In 2019, Pandora gave its app a total refresh, debuting brand-new features to personalize your streaming experience. Our in-house creative team was tasked with showing the world that the OG music streaming service was back. So we went bigger and bolder than we had in years with a $20M integrated campaign that combined humor with attitude and a healthy dose of self-awareness.

We produced three tv spots that showed how Pandora can transform even the most mundane moments with the perfect track.

The campaign generated a significant lift in monthly active users, new registered users (6%), and recaptures (5%). It also boosted Brand Affinity among surveyed participants by 6 points and Recommendation intent by 7 points.

Media

OOH, TV, Experiential, Audio, Influencer, Social, Digital, Street murals

Team

Pep Pepper, Creative Director

Madison Kahn, Senior Copywriter

Melissa Hicks, Senior Designer

Apple is committed to cleaning up its act. By 2030, every single Apple product will be carbon neutral. And we’re not just talking about what goes into Apple products, but also how they’re made, designed, shipped, used, and recycled. It’s a big ask. But Apple is a big company and it’s up to the task.

As a senior writer embedded on Apple’s Interactive team (via Kettle), I worked with Creative Directors, designers, and cross-functional teams to breathe life into the company’s environmental commitment. We spent weeks pouring over the 100-page Environmental report so that we could distill Apple’s massive impact into one simple, beautiful web page. Each card represents a different environmental initiative, with a clever headline enticing the reader to click through and learn more.

To interact with the site further, visit here.

Money management shouldn’t be boring. Or muted. Or minimal. Because money isn’t any of those things. Then why do all fintechs look and sound the same? When my team at Varo was tasked with rebranding the money app, we ran in the opposite direction. Bright. Bold. Bombastic. With eye-catching visuals and personality-driven words that would be hard for anyone to forget.

I joined Varo to help lead the company’s rebrand alongside the CD of design. We worked closely with The New Company to create a provocative new design system that reclaims traditional symbols of banking, challenges the status quo, and captures the spirit of an audience looking for something different.

As copy lead, I owned the development and stewardship of Varo’s new tone of voice. I crafted new voice guidelines, worked with our strategist to refresh brand positioning, created a new product messaging framework, and built a new brand book.

I was also in charge of implementing the new voice and brand across all marketing channels. This included a complete web and email refresh. I led the team of copywriters and designers responsible for this refresh, and in six months, we completely reworked the Varo website (~33 pages) and every single email (200+). As all things creative do, this took a lot of upfront research and strategy work, from UX wireframing to content hierarchies, and, of course, partnering with marketing leads to ensure business goals were addressed.

The impact of the redesign? The website saw a 68% growth in website-to-signup clickthrough rate in just one month and a 123% increase in approved accounts. Translation: We were winning more, higher-quality customers. We also had the best traffic week in the history of Varo.

What about email? The Welcome series refresh resulted in a 24% increase in click-through rate and a 21% increase in customer deposits. That means more people were using our product the way it’s supposed to be used. #win

At Varo, I also worked on smaller digital campaigns, and crafted copy for daily marketing needs across channels and mediums (video, social, DR ads, etc).

Our Next Energy (ONE) is reinventing the battery with safer, more sustainable chemistries. A crucial step in accelerating the nation’s energy transition.

At ONE, I partnered with the ECD to build out the B2B company’s first creative department. Our team was tiny and scrappy and we essentially doubled as ONE’s B2B marketing function.

Starting with the brand foundations, we updated the brand guidelines, refreshed the tone of voice, and developed new positioning and messaging frameworks for ONE’s products. We launched all of ONE’s digital channels—from social to email to web. We designed tradeshow booths unlike anything else. We built thought leadership campaigns. And we created a ton of videos. For investors, automakers, policymakers, and the public. We were told on more than one occasion that our creative won the company millions of dollars in business.

One of my main tasks at ONE was developing the brand’s thought leadership content. The highlight: a YouTube series with Popular Science that gave consumers a lesson on electrification.

We were in the process of redoing the company’s website when funding ran out and our entire team was laid off.

During the pandemic, when everyone was getting into at-home fitness, Apple launched its own platform, Fitness+. A way for anyone and everyone to work out on their terms.

As a senior writer on the Apple Fitness+ interactive team, I helped build the brand across digital channels (email, social, web). Within a matter of weeks, numbers shot up and we acquired tens of thousands of new users.

Education is in Apple’s DNA. For more than 40 years, Apple has built products that support students, institutions, and learning around the globe. So when Covid-19 turned our entire education system upside down, I helped Apple create a new Education hub to meet this new normal.

As the copy lead on this project, I worked closely with my art director partner to architect the site structure and craft compelling copy for both students and higher education institutions. Apple’s Education team was our client and we worked closely with them to get the right messaging and direction for the precarious point in time.

To interact with the site, visit here.

I partnered with Designsake Studio to rebrand CRUDE’s clean skincare line. We gave the brand identity and packaging a refresh and repositioned CRUDE as a pioneer in microbiome skin care.

For the relaunch, we ideated a campaign centered around the tagline ‘Unf*ck Your Flora’. This tagline speaks to what’s at the heart of CRUDE’s mission: to unf*ck your flora, your routine, your notion of ‘clean’, the beauty industry, the powers that be, the status quo, the planet we call home.

We saw an opportunity to educate customers about the 'dirt on soap' and why we can no longer turn a blind eye to our flora. So we created SOUL, the blog portion of Crude's website, which tackles everything from skin disease and the beauty industry’s ugly side to environmental justice and community care. Free your mind and feed your SOUL at The School of UnLearning.

While WiFi might just be one of the greatest inventions of the century, the fact that people are stuck with overpriced and underwhelming service makes it pretty broken. Enter: Starry. A simpler, smarter solution that’s actually affordable and—get this—surprisingly helpful.

I partnered with Starry to help their nimble creative team brand, message, and market a ground-breaking new router: Starry Gravity. As the creative lead/copywriter on the project, I developed a fresh voice for the router, named it, crafted the positioning strategy, and worked with Art Directors to bring the new router to life on their digital channels.

Media

Digital, Social

Role

Creative lead, copywriter

In 2016, I teamed up with friends to make a magazine called Anxy. It was a beautifully designed magazine about our inner worlds. The ones we often refuse to share, the personal struggles, the fears that fool us into believing that the rest of the world is normal and we’re not.

Each issue used a central theme—“loneliness” or “boundaries”—to build an original, insightful, and creative perspective through interviews with folks we admire, personal essays, reported features, visual stories, and recommendations for what to read, watch and download to round out the conversation.

After four issues and a handful of magazine awards, we decided to close Anxy. It was a hard decision, but it was even harder to make the magazine sustainable. Maybe one day Anxy will live again. Until then, check it out here.

I partnered with production house Near Future on two short explainers for Modern Treasury.

The ask: distill Modern Treasury’s extraordinarily complex offering into something anyone — and specifically any Finance Operations lead — could understand.

We took two different approaches. First, we simplified MT’s complicated business into an easily digestible visual explainer. Then we addressed the target market’s pain points with a live-action spot that showed the viewer what MT could do for their finances.

I worked with the production house Near Future on a few videos for Upgrade.

The ask: Communicate the Upgrade card’s core benefits while addressing the audience’s main pain point (debt). And do it in a fun, lighthearted, low-budget way.

Role

ACD writer

Comulate is one of those payment operations companies that makes you go, whaaaa? It's that complicated. They needed a video to simplify things. To show their customer how their magical software could transform the revenue process with automation. And that is exactly what we delivered. I wrote a script that spotlighted the customer's pain points and demonstrated just how life-changing Comulate could be for business. It’s now featured on their homepage.

https://www.comulate.com/

In late 2020, as the country was reckoning with centuries of systemic racism, Apple launched a $100 million fund to help dismantle barriers to opportunity and combat injustices faced by communities of color. These efforts included a new global innovation and learning hub for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); an Apple Developer Academy to support coding and tech education for students in Detroit; and venture capital funding for Black and Brown entrepreneurs.

As a Senior Writer embedded on Apple’s interactive team (via Kettle), I worked with the REJI Initiative team to spotlight their important efforts in a new website. The creative goal? Feel less like a corporate site and more like a place for the people REJI serves. So we put the people and their stories front and center. Our team traveled across the country to interview a handful of the changemakers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders REJI supports. Check out their stories further here.

When the world changes, business changes too. Apple hardware, software, and services work together to give businesses the power and flexibility to do whatever needs doing — wherever that may be.

After the pandemic hit in 2020, Apple revamped their business site to accommodate the new pressing needs of the business sector. Of all Apple’s products, Mac offered something unique to businesses in this hybrid environment. So we built a new digital campaign for the world’s favorite computer. It took the form of a listicle and called on Apple’s old favorite “Mac” vs. “PC” tv spot.

The best technology works for everyone. That’s why Apple products and services are inclusive by design, with built-in accessibility features to help you connect, create, and do what you love — in the ways that work best for you. Whether you need text dictated, a visual explained, or dark mode to see better, Apple has introduced a range of features to make Apple products work the way you do. Whatever that looks like.

As a senior writer on Apple’s Interactive team (via Kettle), I worked with art directors, designers, UX strategists, and cross-functional marketing leads to showcase the company’s commitment to accessibility.

We took Apple’s accessibility handbook (a 100+ page document detailing all of Apple’s amazing accessible features) and distilled the information into bite-size cards. I worked with UX leads to wireframe the new website experience and partnered with art directors to bring each feature to life.

I partnered with ATTN: to launch Mattel’s Barbie on TikTok. Working closely with the production team and CD, I concepted and wrote scripts for a handful of short, viral videos featuring Barbie. In a few short weeks, we grew Barbie’s following to 160K — and counting.

I worked with the production house Near Future to develop a series of 30-second spots for Prose.

The Challenge: Prose only had TV spots about their brand. Now, they wanted to lean into their products. Without losing the creativity.

The Solution: A fun, fast-paced, DR spot that mixes real people with playful dialogue to show off what Prose products can do for your hair.

In the fall of 2018, Pandora debuted a new tagline: Life is better with Sound On. To launch this brand story, we narrowed in on the holiday season — more specifically, the universal struggle that is holiday travel.

We plastered airports, train stations, and bus shelters with clever messaging that met people where they were at — in traffic, delayed, stuck, and generally struggling — and offered the one thing they needed the most: an escape. We asked people to tune out the crowds and turn up their favorite songs, podcasts, and playlists on Pandora.

The campaign generated 67 million incremental listening hours.

Media
Out-of-Home, Social, Geo-Targeted Digital, Influencers

Role
Lead copywriter

Music is the ultimate motivator. It wakes us up. Gets us moving. Elevates any moment we’re in. Pandora’s spring 2019 campaign invited people to find the music that fuels them—the music that lets them live life at full volume.

The campaign yielded across-the-board improvements in brand attributes: relevance grew 15 percentage points, trust increased 9 points, and favorability rose 5 points.

Media
AVOD/OTT, Social, Digital, Out-of-Home, Audio, Influencer, Street Murals

Role
Lead copywriter

Light was an optics technology startup. When I joined in 2017, Light was trying to revolutionize photography with its proprietary 16-lens camera. As the brand’s Copy and Content Lead, I gave the brand a new voice and tone, spearheaded a complete web refresh, developed the brand’s social and CRM strategy, led all content marketing and blog efforts, and even made a tv spot.

Since I left, Light was bought by an autonomous vehicle company.

I was the editor of GOOD magazine’s Chase-sponsored Money vertical in 2017. This section of the publication takes a look at our human relationship with money: how we spend it, save it, dream about it, blow it, earn it, and think about it every damn day. Below, you’ll find a small selection of stories I edited during my time with GOOD.

Medium launched its own general-interest magazine in 2014. It was a grand publishing experiment. Our goal was to push the boundaries of modern journalism and create a new kind of publication on Medium’s blogging platform. We had the creative freedom (and money) most publications dream about. And we used it well. We won an ASME. One of our stories was nominated for a Pulitzer. We acquired thousands of new readers. And we proved that magazines didn’t have to look and feel and sound like traditional magazines anymore. We showed the world that a magazine could exist solely on and for the internet.

But unfortunately, after a few years, Medium decided to shutter its award-winning experiment. I was lucky enough to be one of Matter’s founding members, working as Managing Editor and later Senior Editor. Here is a small collection of stories I worked on.

I helped the Apple Podcasts team build out a hub for content creators. We created a range of podcasting resources, including tips, support, and guides to help new podcasters grow.

As part of this project, I interviewed different podcast creators about how they built their businesses. We called the series, “Creator Conversations.” Click to read the in-depth articles.

As a consultant, I devised a new strategy for Patreon’s blog. In the process, I wrote several different profiles of patrons and creators. Here are a few.

As a contractor at GitHub, I wrote a number of case studies for the company’s B2B blog. You’ll find a selection of those customer stories below.

I worked as a writer and researcher at Outside magazine. I fact-checked features, pitched and wrote timely stories for the magazine's Front-Of-Book and website, and filmed and edited short online videos. This is a small selection of my work.

A Matter Series

I was curious what it was like to be a teenager in America. So I asked a class of Bay Area seniors to show me their lives, on their own terms, using the mediums they know best: snapchat, tumblr, instagram, Spotify, and of course, words. Together we made a mini-magazine about what it was like to be 18 at that moment—at the end of Obama’s presidency, at a time when San Francisco was struggling under the weight of the housing crisis, at a moment of transition, for them, their city, and their county. The result was a raw, raucous, and very real portrait of a Bay Area teen today.

At Boston magazine, I managed a team of 15 staff editors, writers, and fact-checkers, and ran the production of our monthly and ancillary magazines. I wrote features and stories for the front-of-book and edited service packages for print and online. To read more of my work, go here.