Take the boo out of your books
Meet Adam. The little monster behind every overdue receipt, unfinished spreadsheet, and bookkeeping task you'd rather avoid.
A character-led awareness campaign that turned a familiar small-business frustration into something funny, relatable, and impossible to ignore.
THE INSIGHT
The brief was awareness. The real problem was anxiety.
This is Luis, my husband.
He's a chef and small business owner.
I've watched the receipts pile up, the bookkeeping fall behind, and the guilt that comes with putting it off.
That became the creative opportunity: what if we gave that anxiety a personality?
THE DECISION
Give that fear a face.
Adam needed to be recognizable, slightly ridiculous, and more endearing than intimidating.
I originated the character concept and directed its development with a freelance illustrator, exploring three visual directions before bringing him to life through animation.
The campaign line, “Take the boo out of your books,” was developed collaboratively with our external copywriter and Brand Director.
THE BUILD
One market. A real test.
I led the art direction across social, animation, and out-of-home, keeping Adam recognizable across formats.
We launched the campaign in Dallas, using Houston as the control market to measure incremental impact beyond impressions and reach.
OOH Dallas Creative
THE RESULTS
The campaign was measured two ways — website traffic lift and a third-party brand lift study on YouTube. Both confirmed the same thing: giving financial anxiety a face, and then removing it, works.