Nathan Pitzel - Aquent Studios | LinkedIn (original) (raw)

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I am a strategic leader of people with a growth mindset, passion for converting…

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Licenses & Certifications

Projects

Jun 2013

Introducing the first-ever scented mobile gaming experience.
The Pop Dongle works with Pop Secret’s mobile game, Poptopia. Players try to pop as many popcorn kernels as possible to please the The Almighty Mouth. Every time you swipe the butter in the game, you’re rewarded with a spritz of real popcorn scent triggered by real popcorn action.
Other creators

Feb 2013

Our original task was to raise Pop Secret’s awareness among at-home movie watchers. Then we learned that every week, 400 people Tweet about burning popcorn. So we set out to solve this age-old problem.
Introducing Perfect Pop, from the makers of Pop Secret. Perfect Pop is an iOS App that listens to the pops coming from your microwave to find the precise moment when your Pop Secret popcorn is perfectly done.
Other creators

Jan 2013

A simple, yet immersive cross-platform digital experience that encouraged users to vote for the 2013 MLB The Show Cover Athlete via Twitter and Facebook.
By voting for a player, users claimed a set in that player's virtual stadium.
Users could chose from seven players and voting lasted five days.
Project Highlights:
- Garned 433,609 votes in five days
- Featured in the national sports blogs (including ESPN and NBC), and in a ton of local sports market blog/sites. The…
A simple, yet immersive cross-platform digital experience that encouraged users to vote for the 2013 MLB The Show Cover Athlete via Twitter and Facebook.
By voting for a player, users claimed a set in that player's virtual stadium.
Users could chose from seven players and voting lasted five days.
Project Highlights:
- Garned 433,609 votes in five days
- Featured in the national sports blogs (including ESPN and NBC), and in a ton of local sports market blog/sites. The Cover Showdown has gotten some regional radio mentions, been on national sports radio, and mentioned on TV on ESPN twice.
- By the third day of the program we were one of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter worldwide.
- Average time spent on site was over 4 minutes per user. Super sticky.
- Our announce 'Vote for Me' video has gotten over 720K views: http://youtu.be/5vr\_92qU0GY
- We had A-list celebs tweeting out their votes all week, some of the more fun names: Puff Daddy, LeBron James, Dennis Miller, Kobe Bryant, Larry King, Mark Cuban, Mario Lopez, T-Mobile, Wolf Blitzer, Spike Lee, Magic Johnson, Jewel, Anthony Bourdain, Louisville Slugger, Eva Longoria.
Other creators

Aug 2012 - Dec 2012

Responsive design for mobile, tablet, and desktop using Facebook JS SDK and PHP API to analyze over 500 million likes and determine the "manliness" of an authorized user.
Other creators

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Serena Williams is the greatest female athlete the world has ever seen. To celebrate her career in a way that would resonate with users, we distilled every Grand Slam into specific levels, duplicating her exact outfits and hairstyles down to a pixel.
This was a first of its kind experience on Snap, used to launch their HTML ad format and acclaimed "Interactive History" by TechCrunch.
By challenging the narrative of the platform, we were able to do something on Snap that had never…
Serena Williams is the greatest female athlete the world has ever seen. To celebrate her career in a way that would resonate with users, we distilled every Grand Slam into specific levels, duplicating her exact outfits and hairstyles down to a pixel.
This was a first of its kind experience on Snap, used to launch their HTML ad format and acclaimed "Interactive History" by TechCrunch.
By challenging the narrative of the platform, we were able to do something on Snap that had never been done: we got users to stop! Spending over three minutes on our game, 65 times longer than average. Proving that no matter the medium, everyone will make time for a great story.
AWARDS
One Show - THREE Golds - Social Media: Innovation + Branded Content + Interactive: Gaming
Cannes Lion - Silver - Mobile - In-game Marketing
Cannes Lion - Silver - Content for User Engagement
Cannes Lion - Bronze - Promo & Activation - Use of Mobile

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OVERVIEW
• On Taco Bell's behalf we created a petition for Unicode to release an official ‘taco’ emoji... The petition overwhelmingly passed!
• To celebrate our victory, we created the #TacoEmojiEngine
•In 5 days we received over half a million Tweets
CHALLENGE
In November 2014 Taco Bell submitted a petition in which they demanded Unicode Consortium (the organization that regulates the coding standards for text including emojis) to create a special taco emoji. The petition…
OVERVIEW
• On Taco Bell's behalf we created a petition for Unicode to release an official ‘taco’ emoji... The petition overwhelmingly passed!
• To celebrate our victory, we created the #TacoEmojiEngine
•In 5 days we received over half a million Tweets
CHALLENGE
In November 2014 Taco Bell submitted a petition in which they demanded Unicode Consortium (the organization that regulates the coding standards for text including emojis) to create a special taco emoji. The petition received 33,000 signatures, and the Unicode Consortium unveiled a taco emoji in June 2015.
Once the taco emoji was finally added to keyboards on all mobile phones, Taco Bell wanted to get people using the emoji, as well as celebrate their victory.
SOULTION
The idea to celebrate the taco emoji release and get users to engage with the fast food taco restaurant was simple: one taco emoji = 1,295 reasons to tweet @TacoBell.
Out goal was to make sure every single emoji – all flags, all iOS exclusive emojis, and even emojis that have existed since 1991 – have a taco response
We built a ‘Taco Emoji Engine’ in collaboration with Twitter. No apps to download, no extra websites to visit – all a user needed was an emoji keyboard and a Twitter account.
Covering EVERY emoji, we crafted 1,295 pieces of custom content, partnering with 77 artists around the world, 5+ motion design companies, Deutsch employees and multiple Feed The Beat musicians to create GIFs, pictures, illustrations, music, products, and more.
RESULTS
Overall, the campaign generated huge interest, with more than half a million tweets in the first five days. The ad also picked up a prestigious Cannes Lions Gold award at the 2016 festival, and most importantly, it has given us a reason to use the taco emoji.
AWARDS
Cannes Lion - Gold - Digital Craft: Taco Bell's #TacoEmojiEngine
One Show - Two Golds - Taco Emoji Engine | Branded Social Campaign & Best of Social Media

Honors & Awards

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2017
We orchestrated a partnership between Gatorade and Snap to launch Snap'sHTML ad units, then conceived and built a 22-level game, with each level playing out the match point for each of Serena Williams’ 22 Grand Slam wins.
The game, which ran throughout the U.S. Open, garnered more than 395 million impressions and was shared by 1 in 3 Snapchat users who saw it. Moreover, it got people to stop on a Snapchat ad, with players spending more than three minutes on the game — more than 65 time…
We orchestrated a partnership between Gatorade and Snap to launch Snap'sHTML ad units, then conceived and built a 22-level game, with each level playing out the match point for each of Serena Williams’ 22 Grand Slam wins.
The game, which ran throughout the U.S. Open, garnered more than 395 million impressions and was shared by 1 in 3 Snapchat users who saw it. Moreover, it got people to stop on a Snapchat ad, with players spending more than three minutes on the game — more than 65 time longer than the Snapchat average.
"Snapchat's 8-bit Serena Williams game is interactive history" (TechCrunch 2016)
One Show - THREE Golds - Social Media: Innovation & Branded Content + Interactive: Gaming
Cannes Lion - Silver - Mobile - In-game Marketing
Cannes Lion - Silver - Content for User Engagement
Cannes Lion - Bronze - Promo & Activation - Use of Mobile
Case Study: https://vimeo.com/showcase/2975037/video/240535414

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Jul 2016
Cannes Lion - Bronze - Digital Craft: Taco Bell's #TacoEmojiEngine
One Show - Two Golds - Taco Emoji Engine | Branded Social Campaign & Best of Social Media
Case Study: https://vimeo.com/showcase/2975037/video/240533233

Cannes Lions

Jun 2016
TacoBot, is the first-ever food ordering tool integrated with corporate communications tool, Slack.
Slack users can order menu items from their local Taco Bell without ever leaving the messaging platform. The TacoBot uses artificial intelligence for group and single ordering through natural language.

ThinkLA

Jun 2015
We distributed 11 "everlasting dollars" around the country (actual dollar bills) in 11 cities nationwide. We recorded the serial numbers, releasing one per day for 11 days, starting in Los Angeles. Any person who found a bill won a $10,000 gift card to Taco Bell.
Check out our case study video: https://vimeo.com/120075830

THE ONE SHOW

Sep 2014
INTERACTIVE SILVER PENCIL - Mobile Applications / Utilities

FWA

Oct 2013
Our original task was to raise Pop Secret’s awareness among at-home movie watchers. Then we learned that every week, 400 people Tweet about burning popcorn. So we set out to solve this age-old problem.
Introducing Perfect Pop, from the makers of Pop Secret. Perfect Pop is an iOS App that listens to the pops coming from your microwave to find the precise moment when your Pop Secret popcorn is perfectly done.

FWA Shortlist

2011
People take a lot of bad pictures. Most of the time it isn't their fault, it's their camera's. The flash is too strong or the picture is blurry because of low light. Through yoursecondshot.com we gave people a second chance to get that important picture right.
We featured four stories of moments lost then recreated by Canon. The stories unfolded through video and interactive content including photos, notes and memorabilia from the participants.
We also allowed users to submit…
People take a lot of bad pictures. Most of the time it isn't their fault, it's their camera's. The flash is too strong or the picture is blurry because of low light. Through yoursecondshot.com we gave people a second chance to get that important picture right.
We featured four stories of moments lost then recreated by Canon. The stories unfolded through video and interactive content including photos, notes and memorabilia from the participants.
We also allowed users to submit their lost moments for a chance to have them recreated by Canon.

FITC: Usability

2008
Flash based experience featuring a "Dream Estate" environment enticing users to explore different areas of the estate, each of which corresponded to features of the Corrolla. Production included five (5) original flash based games, sound design, 3D development, an intelligent parallax affect and subtle environmental animations amongst other tactics.

Organizations

Board Advisor for the Customer Experience Certificate Program

Jul 2022 - Present
Contributing to the growth, curriculum, community of the UCI CX program. - Offer guidance to the faculty and students through occasional classroom visits, forums and conferences. - Promote the program's goal of linking industry expertise with academia to help ensure the program's work is relevant and beneficial. - Attend Board meetings - Provide feedback on the program's effectiveness and areas of opportunity - Participate as a mentor and speaker

Member & Judge

2018 - Present
The IADAS is an assembly of Internet professionals across Mobile; Social; Voice; Podcasts; Websites; Video; Advertising, Media & PR; Apps, and Games.

Recommendations received

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