New England Aquarium
Four years of elevating a longstanding Boston cultural touchstone (and its feathered, furred and finned denizens)
The New England Aquarium’s bold brand campaigns take over Boston each spring and summer.
Along with my team at Connelly Partners, I worked with the aquarium over a pivotal four-year period as we slowly modernized the external communications to be in-tune with their identity as a leading global conservation organization.
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@ Connelly Partners
Art Directors: Roland Atema, Andy Long
Creative Directors: Nick Bontaites, Sid Murlidhar
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Creative strategy
Campaign development
Copywriting for TV and radio, out of home, print, digital
Campaign 1:
Tentacles Take Hold
Tentacles Take Hold wasn’t just a campaign. It was hostile cephalopod takeover of a major city in the Northeast. Resistance? Futile. We embraced the weird to help tentacled species wrap their suckers around the public's imagination (and wallets), pulling in a lowkey 1.4 million visitors.
Oh, and it got a nod from Lürzer’s Archive too.
Campaign 2:
Life According to Fur Seals
Fur seals. Basically dogs of the sea (plus flippers.) They’re playful, social, and internationally adored while napping on dry land, but underwater? These are the ocean’s Olympians: sleek, graceful, and glistening like Michael Phelps in a wetsuit made of fur.
So we gave these athletes a much deserved spotlight. The campaign took over Boston with a restrained concept that put the conservation species front + center.
Big splash for a species worth saving.
Campaign 3:
Protecting the Blue Planet
This one was a curveball. The Aquarium came to us wanting to “reimagine” their longtime tagline, Protecting the Blue Planet. (Which, let’s be real, usually translates to: “we’re starting to hate it, new ideas please.”)
But instead of tossing it, we dove deeper. There was real weight to that phrase: a mission-first mindset where conservation wasn’t just a footnote, but the headline.
This time, the goal wasn’t to hype up a single species or show off the splashiest tank. It was about the bigger picture. Planet-first. Purpose-led.
So we flipped the script and added color. The result was Spectrum of the Sea, a rainbow-hued campaign that spotlighted the beauty and fragility of ocean life. A celebration and a call to action, all in one.
