A brand could say and do an infinite number of things. But what should it say? What should it do?
CASE STUDIES
BRAND TRANSFORMATION, from value prop to product marketing to ads
Category: Home technology – Consumer, B2B, B2B2C
Challenge and objective: My client, a leading innovator in home technology, faced aggressive competition, multiple new audiences (B2C, B2B, B2B2C), and category commoditization. It needed a breakthrough positioning in keeping with its reputation among experts as the best of the best. And it needed a scalable implementation toolkit.
Vision: If successful, this company could become the most desirable brand in its category for everyone from consumers to Fortune 500 business partners in the U.S. and beyond.
Audiences: U.S. consumers (+ gamer segment), SMB, commercial property owners, Fortune 500 telecom carriers.
My role: Find a breakthrough positioning, implement organization-wide adoption, and extend the work across communications, segments, and channels.
Key collaborators: President/CMO, VP Marketing, Product Marketing Lead, Paid Media Marketing Lead, software and hardware engineering leads, digital lead, channel owners, product owners, segment owners, creative team. In-depth interviews with 40+ employees including CEO, founders, and executive leadership.
Delivered: Origin story, brand strategy, brand positioning, value proposition short/long, pillars, messaging/product proof points tailored to five audiences. Brand tone and personality. Competitive analysis, quantitative analysis. Qualitative research – moderation and findings report. Creative/brand guidelines. Corporate identity creative brief. Feature brand strategy, brand campaign creative brief, gamer creative brief and sample scripts. Team training.
Best part: Making it easy to rapidly scale brand and business success.
Catalyzing executive behavior change through CONTENT
Category: B2B SaaS / Brand values
Challenge and objective: My employer had launched a high-stakes brand campaign starring an A-list actor as Phase 1. Phase 2 was designed to take the campaign from awareness to engagement, catalyzing broader and deeper adoption of ESG policies in the business world.
Vision: If successful, this work could establish stakeholder capitalism – in which employees, communities, and the environment are equal to investors in business decisions – as the norm.
Audience: VP+ change agents within companies globally
My role: Envision, create. and implement a rich, multi-channel content strategy to intrigue, educate, and catalyze ESG policy adoption globally.
Key collaborators: internal ESG senior leaders, data visualization, social and creative strategy, partner success managers, customer partners, content program leads, writers and designers.
Delivered: 10 major elements of brand-true Content interconnected across platforms. Key assets: Website including data visualization of change possible through ESG adoption, online training, LinkedIn community, YouTube films, customizable slide deck execs could use within their companies to show how ESG could boost business, blog, and customer case studies.
Best part: Creating a fresh and actionable program in a space awash in information overload.
Finding a compelling human insight to drive B2B DEMAND GENERATION
Category: B2B SaaS / manufacturing
Challenge and objective: The inherently conservative manufacturing sector, traditionally a late tech adopter, was a challenging vertical for my employer, a San Francisco innovator. Our creative campaign needed to make inroads with this skeptical audience.
Vision: If successful, this campaign could overcome industry’s inherent aversion to new technology by speaking to unmet needs they didn’t even know they had.
Audiences: Manufacturing tech purchasers and influencers in the U.S.
My role: Find an insight so compelling that it would open up an aversive audience to a new idea.
Key collaborators: Industry marketing and sales leads
Delivered: Creative strategy and creative oversight for a multichannel demand generation campaign (web page, emails, ABM, etc.)
Best part: Proving that a deeply resonant human insight can inspire great storytelling in any category.
Jiujitsuing EXTREME CONSTRAINTS into better creative
Category: Home technology / Gaming
Challenge and objective: My client had just three weeks to develop an ad selling its new Wifi system to gamers on Twitch. Twitch was a new channel for a brand that was more DWR than COD – only 55% of gamers had heard of us. The initial plan was to splice footage from a product video with five seconds of archival gamer footage. But the two videos had completely different vibes that would have made it tough to create something that felt authentic.
Vision: If we could make an ad that felt true to gamers, we could make inroads with a potentially lucrative audience that already had long-standing relationships with rival device makers.
Audience: Gamers who spend heavily on personal technology
My role: To bridge the culture gap, I recommended using stills of gamer footage with a humorous voiceover to create a rough UGC/TikTok-ish ad that would feel authentic to gamers. I also developed a meme-able hashtag and sonic logo for memorability.
Key collaborators: CMO, media director, media strategist, external creative agencies (ATL and BTL).
Delivered: Creative brief including culture and audience analysis, proof-of-concept script and design, channel strategy with messaging matrix, CTAs, and KPIs.
Best part: Making something that was probably better than if we’d had more time and money.
INSPIRING ACTION by the world's largest corporations
Category: B2B SaaS + Professional services
Challenge and objective: My employer was launching a sustainability-related partnership with a prominent professional services firm at Davos. Business leaders accepted that change was inevitable, but felt overwhelmed by looming ESG requirements. Our creative team was tasked with making a film to inspire executives to take action.
Vision: Create momentum for global ESG adoption, with our partnership as the solution
Audience: C-suite and other executives at the world’s largest companies.
My role: Creative strategy, copywriting, creative guidance.
Key collaborators: Executive creative director, client executive marketers.
Delivered: Creative brief, script, film
Best part: The interconnected world is a powerful metaphor for the partnership – working together to solve seemingly intractable challenges.
RELAUNCHING A TARNISHED BRAND to a fresh audience
Category: Consumer financial services / Insurance
Challenge and objective: My client had fast success as the insurer of last resort for people with poor driving records, generating demand with late-night ads starring a sexy female cartoon character. But sales hit a wall and costs were high due to its accident-prone target. The client needed a brand overhaul to build credibility with mainstream consumers who saw it as “cartoon insurance.”
Vision: When presented with an unbranded version of the company, the audience loved the ways in which it addressed common insurance frustrations. The right storytelling could build trust, drive demand, and position the company, a startup, for a successful exit.
Audience: Middle and upper-middle class Gen X and Millennials
My role: Lead brand strategy and creative strategy development and research; identify essential brand truths to extend to the new brand; run generative workshops and creative concept testing.
Key collaborators: Agency leaders; creative leads and teams; heads of client marketing, media, and product.
Delivered: National brand campaign, brand strategy, corporate brand (logo, colors, fonts, guidelines).
Best part: Giving our client the image and success it deserved and positioning it for a successful acquisition two years later.
DRIVING ADOPTION of a new category
Category: Employer-sponsored mental health care
Challenge and objective: My client, a startup in the employer-sponsored mental health space, had invented a new service – mental health coaching. Coaching was the right fit for many people, but employees weren’t choosing it because they didn’t understand it. My agency’s job was to familiarize them with its benefits, as distinct from psychotherapy and other types of coaching.
Vision: Persuading employees to embrace coaching would yield quicker results for them and lower costs for employers.
Audience: Employees at the Silicon Valley companies that were the early adopters of mental health coaching.
My role: Inspire a strategic creative idea to demystify mental health coaching in the physical and online work space.
Key collaborators: Head of marketing, agency writers and designers, product developers and marketers coaches, customers (HR).
Delivered: Creative brief -> multi-channel creative campaign including workplace installations, posters, web page and HR communications.
Best part: An inspired creative campaign that paid off the strategy through a highly engaging game experience.
Defining a NEW GENERATION of car buyers
Category: Automotive
Challenge and objective: My client’s brand had been introduced in the edgy ‘90s, selling customizable cars to creative Gen X young adults. But the business model of customization wasn’t sustainable and Gen X grew up. The client asked my agency to redefine the brand and create broad appeal among twentysomething Millennials.
Vision: Given the dearth of reputable, inexpensive car brands for young adults, our work could make our client the #1 choice among first-time car buyers – and prime them to buy a lifetime of cars from the parent brand.
Audience: Newly independent young adults buying their first car.
My role: Deeply understand the appeal of our products and brand among the rising cohort of young adults. Find the through-line that could authentically pass our brand from Gen X to Millennials. Extend the idea to a brand relaunch including the launch of two high-stakes new models.
Key collaborators: Agency creative and account leads. Client marketing, media, and product leads in the U.S. and overseas, research staff, and trend watchers.
Delivered: Comprehensive brand/product repositioning creative brief, audience insights, and messaging, inclusive of new and existing models, national advertising campaign.
Best part: Helping connect young people with a lifestyle-defining purchase that could elevate their enjoyment of life.
EXPERIENCE DESIGN that brings corporate values to life
Category: B2B corporate values
Challenge and objective: To add an experiential facet to its global marketing campaign, my employer wanted to bring its brand values to life for visitors to its annual conference. Our creative team concepted and designed an exhibit with hands-on activities highlighting each of the five values.
Vision: Deepen event attendees’ understanding of the brand through fun and thought-provoking interactive activities
Audience: Customers and partners (bonus: four fun-loving Buddhist nuns)
My role: Working with creatives on messaging, content, flow, and overall experience design
Key collaborators: ECD, brand values VP, events organizers, creative team
Delivered: Exhibit, docent script, training, and docenting
Best part: Attendees’ appreciation for the chance to think deeply about their own corporate values