Giving Moms One Less Decision to Make with Alden’s Organic Ice Cream

AGENCY: For Good and Company
CLIENT: Alden’s Organic Ice Cream
ROLE: Director of Strategy and Communications

Alden’s Organic Ice Cream—the number one organic ice cream brand in the US knew moms were their number one customer, but how to connect to them? Can a brand connect to the maternal experience, and help moms choose organic in the freezer aisle?

We dug into consumer research, and our own experience as moms, to uncover how moms were navigating post-pandemic parenthood:

Millennial Moms? They be tired.

America is in a childcare crisis and 18% of moms left the workforce or changed jobs in the past year, the main reasons cited were to stay at home with the children, or a lack of childcare. 49% of moms are feeling burned out by motherhood. The mental load of parenting still falls on mothers, 58% of moms report they are primarily responsible for the duties of running a household—62% are responsible for meal planning and preparation, this is up 7% over 2022. The majority of moms (62%) still report getting less than an hour to themselves each day. If they had that uninterrupted hour, moms have a long wish list of how they would spend it. Coming in at the top are taking a nap (55%) or watching a show (54%). A study from Channel Mum found that 93% of moms haven’t seen an ad that accurately represented their parenting experience. Brands need to leave behind the ‘perfect mom’ stereotype and consider what mothering experiences have been left out of traditional advertising.

What’s more, moms are overwhelmed and decision fatigued: The average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day, 226.7 of those are about food alone—when you’re a parent, this doubles. A lot of thinking. (Sources: Motherly: State of Motherhood 2023, WGSN Millennial Mums, Parenting Through Burnout.)

So how could Alden’s meet moms where they were at? Overthinking and not sleeping.

Our Strategic Position:

Don’t Give it a Second Thought

When moms choose Alden’s Organic, they can be in the moment. They don’t have to think about whether it’s the best choice for their family or themselves. We’ve taken care of that.

Just enjoy the moment (or five).

From here we ran with both a campaign for the launch of Alden’s Organic new frozen dessert bars made with greek yogurt and an always on social media content approach that spoke to the mom experience. Social focused on easy, better-for-you snacking and some share-able and relatable levity to maximize Instagram audience DM-sharing behavior.

 

 

 

Uniting 32 Cities to Make Launch History for adidas

AGENCY: For Good and Company
CLIENT: adidas Hockey
ROLE: Director of Strategy and Communications

In 2022, adidas decided to double down on the NHL Reverse Retro program and partnered with us to outdo the success from the year one launch.

Knowing that hockey’s rise was coming from those that don’t consider themselves fans, we honed in on the intersection of sports and fashion to transcend traditional hockey culture by focusing on the magnetic pride that binds teams, fans and hometowns together.

By orchestrating a cohesive release between 32 teams throughout 32 cities with over 200 pieces of hyper-localized content, our Reverse Retro sequel took over the noise and, again, became the most talked about jersey launch of all time.

#1 Trending Hashtag on Twitter in Canada and #2 in the U.S.
11.8M Reach
3.1M Interactions
50K Mentions

Launching an Adventurous Brand in a Rebellious Way

AGENCY: For Good and Company
CLIENT: Easy Rider Whisky (Hood River Distillery)
ROLE: Director of Strategy and Communications

Easy Rider whiskey was relaunching, and we were tasked with finding a launch approach for social to engage their core audience. Bikers.

A dig into existing sales data saw the highest volume of sales was happening at destination bars. The last stop on a road trip. This aligned with what we knew about moto culture, but what we also knew—the moto crowd doesn’t like being advertised to. They are experience-seekers swayed by word of mouth, not marketing. Our brand launch strategy stemmed directly from that insight.

To authentically build culture and community for Easy Rider, we turned over the keys to the riders themselves.

Partnering with creators within the moto world, we let them bring the brand to their people, turning Easy Rider into a rallying cry and a staple for every adventure.

Modifying Misconceptions to Boost Social and Environmental Impact

AGENCY: For Good and Company
CLIENT: Oregon Electric Vehicle Coalition (Portland General Electric main stakeholder)
ROLE: Director of Strategy and Communications

 

The Oregon Electric Vehicle Coalition realized people in underserved communities were hesitant to consider buying electric vehicles (EVs) and wanted to create an accessible path to EV ownership in these underserved communities. Initial research made it clear that there were a lot of firmly held misconceptions surrounding EV ownership in these communities—ultimately preventing that path to ownership.

 

We then initiated deep research in the form of focus groups, polling, and surveys to to uncover what those misconceptions were, what would motivate people in these communities to choose electric, and what real EV owners in these communities felt about their vehicles.

 

We used this first-party research to inform messaging for the campaign, allowing us to pair authentic perspectives with “real people” imagery to myth-bust main concerns such as cost and reliability.

This campaign authentically and accurately addressed the benefits of choosing electric led to a 35% increase of electric vehicle rebates in Oregon in our target communities.

Meeting New-to-Craft-Drinkers Where They Play

AGENCY: CMD
CLIENT: Deschutes
ROLE: Social and PR Director

In my second opportunity to work with Deschutes Brewery, CMD supported the launch of a new pilsner that targeting an audience that didn’t usually go for craft beers. In order to connect with the, typically White-Claw-drinking-crowd, we needed to speak directly to the new-to-craft drinker – and we mean directly.

Our mascot? The Pairit Parrot, an anthropomorphic parrot who celebrated the pairing of DaShootz with just about anything.
          

Using search and social data we identified trending micro-communities and activities within this set, and created content for them – using interest targeting within paid social to deliver custom ads to unique audiences. Similar messaging combined with custom landing pages supported the paid search campaign and outdoor advertising was placed with custom messages for custom geos.


The integrated campaign lived across social, paid search, digital and included a PR and influencer component. In the PR and influencer component, we took our targeted approach a step further, targeting individual top tier writers and influencers with a media kit featuring a video player with their own video, customized to their own interests as well as a gift, from a custom ping pong paddle (leading to this article) to a personalized oyster shucker to cat toys.

The kit also included a custom lego kit, complete with tiny DaShootz can, stickers, and, of course, a six-pack.

The Results:

  • In two months, the paid social campaign reached 2.2 million new-to-craft drinkers.
  • The organic campaign had a reach of 1 million—a 130% increase over previous campaign periods.
  • The influencer and media kits: achieved combined 24.5 million earned media impressions.

Getting Outdoors with Deschutes

AGENCY: R\West
CLIENT: Deschutes
ROLE: Director of Social Media

The outdoors, made better. When Deschutes finally launched in cans we wanted to celebrate in a way that spoke the language of the internet. Leaning into meme culture we created this series of animated gifs in which the outdoors gets that bit better, thanks to Deschutes in cans.

The series celebrated the absurdity of the internet, and in turn, was celebrated by the internet:

 

While these posts leaned into the absurd, we additionally wanted to celebrate Deschutes in the outdoors in a more traditional way. We created an array of original Deschutes patches featuring “The Great Outdoors” X “Deschutes in Cans”. We attached these patches to a variety of outdoor essentials and headed into the “The Great Outdoors” for a photo shoot on the Oregon and Washington coast.

 

Launching UNIQLO in Los Angeles

AGENCY: Stylesmith
CLIENT: UNIQLO
ROLE: Creative Director and Producer

The UNIQLO Los Angeles short film series was ideated by the Stylesmith team to launch UNIQLO in Los Angeles. The goal was to highlight real Angeleno’s living their lives in the City of Los Angeles whilst showcasing UNIQLO throughout the city.

It was Stylesmith’s first work with UNIQLO and later lead to the AOR contract through 2015-16.

Empowering Small Business with Mary Kay

AGENCY: McBeard
CLIENT: Mary Kay US
ROLE: Account and Creative Director

OBJECTIVE

Since 1963, Mary Kay cosmetics has helped enrich women’s lives. Mary Kay product is exclusively sold through its direct-selling model of Independent Beauty Consultants (IBCs) across the United States. The company’s rich direct-selling legacy is a testament to Mary Kay Ash’s commitment to giving each customer a truly personal experience around beauty and, most importantly, making her feel important.

In August 2016, Mary Kay launched a month-long, multi-platform digital campaign to “Market the Opportunity” (MTO), designed to highlight the opportunity of owning your own Mary Kay business as an IBC under the theme, “With Mary Kay, I Can…”

The goal of the “I Can” campaign was to elevate awareness around the Mary Kay opportunity on social, and specifically to increase new visits to MaryKay.com — the first step in signing up to become a new IBC.

A complementary goal of the “I Can” campaign was to reach new audiences on social with a fresh voice, all while staying true to Mary Kay Ash’s vision of a deeply personal experience with the brand. The result was a custom campaign that brought the excitement, confidence, positivity and unique experience of Mary Kay IBCs to life through a combination of social creative.

STRATEGY

Mary Kay IBCs are diverse, independent and strong business owners who pursue their dreams all while supporting themselves and their families. Through the “I Can” campaign, we shared their compelling true stories to attract potential IBCs.

We photographed and recorded the personal stories of over 550 Mary Kay IBCs, starting with the prompt, “With Mary Kay, I Can”. Responses ranged from “I can be a role model for my daughter” to “I can help enrich other women’s lives.”

Each individual portrait was hand-selected and designed to live on Mary Kay’s official brand channels. Since Mary Kay has a diverse fan base, it was vital the “I Can” campaign resonate with many different audiences, while communicating clear next steps to those interested in learning more.

The campaign resulted in 100-plus unique pieces of social content, reaching targeted audiences across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube and MaryKay.com. Paid media targeted specific audiences, including fans of Mary Kay, moms, college students, nurses, teachers, other direct-sellers, cosmetics fans and Spanish-speaking cosmetics fans.

The energy of the campaign was captured in a 30-second, made-for-social hero video featuring behind-the-scenes footage from our IBC photoshoots. The video was edited for native posting on all social platforms and later cut into a dynamic TV spot that ran during Lifetime’s “Project Runway,” a TV show for which Mary Kay was the official beauty sponsor.

Throughout the primary campaign window of September 2016, content was optimized per platform to best resonate with that audience. Specifically:

  • On Instagram, the campaign launched with a grid of nine stylized black-and-white IBC portraits paired with long-form post copy of IBC success stories.
  • On Facebook, a series of IBC portraits paired with their success stories was posted as an organic album, as well as dark targeted ad units.
  • Twitter featured #30Facesin30Days, highlighting one IBC a day for 30 consecutive days by sharing their “I Can” portrait paired with a quote from their Mary Kay story.
  • A new Pinterest board featured SEO-optimized pins with IBC stories, FAQs about starting Mary Kay business, as well as unique, motivational quotes from IBCs including, “Ask for the ridiculous so that you can expect the miraculous.”
  • We brought the “I Can” campaign to Tumblr — a first for Mary Kay — to reach a younger demographic of beauty enthusiasts with inspirational “I Can”-themed graphics, GIFs and portraits.
  • Two videos on YouTube featured behind-the-scenes look at our IBC photoshoots, as well as close-ups of IBCs paired with visuals of their “I Can” statements.

Additionally, two social initiatives gave all IBCs and Mary Kay fans the opportunity to join the “I Can…” campaign:

  • A custom filter on Twibbon.com allowed users to add an “I Can” graphic to their Facebook and Twitter profile pictures and photos.
  • Strong calls-to-action encouraged fans to share their personal success stories using #MyMKLife, resulting in a range of UGC content that showcased the true diversity of Mary Kay.

RESULTS

Mary Kay’s “I Can” campaign was a true omni-channel execution, reaching women and men across social media, outdoor advertising, digital display, television and print.

On social, custom paid and organic content spoke to potential IBCs across six platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and YouTube — resulting in 43.9 million impressions and 1.2 million engagements. Campaign-specific video content was viewed over 943,000 times across all social platforms.

The official campaign hashtag, #MyMKLife, was used over 25,000 times across Instagram and Twitter during the campaign window, most often accompanying UGC photos from fans featuring a look into their life as an IBC.

The personalizable “I Can” photo filter on Twibbon had over 50,000 organic custom photo downloads.

The social media campaign inspired content off-line, resulting in a truly “social-first” advertising campaign.

  • In Times Square, five custom digital billboards cycled through a grid featuring every single one of the 550 portraits, generating countless impressions.
  • Mary Kay took advantage of their “Project Runway” Season 15 official beauty sponsorship by featuring a TV spot of the hero social video during the Mary Kay Challenge episode.

In total, the social media campaign drove 219,431 direct clicks to MaryKay.com/ICan, the official hub of the campaign where IBC portraits and stories were showcased along with additional information about next steps. Over 21,713 new IBC sign-ups were generated as a result of the “I Can” campaign.

LINKS

Giving Back with UNIQLO Across Los Angeles

AGENCY: Stylesmith
CLIENT: UNIQLO
ROLE: Producer and Strategist

Thank You L.A was an experiential holiday event the Stylesmith team produced for UNIQLO. To say thank you to Los Angeles, for a successful run of openings in the local area, UNIQLO wanted to make Angeleno’s favourite things free for a day.

The Stylesmith team produced and facilitated the one day event which took place across the entire city, from the beach to downtown Los Angeles as well as activations in Orange County.

The activations included:

  • 1000 Free Entries to the L.A Zoo
  • Free ice skating at Pershing Square
  • Free Diddy Riese ice cream sandwiches all day long.
  • 1000 Free Short Order burgers.
  • 1000 Free Pacific Wheel rides in Santa Monica
  • Free spin classes at Soul Cycle

The Stylesmith team were responsible for:

  • Executing all partnerships
  • Facilitating the activations and placing street teams at each location
  • Activating influencers to promote the events
  • Securing local media (including Racked L.A., L.A. Times, Fox: Good Day L.A.)
  • Executing branding and promotional materials (through our partner Studio Fuse)
  • Producing social media content at each location and the “Warm Gesture” event with Pharrell Williams that launched the Thank You LA activation.

Every activation sold out before 5pm, many within one hour. The event reached over 10,000 people in person and over 1 million via social media. 

 

Looptworks Luv Seat

AGENCY: Stylesmith
CLIENT: Looptworks
ROLE: Strategist and Media Relations

A national press campaign to launch the LUV Seat Collection in collaboration with Southwest Airlines.

“From the period of August, 2014 – June, 2015, Looptworks engaged Stylesmith to handle all of our Social Media responsibilities and Public Relations. The primary reason for the engagement was to create a social media strategy that was consistent with our brand position and to put a creative, fun and engaging spin on it to not only engage our current audience, but grow it as well. Stylesmith demonstrated an excellent ability to match our brand voice and expand upon the brand personality we had prior to their work.

During this time, we had several strategic partnerships going simultaneously. This required coordination with large marketing, PR and social media teams from several Fortune 100 companies. Stylesmith handled all the communication externally and internally and was adept at organizing the efforts for all teams. The results were very successful campaigns. We garnered more than 300 million media impressions as a result of these campaigns and introduced our brand to a national and international audience.

I would highly recommend Stylesmith for their creative approach that maintains an on brand approach while engaging their audience in a unique way.”

– Scott Hamlin, Co-Founder, Looptworks.

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