JoRoan Lazaro

My work connects brand and product: what a brand should mean, and how people experience it. I build creative teams and lead the pitches that win the business.

At Elephant, I recruited and led the design team that launched Peacock. At Monks, I was Executive Creative Director on Burger King, including Million Dollar Whopper and BK Village.

Today I’m Chief Creative Officer, North America at Tata Consultancy Services Interactive. I also write UNDERTOW, an essay series on the structural shifts under the AI transition, for people who decide what gets made across brand, product and design.

SELECTED WORK

Product design, interactive experiences and campaigns.

Burger King

Executive Creative Director on the Burger King account.

Executive Creative Director, Monks. 2022-2025

BK Million Dollar Whopper Generative-AI + Data Science CAMPAIGN

BK MDW

BK Million Dollar Whopper Generative-AI + Data Science CAMPAIGN

BK MDW Voting Campaign

Peacock 1.0

Built and led Elephant’s design team for NBCUniversal’s streaming service, from early product concept through the 2020 launch.

VP Product Design, Elephant. 2019–2020.

NBCU Peacock Version 1.0. Concept to launch. Product design 2020-2021.

NBCU Peacock Ver 1.0. Concept to launch. Product design 2020-21

NBCU Peacock Ver 1.0. Concept to launch. Product design 2020-21.

I write UNDERTOW, an essay series on the structural shifts under the AI transition, for people who decide what gets made across brand, product and design. At Wandering Wondering Star, I also write about creative work, taste, growth and loss.

Moncler MONDOGENIUS

A campaign connecting live fashion shows in five cities through the idea of portals. Dual takeovers of Times Square and Shibuya. Developed and produced in eight weeks.

Executive Creative Director, AKQA New York. 2021.

Moncler Genius Global Campaign

Moncler Genius Global Campaign: Times Square + Shibuya Takeovers

Moncler Genius Global Campaign

Google CES 2024

I led the pitch that won Google’s CES 2024 experience. Our team designed and built a road-trip visitor center, bringing interactive Android demonstrations together across four buildings. We continued to be awarded many more events and experiences for Google.

Executive Creative Director, Monks. 2024.

Google CES 2024 "Do More w/ Android" 4-building village. 14 interactive demos. Concept -> Design -> Build.

Google CES 2024 "Do More w/ Android" 4-building vilage

Google CES 2024 "Do More w/ Android" 14 interactive demos

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked

A teaser campaign built around a simple constraint: create anticipation without revealing the products. The work included a physical holographic film high above the London sky. The matching experience in Los Angeles was regrettably cancelled due to the fires.

Executive Creative Director, Monks. 2025.

2025 Samsung Mobile "Unpacked" Campaign (London Hologram. No CGI. Actual drone camera capture!)

2025 Samsung Mobile "Unpacked" Campaign

P&G Global Beauty. 3D Immersive World (CES 2022)

P&G Global Beauty. 3D immersive World (CES 2022)

P&G Global Beauty CES 2022

P&G Beauty. WebGL Immersive World (CES 2022)

Maserati Grecale Launch 2022

Maserati Grecale "Car Reveal" Launch Film 2022

Marc Jacobs e-commerce. Complete site redesign 2019

Marc Jacobs. Complete site redesign 2019

Marc Jacobs complete site redesign 2019

Samsung Mobile. TouchWiz OS product design.

IBM.com

IBM.com/Cognitive Personalized content using Watson AI

Electronic Arts Origin

GEICO App product design (The Martin Agency)

Second Life (Creative Director, 2008-2010)

America Online 1996-2001, Client Software Design

Microsoft Surface

Samsung.com/USA

Samsung Mobile Campaigns

Creative Leadership • Product Design • Brand Communications •

Advertising • Experiential (Physical + Digital) • Emerging Technology •

Product Design

NBCUniversal Peacock Version 1.0 streaming video platform design (2019-2020) • Early VR (Second Life 2008-2010, first Creative Director) • Internet 1.0 online services and client software (America Online 1996-2001) • Mobile OS/interface (Samsung Touchwiz) • Games-as-a-service platform design (Electronic Arts Origin) • Pre-iphone mobile startup (kajeet).

Brand Communications

BK (Burger King) 2024 Campaigns: "Million Dollar Whopper" Generative AI contest and voting + BK Village Holiday Campaign • Samsung Mobile 2025 "Unpacked" Campaign • Coca-Cola Global Brand Guidelines Immersive Web • Moncler Genius "MondoGenius Global Campaign" • P&G Beauty "Beauty Sphere" Immersive Web • Maserati Grecale launch • Marc Jacobs e-commerce • Samsung Mobile Galaxy 11 Global Campaign

Experiential + Spatial + Interactive

Google CES 2024: concept to architectural/spatial design to interactive demos. 18,000 square feet. 15 interactive Android demos. • Panasonic WellHouse • Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2025

Agencies

Chief Creative Officer, North America: TCS Interactive (TCS is a 600,000+ employee consultancy with $30B+ revenue)

Executive Creative Director: AKQA, BBH, Havas, Jam3, Monks

VP Product Design: Elephant

Creative Director: CP+B, The Martin Agency, R/GA, The Barbarian Group

Weekly Cultural Intelligence Report

UNDERTOW is my weekly report for creative leaders and strategists. Each issue names a structural pattern in AI, culture, or global brand strategy — before it becomes conventional wisdom.

Essays

Wandering Wondering Star

Bio

I’m a creative leader working across brand, product and emerging technology. My work includes building design teams, shaping product experiences, leading pitches and directing campaigns.

At Elephant, I built and led the design team for Peacock 1.0. At Monks, I led work for Burger King, Google and Samsung. At AKQA New York, I worked with the Managing Partner to grow the studio’s team and client relationships, including Moncler.

Earlier, I was the first Creative Director at Second Life, where I led work on the new-user experience. At AOL, I led client-software design across versions 4.0–7.0 and designed the Running Man in 1997.

Today I’m Chief Creative Officer, North America at TCS Interactive, building creative and experience design capabilities.

I’m interested in how creative teams make decisions as technology changes what they can produce. I explore that through the work and through my writing at UNDERTOW and Wandering Wondering Star.

For a complete portfolio with case studies, please reach out: JoRoan at gmail dot com

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Burger King 2024-2025 Campaigns

"Million Dollar Whopper" Campaign: Generative AI + UGC + Menu Innovation Through Data Science

In the billion-dollar battleground of fast-food innovation, where McDonald's had 6x more app users than BK, we faced a critical inflection point. Mobile orders had exploded 600% in six years and were projected to represent 60-70% of total QSR sales. We needed more than a campaign. We needed a digital revolution that would transform Burger King's competitive position while staying true to our "Have It Your Way" DNA.

The Million Dollar Whopper became our answer: an audacious AI-powered innovation engine that turned millions of customers into menu co-creators.

This wasn't just crowdsourcing; it was the democratization of product development at unprecedented scale. We built a generative AI experience where customers could dream up their wildest Whopper combinations and instantly see them transformed into mouthwatering product shots, with each one representing a potential million-dollar idea.

The campaign shattered every internal benchmark. In a fewweeks, we achieved 1.33 million new loyalty program signups, crushing our internal target and significantly outperformed our previous best promotion.

Users didn't just sign up; they immersed themselves, spending an average of 5 minutes 45 seconds creating and perfecting their culinary masterpieces.

Together, they generated 3+ million AI Whopper images, submitted 1.43 million contest entries featuring 408,000 unique topping combinations, and voluntarily shared 360,000 BK ads, creating 226 days worth of branded content.

The business impact was immediate and profound: a double-digit digital sales increase during the campaign period, a huge double-digit surge in average daily digital platform visitors, and 4.1 billion impressions with 100% positive or neutral sentiment.

The three finalist Whoppers didn't just make it to menus. They sold out nationwide, proving that customer-created products could match or exceed traditional R&D.

But the true victory runs deeper than metrics. We transformed a competitive disadvantage into a breakthrough advantage, creating the most successful digital acquisition campaign in BK's history while building an innovation pipeline powered by real customer desires.

We proved that when you give your audience not just a voice but genuine creative power, backed by cutting-edge technology, they'll create something more compelling than any boardroom could imagine.

The Million Dollar Whopper wasn't just a campaign; it was a new model for how brands and customers can build the future together.

Samsung Mobile

2025 "Unpacked" Event teaser campaign: Hologram Activation (London), DOOH, FOOH, Social

Watch the film!

Google CES 2024 Experience

Google CES 2024. Android "Do More With Google" experience.

18,000 sq feet. 4 buildings. 14 interactive Android feature demos. From concept to design to fabrication and construction.

Google CES 2024. Video Fly-through of the experience.

Google CES 2024. Interior. Android Demos.

Google CES 2024. Interior. Bard A.I. demos.

Google CES 2024. Interior. Generative A.I. mobile phone wallpapers interactive demo.

Moncler Genius. Global Campaign.

In 8 weeks from concept to launch, we created and produced the Moncler Genius MONDOGENIUS global campaign for its unprecedented fall 2021 fashion shows.

The global live-streamed event broadcast from 5 cities, reached 2.3 billion people around the world with more than 299 million views. Activations included a simultaneous New York Times Square and Tokyo Shibuya DOOH takeovers.

Hero film • DOOH New York Times Square • DOOH Tokyo Shibuya • Live broadcast • Instagram • Facebook • TikTok • YouTube • Twitter • WeChat • Weibo • Douyin • Branding • Collateral • Print • OLA

Moncler Genius. MONDOGENIUS Campaign 2021.

Hero film (Excerpt). Moncler Genius. MONDOGENIUS Campaign 2021.

Moncler "MONDOGENIUS" Global Campaign 2021

Hero film :60. Moncler Genius. MONDOGENIUS Campaign 2021.

NBCUniversal Peacock Streaming Service Version 1.0

Complete Product Design (Concept to Design to Launch)

In an era of endless choice, decision paralysis had become the nightly defining pain point of modern streaming video entertainment. Viewers weren't losing minutes—they were losing their love of television, trapped in endless scrolling through mediocre recommendations.

Elephant, in partnership with NBCUniversal, saw that audiences craved curation, not just content. With our passion for product design and storytelling heritage, we could reimagine what streaming should feel like with an original concept.

In 12 months, we transformed the streaming experience, putting human connection back at its heart. The result: 10 million subscribers in month one, proving that in a world of infinite choice, viewers want better options, not more.

NBCUniversal Peacock Streaming Service. Product Design. Version 1.0 launch 2020.

Promotional video here