Mark Borcherding

XYZAL faced massive hurdles switching from Rx to OTC. The brand had zero awareness, a hard-to-pronounce name, and a tiny budget compared to industry heavyweights.

Our “Be Wise All, Take XYZAL at Night” campaign broke the category mold using a breakthrough positioning of when to take allergy medicine paired with a distinctive brand character.

Nigel the Owl spread his charming wisdom across channels, making XYZAL the fastest growing allergy brand and reaching sales benchmarks well ahead of projections.

Awards: Effies Gold, David vs Goliath; MM+M Gold, TV Campaign; Ogilvy Awards Gold, Creative Effectiveness; Nicholas Hall Worldwide Marketing Award, 1st Place; Global Facebook Awards, 1st Place

Our brand platform “Anything Can Happen in Jersey” helped the New Jersey Lottery become the fastest-growing large state lottery.

Annual sales are up over $1 Billion since we won the business.

The campaign is fun, loud and quirky (just like Jersey) and has successfully down-aged daily draw games with “fun money stories” featuring young, diverse players.

Lottery Awards: 2X voted “Best Work in North America” by the Lottery Industry; Reggies Gold, New Product or Service Launch; 4X Radio Mercury Awards Finalist; 6X Telly TV Gold–Entertainment; Telly Social Series Gold–Entertainment

I Wanna Drive a Zamboni

This was the first MasterCard campaign created just for Canada and helped the brand become “priceless” around the globe. The instant popularity of the “Zamboni” TV trilogy spurred a 360 effort including trading cards, branded clothing, NHL events and customized Zambonis. The theme music became a sing-along hit that’s still blasted during intermissions at amateur and pro games.

Awards: New York Festivals Gold, Campaign

Powerball and Mega Millions are national draw games that get a sales bump when the jackpot exceeds $500 million. Because we’re a little competitive, we want to sell more tickets per capita than other states.

We created short videos with customizable jackpot tags that helped Jersey over-index on sales compared to the rest of the country.

Lottery Awards: 2X voted “Best Work in North America” by the Lottery Industry; Reggies Gold, New Product or Service Launch; 4X Radio Mercury Awards Finalist; 6X Telly TV Gold–Entertainment; Telly Social Series Gold–Entertainment

Follow My Lead

Two wars were raging, and the Pentagon wanted to attract America’s best and brightest young adults to become officers.

The Army’s consultants said it was an impossible goal—and that fueled our enduring platform idea. Army officers take on challenges and accomplish goals the rest of the world considers impossible.

While the anthem spot aired, more “officer-quality” candidates enlisted than during any period in the previous 25 years. The other military branches have since copied the Army and launched their own officer recruitment efforts.

Allegra was having trouble connecting with young adults. Even when this group had an uptick in allergy symptoms, traditional ads filled with efficacy claims felt “scary”.

We playfully dramatized how sneezing can impact their social lives. That’s a claim they ended up caring about.

All of Baseball

The launch of MLB Network was a rare opportunity to define a new brand and forge an emotional bond with the fans that eat up the game year round. MLB Network became the most successful channel launch in cable TV history. Our “All of Baseball” platform and the tagline, “Our National Pastime All The Time”, are still in use years after the handoff to MLB Network.

Our campaign “Anything Can Happen in Jersey” has been going strong for over 10 years. Annual sales have risen by over $1 Billion since we started.

Only a few Scratch-Offs get paid ad support every year, so we developed a unique team called “The Scratch-Offs Division” that’s raised awareness and sales for the entire Scratch-Offs portfolio.

Lottery Awards: 2X voted “Best Work in North America” by the Lottery Industry; Reggies Gold, New Product or Service Launch; 4X Radio Mercury Awards; 6X Telly TV Gold–Entertainment; Telly Social Series Gold–Entertainment

Reach for Greatness

The famous history of Bass is noted on every bottle. Napoleon carted Bass around the battlefields of Europe and Sir Ernest Shackleton took Bass to the summit of Everest for a proper toast. But young, upscale adults were gravitating to newer premium beers.

By focusing on more recent and relevant history, the “Reach for Greatness” campaign helped Bass regain its reputation as the only beer worthy of celebrating life’s achievements.

Honors: Creativity Online, Best Spots

Do What Tastes Right

After founder Dave Thomas died, Wendy’s sales took a nosedive. My task with TAG/McCann was to create a “campaign within a campaign” targeting the most frequent fast food eaters, young adult men. This effort was part of a push that turned around Wendy’s and recorded six consecutive months of weekly sales growth.

Extreme Tips

Fila wanted to create buzz for their first Outdoor apparel line. The catch was that the clothes weren’t finished yet. In publications like Outdoor and Backpacker, we used consecutive pages to tease the imagination about the kinds of adventures that would result when the clothes arrived.

On a budget the size of a mosquito bite, we got Cortizone 10 noticed and remembered. We dug in on a truth about itches that led to crazy fun executions. Sales spiked up 14% after the work started airing.

I’ve helped many brands deepen their emotional connection with sports fans.