Jeff Pfaller - Chicago Writer

Free Drinks With Friends

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:13:20 +0000

Check out the latest Ex Occultus mini-adventure for free – I lettered this little gem of an 8-page story – so enjoy…or else!

Here’s what the story is all about. During some downtime between adventures, Wakefield stops into a local pub and swaps tall tales with four friends, recounting their glory days in the world of the occult.

Read it for free now!

New Ex Occultus Mini-Adventure

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:32:03 +0000

Per usual, Saint James is rocking your mid-month Wednesday with a new free mini-adventure.

Wakefield and Hollander are summoned to aid a feudal lord in northern Japan and stop at a small village along the way to meet with their contact, Marcus. They soon discover that chaos has taken over the village, due to the wily antics of an amanojaku, a trickster demon, and must find a way to trap the creature before things take a turn for the worse.

Read it for free now!

Content Upgrade

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:34:01 +0000

I’m giving the site a bit of a facelift since it’s been nearly 4 years since I first rolled this out. Since I’m not technically savvy enough to port Wordpress databases between domains, this will be a work in progress for everyone to see. Not that anyone’s looking.

In any case – you can still access all the old content via the links below.

Portfolio
Films
Photography
Contact

One Minute Mogul Facebook App

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:47:05 +0000

Create your own company from scratch and claw your way up the corporate ladder – all on your lunch break.

Play the game

Project Objective
Get people engaged with the Oscar Mayer brand and drive sales of the new Deli Creations sandwich.

Strategy
Most people see Oscar Mayer as the bologna company – something that only kids would pack in their lunch.

Oscar Mayer wanted to show the sack lunch corporate crowd that they were the right lunch choice for them by getting them to try a new, convenient microwaveable sandwich.

Since many people don’t care to engage with a lunch meat company online, an effective way to get them clicking was to create a Facebook game and subversively promote wasting time on it at work…during your lunch break of course.

Execution
The premise behind the app is to create your own company, hire your friends and then earn money by playing mini-games. Just like a pyramid scheme, the company with the most money and the most employees underneath them, wins.

The tone of the entire app is dark, hopeless office humor that pokes fun at corporate America, all while having a little fun at the user’s expense. They are, after all, stuck in a typical boring 9 to 5 job.

Users can create their own company, or have one generated for them. Who wouldn’t want to be CEO of Art Vandelay Industries? The mini-games all involve office activities too, with the Paper Airplane Toss, Wasteketball and the SpeedySandwich builder.

CEOs can encourage employees to earn money for them by offering perks like an extra foot of cube space, an extra 5-minute break or a ride in the corporate jet.

If you spend too much time away from the app, hot news items get posted to your Facebook feed, encouraging you to come back. Messages like “Area dog sues, claiming he invented the “Doggie bag.” -$12,000″ or “Local lettuce farmers reveal the hidden mineral benefits of the leafy green vegetable. $+125 per employee.”

Deliverables
Content and Copy Matrix

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United Way Spec Campaign

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:00:58 +0000

Concept
It’s not the thought that matters. That simple notion drives the headlines, imagery and startling statistics in this spec campaign to raise donations for United Way of Southeast Michigan.

Rather than just think about all the horrible numbers everyone sees on the news, these ads challenge the viewer to do more – take action. Because when it comes to issues like these, it’s not the thought that counts.

Deliverables
Concepts and copy for print and web ads in collaboration with an Art Director

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Ford Corporate Banner Campaign

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:38:51 +0000

4 distinct rich media banner concepts drove users to targeted content on the Ford Corporate site.

Project Objective
Drive traffic to mini-sites with relevant content for different audience segments.

Strategy
Ford Corporate featured many distinct lines of cars, from the blue-blood Ford brand to the safety minded Volvo to the upscale Lincoln. Instead of a generic message targeted to all, they wanted to hone in on each segment with a mini-site geared towards content that a distinct demographic would enjoy.

The demographics were moms, young gamers, car enthusiasts and green-minded car buyers.

Execution
To drive traffic to these mini-sites, Ford Corporate tasked our creative team to produce banners that would drive to these sites.

- Young Gamers
Concept 1: This banner’s treatment of a drag-racing game as an all-out, no-holds-barred prizefight with only one winner.
See the banner

Concept 2: The mission – drag a giant donut into a giant cup of coffee. This improbable mission demanded a “mission impossible” treatment.
See the banner

- Car Enthusiasts
Concept: An innovative new car that relied on solar, diesel and hybrid electric energy had a distinctive look and design features that seemed to occur in threes. Thus, “Behold the Power of 3″ was born.
See Banner 1
See Banner 2

- Moms
Concept: A storybook approach to the trials and tribulations of driving with kids allowed us to use whimsy and fancy to sell safety benefits that parents would be interested in.
See Banner 1
See Banner 2

- Green Drivers
Concept: This simple concept illustrated how Ford Motor Company was making the “green” choice to create a more environmentally friendly tomorrow.
See the Banner

Deliverables
Concepts and copy for 8 banners in collaboration with an Art Director

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Allstate.com Content

admin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:02:32 +0000

A simple content re-architecture brought 100+ existing keyword rich articles that were invisible to search engines to within 2 clicks of the homepage.

Go to Allstate.com

Project Objective
Raise the organic SEO ranking of the Allstate.com auto insurance section.

Strategy
Knowing that search engines value fresh, well-linked content, Allstate sought to bump up their SEO ranking by rewriting the existing 20 articles in the auto section.

I went beyond the scope of the project and recommended they restructure the navigation to optimize content accessibility and add a blog-style content library that would house over a hundred articles that were already written, but buried in xml files.

Execution
When I first received the assignment, a content audit was done of all the auto insurance related content that existed. It was tagged, categorized and inventoried to understand the universe that we could work in.

Then, the navigation was re-worked to support an inverted “L”, with high priority content in the upper left of the top and side nav, and low priority content to the right and down. Drive to quote was high priority, then content about Allstate’s products and last content that was about topics related to Allstate’s products. Sub navigation was exposed to help users find relevant content and help the search spiders find content.

The last part of the exercise was to rewrite the 20 existing articles in the auto section and work with UX and design to create a solution for the new blog-style pages that would house the previously inaccessible articles.

Results
At the time this page was written, Allstate’s auto insurance home page was 3rd on Google for the term “auto insurance.” Time will tell if the long-tail content results in an increase in organic traffic and quote conversion.

Deliverables
Content Audit
Site Map
Copy deck for 20 articles about Allstate policies, coverage and features.
Lead content collaborator with clients, UX, design and technology

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Allstate Personal Quote

admin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:13:48 +0000

Before our team redesigned the quote & buy tool, Allstate sold under 250 policies online each quarter. Now they sell hundreds a day in just 30 states.

Go to Allstate Personal Quote

Project Objective
Establish Allstate as a competitive online seller of auto insurance in a crowded marketplace.

Strategy
The Geicos, Progressives and Esurances of the world already had a strong foothold when it came to selling auto insurance online, and Allstate wanted to grab their fair share of the pie.

Their initial learning showed that people valued price, but even more than that they valued reliability and convenience. By streamlining the front- and back-end of their antiquated quoting app, they hoped to not only become competitive, but leap frog their rivals in online conversion.

Execution
This project started by taking a hard look at the questions Allstate was asking users to answer. After eliminating anything that didn’t directly affect the price, we moved questions that required users to leave the computer (VIN, drivers license #) into the post-quote purchase process.

Then we worked to optimize interactions at every step of the process, all while giving users the contextual help they needed to quickly get to a quote.

On the quote screen, a delicate balance of information, interaction and design was struck. After multiple rounds of usability testing, we landed on a design that gave users three prices, the ability to customize and easy to understand contextual definitions.

Results
Given the size and complexity of this project, Allstate is rolling this tool out state by state. They began to see real results immediately, going from 8 policies sold online countrywide to hundreds sold a day in just a portion of the country.

The success of the tool has kick-started other revenue generating projects and paved the way for the quote template to be leveraged across their other products.

Deliverables
Content matrix for 50 states
Lead content collaborator with clients, UX, design and technology

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Bumper to Bumper Basics

admin — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:18:13 +0000

This drive to quote app enjoys a 66% conversion rate, not including call center leads.

Go to Bumper to Bumper Basics

Project Objective
Drive educated, qualified leads to the online quote tool.

Strategy
Consumer research uncovered a “confidence gap” in the auto insurance shopping experience. Customers just didn’t feel good about their coverage, because they didn’t know what would happen if they had to make a claim.

Allstate wanted to bridge that gap by offering shoppers a way to de-mystify the auto insurance experience without the “legal-ese” that was common in the category.

Execution
The solution was a “virtual insurance guide” that would walk the user through 11 simple questions and present them with a starting point for limits and deductibles. Friendly banter and an “everyman” approach to explaining complicated insurance concepts helped flesh out the results of the questions – giving them context and making them easy to understand.

Live video of four different “guides” was shot for the specific purpose of being integrated into the app. Each guide delivered the same info, but the tone and flavor of the delivery varied to suit the demographic segment they represented.

The app also features “real life examples” that illustrate how the coverage pays for things that happen to you in the real world.

The content also varies by state, so 50 different versions of the on-screen text and definitions needed to be created in order to make sure what the users see is relevant and not ambiguous.

Results
In terms of meeting the project objective, this app hit it out of the park. 66% of users continue on to get a quote, have someone call them or use Allstate’s agent locator tool. There is an additional call to action that isn’t tracked – calls to the call center.

The virtual guides have proven to be a success outside of the tool as well – they are used within the quote process and within site content as stand alone, informational videos.

Deliverables
Content matrix for 50 states
Web video scripts
Lead content collaborator with UX, design and technology

Back to Portfolio