VERIZON YELLOW PAGES · SHAR-PEI CAMPAIGN

A familiar face.
An idea unleashed.

The Shar-Pei / Yellow Pages campaign, followed by other Verizon work and the creative operations behind it.

Bob’s role
Creative leadership and marketing communications · 1995–2007 · 12-person organization · 29 markets.

Pantry thirty-second television storyboard for Verizon Yellow Pages — Pantry · :30 television concept and storyboard.

01 · THE CHALLENGE

Keep a large organization’s work coherent.

Across Verizon, Idearc Media, Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, Bob’s 1995–2007 creative leadership and marketing communications work combined campaigns with the systems needed to produce them. His leadership scope included a 12-person cross-disciplinary organization and creative operations across 29 markets.

The work spanned digital, print, broadcast, out-of-home and promotional channels, while supporting major brand transitions. The challenge was to keep the message recognizable as both the medium and the local market changed.

02 · THE SHAR-PEI IDEA

One character. A campaign with legs.

The creative rationale began with people’s connection to animals. The Shar-Pei was chosen to give the Yellow Pages an approachable personality and a distinctive memory hook: a familiar face customers could associate with the company.

The intent was to carry that warmth and recognition from one encounter to the next. The Pantry and Doorbell television storyboards develop the idea over time; the arrival teaser introduces the character, and Good Boy carries it into outdoor advertising.

The psychology behind the character

Later research into animal mascots supports the broader idea that their portrayal can influence people’s attitudes and their connection to a brand. The effect depends on the animal and how it is presented. This provides context for the creative rationale, rather than a measurement of this campaign’s results.

Animal mascots and consumer connections · Bayes Business School, 2013 ↗

03 · SHAR-PEI CAMPAIGN

The Shar-Pei story, from television to the street.

The television concepts are shown as storyboards, followed by the campaign’s teaser, outdoor and promotional applications.

CORPORATE PRESENTATION

A keepsake with a call to action.

To introduce the campaign, shareholders received a plush Shar-Pei wearing a bone-shaped dog tag. Etched into each tag was a URL leading to the recipient’s private, personalized website.

The keepsake became a portal to a deeper online presentation, with personal profile information and an invitation to give feedback. A warm, memorable character opened the door to a continuing conversation.

ANOTHER TELEVISION CONCEPT

Doorbell · :30

An everyday interruption. An unexpected visitor. The Shar-Pei turns a directory arrival into a small moment of discovery.

A man practicing putting in his study — 01 / 05 · DOORBELL“Honeeey?”
A man practices his putting in the study. The doorbell rings. He calls into the house.

01 / 05 · DOORBELL“Honeeey?”
A man practices his putting in the study. The doorbell rings. He calls into the house.

Verizon Yellow Pages Pantry television storyboard — **Pantry · :30**Television concept and storyboard built around the Shar-Pei / Yellow Pages idea.

Shar-Pei bus shelter teaser reading Coming to your doorstep January 15 — **Shar-Pei · Bus shelter teaser**The early Shar-Pei teaser: a bus shelter announcement leading into the campaign.

Shar-Pei beside a yellow banner reading Coming to your doorstep January 15 — **Shar-Pei · Arrival teaser**Shar-Pei teaser artwork announcing the January 15 directory arrival.View larger artwork ↗

Verizon Yellow Pages Good Boy bus shelter — **Good Boy**Outdoor extension of the same campaign idea.

Verizon Yellow Pages Good boy billboard above a building — **Good Boy · Billboard**The Shar-Pei and directory become a large-format outdoor message.View larger artwork ↗

Verizon Yellow Pages Good boy campaign projected onto a building at night — **Good Boy · Building projection**The campaign moves from the printed outdoor placement onto an illuminated building facade.

OUT INTO THE WORLD

A familiar face. More places to meet it.

Bus shelters, a billboard, a building projection and public promotion extend the same recognizable character across formats.

Shar-Pei holding a yellow Verizon directory — **The Shar-Pei character**The campaign character holding the Yellow Pages.

Yellow Verizon promotional vehicle beside a branded event tent — **On the road · Campaign vehicle**A branded vehicle and event tent carry the Yellow Pages message into a live setting.View larger artwork ↗

Verizon Yellow Pages event participants holding promotional checks beside Shar-Pei signage — **Local promotion · Event presence**Campaign signage, promotional checks and the Shar-Pei character in an event photograph.View larger artwork ↗

Promotional team wearing yellow Verizon campaign shirts and holding directories — **Street team · Campaign in person**A promotional team extends the recognizable yellow campaign identity into a public setting.View larger artwork ↗

Two Yellow Pages directories on the driveway in front of a house — **At the doorstep · Directory concept**A residential driveway composition brings the directory-delivery idea home.View larger artwork ↗

04 · OTHER VERIZON CAMPAIGNS

More from the Verizon archive.

Separate campaign and communication pieces: directory concepts, local-market promotions, transit partnerships and online advertising.

Verizon SuperPages Keeper billboard — **This One’s the Keeper**Outdoor campaign using local-market relevance and directory recognition.

Verizon Yellow Pages Greater Tucson cover — **Greater Tucson**Market-specific directory cover and identity system.

Yellow Verizon SuperPages truck promotion with directory characters and a two million dollar prize message — **SuperPages · Promotional truck**A mobile campaign application carrying the directory promotion through the streets.

Scratch and win Verizon Yellow Pages outdoor advertisement with Greater Salt Lake City directory — **Scratch and Win · Greater Salt Lake City**A market-specific promotion connecting the outdoor message to the game piece inside the directory.

Verizon Yellow Pages Miami Hurricanes partnership on a transit bus — **Transit · Miami Hurricanes**A local sports partnership carried across a full-size bus application.

Verizon Yellow Pages Miami Dolphins partnership on a transit bus — **Transit · Miami Dolphins**A second Miami partnership, showing how the transit system adapts to a different local team.

Archived Verizon Online DSL page with a red sidebar, customer photograph and introductory offer — **Verizon Online · DSL**Archived online acquisition page combining an introductory DSL offer, promotion and order calls to action.View original-size artwork ↗

Verizon Yellow Pages promotional spread headed Look up to a better bottom line, with LifeCycles, LifeStyles and LifeSavers imagery — **Look up to a better bottom line**Yellow Pages promotional concept linking LifeCycles, LifeStyles and LifeSavers to advertising, promotions and community relationships.View original-size artwork ↗

05 · LEADERSHIP & OPERATIONS

Creative direction includes the way work gets made.

Bob’s responsibilities extended beyond individual campaign concepts. His documented leadership record includes redesigning workflows, helping uncover new revenue opportunities and supporting brand transitions across a distributed organization.

The BigYellow.com project provides a concrete example of this systems thinking. A labor-intensive online advertising process led to a creative brief, a programming partnership and a reusable template-and-image system that allowed advertisers to update their own information. That project has its own detailed case study.

Read the BigYellow.com workflow case study →

06 · THE RESULT

Campaign work supported by an operating system.

The portfolio records a body of work across television, outdoor, transit, consumer promotion and directories, supported by creative leadership across 29 markets. The case is about the relationship between the two: ideas need a production structure that lets them remain clear across channels and locations.

The lasting lesson is that creative leadership operates at more than one scale—from the image a customer sees to the workflow that allows a team to produce it.

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A familiar face.An idea unleashed.