Brand Building Case Studies
Unlocking the power of community, culture, curiosity, media & tech for brand development & expansion
Community-Powered Growth | We Are Rosie
As CMO and early hire, I transformed bootstrapped “future of work” startup We Are Rosie from the ground up to industry darling & acquisition through community growth strategies.
Instead of leading with product marketing in a competitive space (talent matching), our bootstrapped growth strategy focused on values-based organic marketing and harnessing the power of the existing & growing community of changemakers and freelancers. The strategies employed centered designing strategies to focus on and grow the community through content, and eventually a system to hire community for thought leadership articles, data reports, and events. In the span of two years, the community grew from 2K to 10K, the brand gained mentions in major press inclusive of industry awards, YOY revenue increase of $10MM, and eventual acquisition. The brand was recognized in Inc’s Top 5000 Businesses in 2022 and AdAge’s 2020 Creative 100, and has been featured in Forbes, and Business Insider.
Contribution: Brand Positioning, Brand Story, Marketing Strategy, Business Growth Strategy, Community Growth Strategy, Community Design, Team Leadership
Curiosity-driven Transformation | Trade School
In 2021, senior leaders at independent agency Trade School followed their curiosity on the possibilities of web3 for their internal team, agency positioning, and client education. They needed thought partnership in this growth pursuit without taking away from day-to-day client work. We accomplished that & more:
The Lunch Money ERC20 token launched via a group of internal hand-raisers in 2022 to create an agency-first rewards program centered on interoperability and web3 thinking.
Contribution: Agency Future Positioning, Client Education, Growth Strategy, Operational Transformation, Executive Advisory, Go-To-Community Strategy, Leadership Event Curation, Partner/Talent Vetting
Unlocking Coca-Cola’s Branded Content | Universal-McCann
When UM won the Coca Cola business, I came on as VP of Branded Content to build out the studio team and elevate the company’s portfolio of beverage brands’ content across digital and traditional media channels.
The team of 12 creative strategists and producers I hired and led produced innovative global creative for media channels Coca Cola invested in through UM’s media buying and planning teams. We collaborated with each portfolio product’s agencies, as well as media channels like Facebook, Viacom, Hulu, BET, and NBCU. While our team created phenomenal content for the entire portfolio of Coke’s products, a key highlight was building a global media strategy around the acclaimed “Share a Coke” campaign, which activated around the world in a rebrand for the legacy brand.
Contribution: Team Leadership, Creative Direction, Production, Global Media & Marketing Strategies, Media Investment, Media Relations
Humanizing Virtual Reality | Google Creative Lab
Prior to the launch of Google’s DayDream Virtual Reality headset, I led a team of creative technologists, strategists, and makers in exploring a more human-centric approach to a communications strategy for Virtual Reality. At the time (2016), VR was still a relatively new concept with a perception of hyper-futurism. We launched an internal and external research initiative based around Virtual Reality as a driver for empathy, connection, and healing. Our team partnered with Stanford University and the industrial engineers behind DayDream to express the possibilities of a softer hardware, paired with VR experiences in the pursuit of the brand prioritizing the needs of humans.
Contribution: Team Leadership, Research, Creative Strategy, Communications Strategy
Launching Broadly with Unilever | VICE
With a remarkable track record for millennial marketing through media, VICE struck a deal with Unilever in 2015 to build out Broadly, a global editorial-driven vertical for women centering on culture, style, and sexual health. At the time, media sites were still running banner ads - and with this deal, our production and creative teams designed custom content on behalf of Unilever’s suite of products in the voice of VICE & Broadly, featuring Unilever’s brands.
Contribution: Global partnership design, Custom content strategies, Production, Account management
Side Quests
Passion projects & collabs with fellow future-makers
Co-Founder & Curator | Before We Were Banned
As an Iranian-American living through the despair of the previous administration’s “Muslim Ban” - we galvanized community through an open call on social media for artists living in the sates with ties the 7 countries listed on the ban list to respond and curated two groundbreaking and healing shows titled Before We Were Banned that humanized the people of misinformed blanket ban held at galleries in Bushwick, NYC and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Featured in i-D Magazine, PBS, and the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Strategic Advisor & Member | Take Up Space Media DAO
Culture-collective & intersectional media DAO Take Up Space is home to changemakers with stories to tell, distributed across media channels & archived onchain. As an early member and contributor, I’ve found an internet homebase to experiment and play with new media models and serve as advisor to TUS’s trailblazing founders Paff & Han.
Comms Contributor & Member | RADAR
The future is multi-player and RADAR serves as a communal happy place for dreamers, strategists, and builders to imagine, instigate, and co-create futures. At the core of RADAR is an abundance of community research contributions that signal delightful futures we all want to be a part of.