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I'm Vicki.

TIMES LAST HEIST

Where Every Tick Holds a Dark Secret

TIMES LAST HEIST is part of the series of branded entertainment novels I wrote as part of my Guest Journey and Location-Based storytelling agency (DigitalWits), which creates story-driven experiences for luxury brands, hospitality, museum, and cultural attractions.LOGLINE: A renowned female watchmaker just vanished during Geneva Watch Days, and leaves behind a vintage timepiece with a hidden compartment. Claire Bennett, an American art insurance executive is on a wellness retreat, discovers an engraving inside the watch that connects to Switzerland’s biggest unsolved crime–the 2008 theft of four masterpieces worth $163 million from the Bührle Collection. When Claire gets too close to locating the stolen art, she becomes the target of the Camorra—a global network of transnational Mafia syndicates. Now, she has just 72 hours to decode the watch’s final mechanism and trade the masterpieces for the missing watchmaker’s life before the syndicate silences them both.

See app description below.

A waffle lot of trouble in ghent

Part of the Belgian Heist Series

A WAFFLE LOT OF TROUBLE IN GHENT is part of the series of branded entertainment novels I wrote as part of my Guest Journey and Location-Based storytelling agency (DigitalWits), which creates story-driven experiences for luxury brands, hospitality, museum, and cultural attractions.What do you do when you're a luxury boutique hotel operator in an historic town and literally hundreds of thousands of tourists per year ride the train right past your town -- taking their tourist dollars with them -- on their way to Brugge? How do you get people to come to your hidden gem? Why, you use entertainment as a tourist lead magnet, of course! I wrote this novel and created, coded, and produced the accompanying game app (see below).BACK COVER: In the shadows of Ghent's Gravensteen, where medieval whispers echo through stone, a priceless manuscript vanishes without a trace. As the Belfry's bells toll a warning, local librarian Sophie Van Damme finds herself tangled in a web of history and intrigue. With time ticking away in the Castle of the Counts, Sophie must unravel cryptic clues hidden in plain sight among Ghent's iconic landmarks. Can she crack the case before the culprit slips away into the mist-shrouded canals? 'A Waffle lot of Trouble in Ghent' - where cobblestone streets hold secrets, and every chime from the Belfry brings our sleuth one step closer to the truth!After doing the demographic and psychographic research, I decided that a cozy mystery novel would align with the demographics and psychographics of potential visitors. (The target was high-income solo travelers who traveled for "reinvention" and "transformation.") I crafted a story that included several historical sites and -- in typical cozy mystery style -- created a punny play-on-words title for the book. The story heavily features local attractions such as the Castle of the Counts (Gravensteen), the Graslei Bridge, and the Belfry--along with compelling historical facts about each. The results? A 17% increase in bookings. The book was originally marketed through US luxury travel agents, and the hotel now uses the book as "bedtime reading" gift to guests, which guests can take with them after their stay.)

See app description below.

A NOVEL IDEA

for subscriber retention

HACKING TIME is part of the series of branded entertainment novels I wrote as part of my Guest Journey and Location-Based storytelling agency (DigitalWits), which creates story-driven experiences for luxury brands, hospitality, museum, and cultural attractions.Based on research into the company's target audience and emerging market trends, I proposed creating a branded thriller novel featuring a fictional company product as an exclusive benefit for the subscription watch service's members. I wrote, edited, and published the novel, "Hacking Time," which reduced customer churn by 24% and increased new subscriptions by 37%. (The novel was used as a benefit of the watch subscription service).LOGLINE: When tech prodigy Alex Chen’s best friend is prescribed the same “life-saving” medicine-dispensing smartwatch that killed her mother, Alex uncovers a chilling insurance conspiracy—where death is the business model for patients deemed too expensive to treat. Racing against a ruthless time algorithm, she must hack the device before it decides her friend’s life costs too much to save.

This is the neuroscience-based audience/consumer psychology book featured on CNN and Business Insider that has become the foundation of the storyworlds I build for museums, luxury brands, and hospitality organizations.FROM THE BACK COVER: What do the runaway success of E.T., Oprah, and the Cabbage Patch Kids have in common? How come Scrabble was a flop when first introduced, but became an instant hit when re-introduced just three years later? According to extensive research, the secret to who gets heard, what gets our attention, and who and what has staying power lies in deeply ingrained biological and anthropological codes we all subconsciously share.Filled with fascinating examples and explanations of the phenomena associated with "stickiness,” INSTANT APPEAL reveals the often surprising (and proven) reasons behind why we vote for certain people, listen to the same songs over and over again, and favor one brand over another. The book illuminates the hu­man universals that cause positive and negative chemical reactions in our brains, and shows how anyone can use them to advance their career, cause, company, or product.

Published by the AMACOM imprint of HARPERCOLLINS