Echo. Here are some of my favorites.
This spot launched the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card. While the scenario of a kid practicing hockey in their basement is familiar, we were thrilled to subvert gender stereotypes and feature a strong young female athlete as she dedicated herself to her passion. This was her first acting role—we cast her from a group of real hockey players in Toronto, Canada.
At Digital Kitchen I worked with HBO to launch the digital experience for Westworld.
DiscoverWestworld.com was a responsive, mobile-first website that treats the Westworld theme park as a place you can actually visit. It includes a personality/psychological evaluation for potential visitors, vacation booking system, and access to the Delos company intranet complete with hidden glitches and secret codes. We strategically placed easter eggs and leaked cryptic clips leading up to the premiere.
Traditional digital ads were supported by innovative and interactive pieces like thermally printed cards and a very feisty AI Chatbot named Aeden.
AWARDS: The 2017 Webby Awards (finalist, Media & Entertainment), 2017 Emmy Awards (nominee, Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media Within a Scripted Program)
President's Choice is the largest CPG brand in Canada. After successfully winning the pitch for their business in 2014, we relaunched their brand with this spot that ponders the beginnings of humanity’s food obsession.
AWARDS: ADCCs (Silver), Marketing Awards (shortlist), Bessies (shortlist)
Electriphobia is the fear of electric cars. We created the Electriphobia Research Institute to help drivers get over this fear and get into Canada's first mainstream electric vehicle, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
AWARDS: Cannes Cyber Lion (Bronze), FWA's Site of the Day, Canadian Marketing Awards, Applied Arts.
War Child provides the education, opportunity and justice that children in areas of conflict need to break the cycle of poverty and violence. Where childhood thrives, war does not.
AWARDS: one of Huffington Post Canada's 'Top 10 Ads of the Year', Marketing Awards, Applied Arts
An oldie but a goodie. The theme of Design Week 2010 was 'Defining the Value of Design'.
To create this animation, we used over 2200 custom-designed bills and one money counter.
