Martin Davidson

Key Design Studio is an embedded change agency that uses design thinking strategy + creative to reframe problems, products, and experiences, and accelerate transformational growth for KeyBank.

First as Creative Director then as Director of Design Talent, I worked under Enterprise Design Officer Stephen Schroth to build the Studio team and scale design across the enterprise to advance KeyBank’s maturity as a design thinking user-driven organization.

My role as Director of Design Talent was primarily to identify, recruit, hire, retain and develop top talent, including Product Designers, Conversational Designers, Industrial Designers, UX Writers, and strategists.

Managing 30 direct reports, I lead all functions relating to performance and people management.

In addition, I developed, implemented, and oversaw a proprietary talent management program.

Further, I was responsible for creating and growing our organizational talent pipeline, including establishing and cultivating relationships with multiple staffing partners and UX design schools across the country.

See the Studio, work, team, and awards: Key Design Studio at KeyBank

Asics footwear was known around the world for different things in different countries. In Korea, it was a volleyball shoe. In Germany, it was a walking shoe. In the United States, it was a running shoe. And in Brazil it was a soccer shoe.

Its founder asked for a campaign that expressed the philosophy anima sana in corpora sano (also the acronym ASICS) which translates to "a healthy mind in a healthy body."

The idea I created visualized the Asics logo as an intersection of mind and body, with copy that was equal parts physical and mental.

Role: Concept & Copy
Team: Will Roth

Mastercraft boats are coveted by devoted water-skiers who would willingly give up every other possession in their lives to own one.

When the brand launched its Maristar line, including its first Saltwater runabout for the series, I wrote this campaign knowing that the people who could afford one enjoyed reading every detail about them they could find.

Role: Copywriter/ACD
Team: Will Roth

Nothing is more emotional than money. So why is financial services advertising so dry?

The client, agency planners and account directors had agreed on the strategy: No matter where you are in your financial life, Wachovia has the products and services to help you. 

I proposed a less generic and more compelling customer-focused strategy: Wachovia helps turn possibilities into reality.

This became the campaign idea and brand platform which ultimately united Wachovia's four business units around a common goal.

Role: Copywriter/ACD
Team: Will Roth, Mickey Strider

After years of watching their retail partners spend hundreds of millions of co-op dollars producing their own commercials, Sealy wanted a brand ad that retailers would love enough to run as their own. I wrote this spot using the insight that most mattress stores are a sea of white and bathed in incredibly bright light.

Role: Copywriter/ACD
Team: Rick Kourchenko, Mickey Strider, Rob Pritts

To promote Job Shadow Day, Monster.com ran this spot ahead of the Super Bowl the year after its famous "When I Grow Up" commercial. I wrote this spot and the directing team made it even better.

Role: Copywriter
Team: Mark Moll, Rich Wallace

Monster.com's proposition is simple: help you find a better job. This series of posters in major metros let people know they understood how uninspiring life at the office could be.

One Show Finalist

For the re-launch of Krispy Kreme coffee, I worked with Device Creative Collaborative to re-design the packaging of the brand's iconic to go coffee cup.

The design was featured in Communication Arts Typography Annual 8.

Cinemagraphs helped amplify the launch on social with artwork commissioned from UK artist Jamie Kirk.

Role: Global Creative Director, Copywriter

Banks have a hard time appearing genuinely human. To differentiate the financial advisors at Wachovia Securities from those at Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorganChase, I wrote the line "We start with your life and plan your money around it."

Former Martin Agency and Fallon ECD Bill Westbrook was our voiceover. When he said to me one day from the recording booth, "That's a great line, Martin." I nearly fell out of my chair.

Role: Copywriter/ACD
Team: Will Roth, Mickey Strider

The Boston Globe is an institution that prides itself on supporting the city's other institutions, from the Boston Marathon to the Red Sox Opening Day.

Role: Copywriter
Team: Jim O'Brien

One Show Finalist
CA Advertising Annual

Design, writing, website development and social media to launch a new consumer outdoors brand to retailers including Target, Wal-Mart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Gander Outdoors.