Creative Strategy
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As a true digital native, I co-founded one of the very first virtual creative agencies in 2003, in business for 15+ years, creating campaign strategies for a diverse range of enterprise level clients.
I frequently speak and contribute to Web3 conferences and panels, and podcasts and am known for formulating resilient creative strategies and targeted use-case opportunities for brands looking to enter Web3.
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An individual who is a bridge between left and right brain objectives for a brand. They ensure success for both approaches, while helping to maintain the heart and soul of the brand narrative across the vast landscapes of brand communications.
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ATHLETIC adidas, Dicks Sporting Goods, Joy Lab for Target, New York City Marathon, Schwinn, Nautilus, Pearl Izumi, Interbike Conference, Topeak, Feedback Sports, Cycle Ops, Swix, Polar Bottle
BEAUTY KLUR, Clique Media, All Good
CPGs Stack Wines, Phonomenal Bowls, Kid Cuisine, Topps Candies (Baby Bottle Pop, Ring Pop, Push Pop), Neosporin, Con Agra, General Mills, Box Tops For Education, Dakota Organic Beef,
CONSTRUCTION Caterpillar, Swagelock, Weathershield Windows & Doors,
ENTERTAINMENT Food Network, Oprah Winfrey (OWN Network), Charter Communications, Circle of Confusion, Model Land
FASHION adidas, Lucky Brand Jeans, Matuse, Case Logic, Clique Media
FILM Manfrotto, Gitzo, Vitec Groupo, Kata
FINANCE Norwest Bank, Wells Fargo
FINE ART KMNDZ, KP Projects Gallery, DANKO, LGND, Shantell Martin
HEALTHCARE 3M, Pfizer, American Medical Systems, Boston Scientific
INSURANCE Wells Fargo Insurance, State Farm Insurance, Progressive Insurance
NATURAL & ORGANIC Go Raw, Lenny & Larry, Farmhouse Culture, Herb Pharm, All Good, Big Tree Farms, Rawhide, Grow Sprouted Bar, Gnosis Chocolate, Pure Homeopathy, KLUR, All Good
NON PROFIT Boy Scouts of America, New York City Marathon, Lupus Foundation, Ghetto Film School, Bikes Belong Foundation, Bikes For Humanity, National Mill Dog Rescue
PETS Pfizer, Iams, Eukanuba, Purina Veterinary Diets
PUBLIC RELATIONS Pitchblend, The 44
RESORT W Hotels, Westin, Renaissance Hotels, Napa Valley Tourism, Colorado Ski Country, Winter Park, Steamboat Springs, Copper Mountain
TECH / WEB3 Google, YouTube, Polycade x AtariX, Hubster, Terra Genesis International
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
Strategic Highlights
Oprah’s Lifeclass
Created a digital strategy that resulted in 1.1 million students enrolled for Oprah’s Lifeclass securing her a Guiness Book of World Records win
Pearl Izumi
Sold through a 2 year backlog of product in 6 months, resulting in millions of dollars in sales and a successful acquisition from Shimano
Farmhouse Culture
Created probiotic shot category with a line extension that eclipsed the main product and resulted in a $10million infusion of capital from General Mills
Creative strategy and resulting work is informed by so much more than just images and colors from a brand standards guide. The strategy underpinning a body of work is what makes the solutions compelling and timeless. Below are some results that were industry defining or special to me. Some of my greatest work has been created from seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Case Studies
W Hotels
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I was tasked with creating a brand presence for W Hotels worldwide that positioned them as the ‘it’ place for art, culture and sensuality. More than a destination it should be a community and ethos of a uniquely creative approach to life.
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I grand opened many hotels for W Hotels, notably the Times Square, Chicago City Center & Lakeshore (with Oprah present for the launch parties) and Mexico City locations and created all materials for promotions, ad placement and star-studded events.
While working on the brand guests would routinely inquire about the source for amenities in the room. I conceived of the W Hotels home store, a first of it’s kind offering where you could purchase anything in the room. This practice is now an industry standard for chic and boutique hotels world-wide.
Food Network
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Creating on air creative strategies and launches for some of Food Network’s most beloved foundational properties. This would include bumpers, promos, sizzle reels, media kits and consumer materials for purchase in support of the shows, as well as original branding & positioning.
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I worked on many noteworthy properties within the brand including Emeril Lagasse, Alton Brown and created launch strategy and design for two of their most successful programs: Unwrapped and 30 Minute Meals with Rachel Ray (this led to my work with Oprah, based on my success with Rachel Ray.)
adidas
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Working within an established PR firm, I was tasked with helping to craft a new Creative Services department and grow the business with existing facets of business with adidas, driving through conceptual narratives that would support a robust PR strategy.
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I helped to create strategy for notable campaigns such as the launch of Stan Smith Prime Green campaign, featuring a viral campaign of celebrities performing a ‘Kermit the Frog Dance Challenge’, the positioning strategy for the launch of Candice Parker x adidas apparel line, launch of adidas outdoor apparel offerings and to assist in partner agencies successful sweeping wins of many major award shows for adidas activations.
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Oprah had always dreamed of being a teacher since she was a little girl. She wanted to fulfill that dream by creating the largest classroom of 1 million students, securing a Guiness Book of World Record in recognition.
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When I joined the OWN Studios digital team, Oprah didn’t yet have 900k on her Facebook account. It was therefore daunting to think we could get 1 million enrollments within the 3 months left before the air date.
However I was determined to craft a multi-pronged strategy to ensure success. My social media and newsletter strategy grew the click-thru rate from 10% to 75% and delivered the highest level of engagement on her social posts ever to-date.
I created on-air scripts for her to read in promos and sizzle reels, gaining her praise as “getting her voice” correctly “faster than any other writer.The final enrollment numbers for her class were 1.1 million students, handily securing her the win. Oprah’s Lifeclass continued on for 5 seasons.
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I was contacted by a friend who knew a woman who was quietly rescuing retired breeding dogs from her home in rural Colorado. They hoped that I would be wiling to help with some branding to amplify her work and shine a light on puppy mills for this local organization. I challenged them to think far bigger than their own back yard.
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I had no idea what puppy mills were but as I learned more, I knew I had to give it my all. I formulated a strategy, brand look and feel, messaging and a structure to the group. I renamed the group “National Mill Dog Rescue” telling the woman that I would craft a large brand for her to grow into.
Before I began my work I needed her assurance she would dedicate her life to this rescue and quit her job once it was successful. I told her this would be in two years time.
She laughed at my prediction but agreed. In two years the rescue had grown to many full-time volunteers, a paid staff, secured 150 acre plot of land with a large facility capable of housing 250 dogs, with medical support on site, 3 dedicated rescue vehicles and partnerships with the largest rescues in the country, including Best Friends.
To date National Mill Dog Rescue has over 1 million followers across multiple social media channels, has been instrumental in crafting legislation banning puppy mills and has rehomed over 18K former breeding dogs.
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Go Raw had been perceived as a commodity due mainly to their generic bulk packaging. It needed a refresh that spoke clearly to the clean and fresh ingredients and a tagline that communicated the experience and approach of the company.
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To shift consumer perception from generic to premium brand status worthy of their high price tag, I started by removing the clear window from all the bags and bar packaging (at the time clear windows were ubiquitous for the natural & organic CPG industry) In their place, I put images of ingredients and product photos on the bag. A redesign of the logo to a softer more approachable organic, helped to tell a more ‘proprietary’ story.
Next I created the tagline ‘Junk Free Food’. This tagline tells you intuitively that it has a flavor and ease of use like other snacks without the unhealthiness that conventional snacks are known for.
These changes were revolutionary at the time and the rest of the industry quickly pivoted to follow, as Go Raw was a well known brand with over 44 SKU’s, a leader in the category but largely unknown to conventional consumers and retailers.Now a quick trip through a local Whole Foods will yield many copycat packages that look similar to the brand standards I established for Go Raw.
The result was opening up over 75 conventional grocery store placements, a contract with the US military commissary and expansion into Canada. Delivering millions of dollars in new sales and loyal customers.
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KLUR was started by my good friend Lesley Thornton. An accomplished licensed aesthetician in the entertainment industry. She wanted to create a brand with a minimal environmental footprint, inclusive design that focused on the product not slick packaging, to tell the story.
As a black-woman entrepreneur it was important to her to have a look and feel to the product that could stand out authentically from the crowded space filled with gimmicky packaging and hollow marketing promises.Every part of the packaging needed to be sustainable and intentional.
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KLUR has garnered world-wide praise and has become beloved by beauty insiders. It has graced the pages of Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Birdie and been heavily covered in beauty blogs & podcasts. Lesley is a frequent contributor to panels and speaks passionately on the need to have more eco-inclusivity and diversity of nature based ingredients in our skin care. She is still 100% self-funded and her product is available DTC and is featured in preeminent clean beauty retailer, Credo.
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Pearl Izumi had dominance in cycling apparel with over 50% market share in cycling shorts world-wide. They decided to jump into the highly competitive running shoe business, a category they had zero brand awareness in. They had launched the shoe line two years prior with major cycling stars and big media buys. Despite the push their efforts flopped.
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I approached the challenge as if it had never launched, aided by the fact that no one in the running industry had cared the first time.
My efforts were complicated by a recent rebrand that scrapped 30 years of brand equity in black, where the new head of marketing switched all brand standards to white. Further, we were instructed that we had to tell a “features forward story using little to no copy.” Undaunted I created the “shadow campaign”.
I told my client to begin production of more product prior to launch, convinced of the campaign’s coming success. The client laughed at this suggestion. Within 6 months of the campaign launch, combined with in-store retail support tactics, all products were sold out across all SKU’s in the running line.
The client was actually angry that they didn’t have product on hand to fulfill the flood of new orders coming in. This campaign won many design awards and was featured in Best of U.S. Ad Review, Adweek and Brandweek. It proved so popular that due to the demand from retailers and consumers we printed posters from the campaign for distribution, a first for the company.
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This was one of the stranger requests I’ve had for a campaign strategy from a client. Progressive Insurance is prohibitively expensive for customers under 25. However they wanted a robust print and broadcast campaign aimed at teens. The hope was that they could plant the seed of brand loyalty so that when they were of age (in 10+ years) they would remember Progressive Insurance for “getting them”.
How do you sell a product to a group of people that you really don’t want to buy your product…yet?
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Another famous creative team labored over this brief for months and emerged empty-handed. When I came on board I had to hit it out of the park and do the “impossible”.
I thought if the objective is to be memorable but make sure that the audience can’t buy the product, could I make something entirely new to “not sell them”?
I created a series of fantasy insurance policies for the things kids actually care about: Boredom Insurance, Lame Date Insurance, Player Hater Insurance, Social Disaster Insurance, Yearbook Photo Insurance, etc.
Along with the concepts I also wrote policies that had humorous language where teens could choose a policy to download and be issued an insurance card for that coverage. It was a free feature for anyone to sign up. The centerpiece of the campaign was a robust digital presence and website where teens could go through the motions of choosing a policy, one of the first true digital campaigns that Progressive Insurance launched.
The campaign was an immense success and to this day I meet Millenials who fondly remember this campaign of their youth.