Writer / editor / founder
When Medium launched their revenue program in 2016, they needed to drive awareness and buzz around their new advertising product. As a lead Creative Strategist in the in-house creative agency, I developed and executed a native content marketing strategy targeted at marketers and advertising professionals on the platform.
Context is a publication dedicated to innovation in brand storytelling, publishing thought pieces from marketing leaders and advertising executives, as well as subtly marketing Medium's platform and paid products for brands. Essentially, it was designed to be content marketing about content marketing. I launched and ran the publication as its editor-in-chief, creating a content strategy to serve the partnerships team, commissioning original articles and artwork, and contributing my own pieces.
As a lead Creative Strategist in Medium's in-house creative agency, I developed a custom editorial series for Macy's that aligned with their cross-channel influencer campaign for holiday.
For holiday 2016, Macy's ran an inspirational brand campaign promoting belief in Santa Claus and the magic of Christmas. While other platforms focused on video, Medium delivered engaged time with long-form stories to the campaign. I commissioned seven original stories from our writers in our influencer network, including Virginia Heffernan and Emma Gannon, as well as accompanying artwork from Cecile Loup. I oversaw the art direction and production of the Santa Project publication, and managed the content roll out through to completion. Two stories from the campaign were organically selected as editors' picks by Medium's curation team.
As a lead Creative Strategist in Medium's in-house creative agency, I developed a custom editorial series for SoFi targeted at smart, high-earning millennials.
I creative-directed and managed the quarter-long engagement with SoFi, which consisted of a custom branded publication and twelve stories by journalists and influencers, aligning with SoFi's brand pillars. I partnered Medium's publishing partner The Billfold to produce the stories, while overseeing execution through to completion. Four stories in the campaign went viral, and we delivered a record-breaking volume of engaged reading time to the client.
As a lead Creative Strategist in Medium's in-house creative agency, I creative-directed and produced a custom editorial series for Bose to support a new product launch.
In June 2016, Bose launched two new models of noise-canceling headphones. To drive awareness and engagement with the brand, they engaged Medium to create an editorial series about how sound impacts your daily life. I creative-directed and produced seven stories by journalists, musicians, and influencers. To specifically highlight Bose's leadership in consumer technology, I sent a photographer and writer to the company's headquarters to create a behind-the-scenes brand story. This piece became one of our best-performing 'brand portraits.'
As a lead Creative Strategist in Medium's in-house creative agency, I worked with Google to produce a sponsored content event featuring Silicon Valley security executives.
Medium's creative team sourced a panel of Silicon Valley security executives, venture capitalists, and academics, and hired hacker-turned-journalist Kevin Poulsen to moderate the discussion. I editorially managed this content event through completion. The roundtable resulted in a high engagement on the platform and increased brand metrics for Google.
As The Liquor Cabinet prepared for its app launch, they needed to define their brand story and verbal identity. I collaborated with the company founders to define their brand positioning, create a style guide, and author marketing copy. I created all of their website and app store copy.
Kore, Inc. had developed a powerful product, but they needed a brand. In collaboration with the design lead and a creative agency, I shaped their brand strategy and brought it to life with a striking visual identity.
I scripted, creative-directed, and project-managed Kore's launch video, bringing their product story to life for a global audience.
As the Content & Brand lead at Scribd, I was responsible for developing an approachable consumer brand that would appeal to book readers and creating entry points to that brand through content.
When I joined, Scribd was reliant on third party data to organize their subscription book library, but this data was not effective in surfacing books customers wanted to read. I set a curation strategy and worked with the product team to improve the discovery experience. As the curation strategy began delivering higher engagement, I hired a lead curator and a team of contractors to scale the operation. Our editorial curation resulted in an 800% increase in engagement with top titles.
As part of the consumer rebrand, we needed to give the company blog a facelift. In collaboration with a designer, I developed a new visual identity and content strategy for the blog. To achieve greater scale the content program, I hired and managed a blog editor. Traffic to the blog and clickthroughs to Scribd's marketing site steadily increased month over month, and the blog became valuable real estate for co-marketing initiatives with partners.
As Scribd rapidly expanded and diversified its subscription library, I developed multi-channel marketing campaigns to launch new publishing partners, verticals, and foreign markets that reached 80MM customers in 100 countries, resulting in 750 UVMs and 400 articles in one year.
The "ReadMore" brand campaign, which was the creative thematic behind performance and content marketing, lowered CPAs by 79% and increased daily trials by 133%.
Scribd's audiobook launch, featuring The Hunger Games, yielded a 79% spike in new subscribers in one day.
