Here's a selection of the branded stuff I worked on at BuzzFeed that I'm proudest of.
The videos you see are the result of a product I developed called "BuzzCuts" – which are essentially 15-second low-lift social assets that we made in house with our incredible video and animation teams to live across multiple social platforms.
The articles you see are what used to be our bread-and-butter sponsored product at BuzzFeed – branded posts. I flourished creatively in that format before redirecting and focusing my attention on our BuzzCut product.
PRODUCT
A lot of these videos are CPG, which is a vertical I'm usually pretty jazzed to ideate and execute on. This is mostly because one of the goals is often to see the product in use, and I like to imagine everyday CPG items in unique and unexpected situations.
BRANDS:
Target + 7UP // Band-Aid // Scotch-Brite // Walgreens // California Lottery
17 Paint Hacks You Absolutely Need In Your Life
GOAL: Position Sherwin-Williams as a paint brand that will make your next project easier, not harder.
SOLUTION: Present a list of paint hacks meant to help a novice go from clueless to capable.
*note: I did not write this post, I created the gifs.
11 Horrifying Bathroom Facts Told By Something Cute
GOAL: Create content to support Scrubbing Bubbles' "Behind Closed Bathroom Doors" campaign.
SOLUTION: A humorous interpretation of "bathroom secrets" - with cute animal gifs to soften the blow.
13 Things We All Do In The Bathroom That No One Talks About
GOAL: Create content to support Scrubbing Bubbles' "Behind Closed Bathroom Doors" campaign.
SOLUTION: An identity "That's so me!!" post focused on bringing to light what people do behind closed bathroom doors, but never really talk about.
12 Bathroom Horror Stories That Will Fuel Your Anxiety Dreams
GOAL: Create content to support Scrubbing Bubbles' "Behind Closed Bathroom Doors" campaign.
SOLUTION: Crowd-sourcing cringe-worthy bathroom stories, which was a super-popular frame at the time of publishing, and in keeping with the "Behind Closed Bathroom Doors" theme.
FOOD
Food can be a tough nut to crack! I'm not a food stylist, and rarely have budget to hire one, so a lot of my ideating involved showcasing the product in a compelling way that wouldn't crap all over brand standards. It was always a fun challenge.
BRANDS:
Pizza Hut // A-1 Steak Sauce // Halo Top // Fresh Cravings
This Is How Breakfast Should Look According To Kids
GOAL: To bring awareness to IHOP's "Kids Eat Free" offering.
SOLUTION: Bring to life what goes on in a kid's head when it comes to breakfast, invoking imagination through artist rendering.
14 Things Every Novice Baker Knows To Be True
GOAL: To promote IHOP's new "Bakery Favorites" menu.
SOLUTION: Tap into user identity by creating a relatable "novice baker" post accompanied by funny custom gifs.
16 Easy Cheese Hacks That Will Blow Your Mind
GOAL: Get the word out about Easy Cheese's #EasyCheeseChallenge initiative
SOLUTION: Go so far in the direction of weird cheese hacks that people are inspired to create their own.
If They Made Activity Books For Parents
GOAL: Speak to parents who want to be kids again.
SOLUTION: Go the nostalgic route and create a series of animated gifs that'll make readers go "omg I reMEMBER those activity books!!"
*note: I did not pitch or write this post, I created the artwork
12 Ways Imagination Can Turn A Normal Day Into An Adventure
GOAL: Target parents and kids to think of Dreyer's Ice Cream as the ultimate family dessert.
SOLUTION: Connect parent to kid by invoking imaginative imagery, easily dovetailed with ice cream messaging. Everyone loves ice cream!
Stunning Illustrations By An Accomplished Cheese Artist
GOAL: Get the word out about Easy Cheese's #EasyCheeseChallenge initiative
SOLUTION: Demonstrate how weird and creative Easy Cheese wants participants to behave while submitting their creations to the challenge.
11 Overnight Oats Recipes Your Kids Will Love
GOAL: To capitalize on the Overnight Oats trend by putting Quaker Oats in the center of that conversation.
SOLUTION: Create a hyper-specific recipes post using unique ingredients and eye-catching visuals.
*note: A recipe consultant was hired to create the recipes - I art directed the photoshoot and created the gifs.
14 Things We Learned About People From The 2016 Honesty Index
GOAL: To share the results of Honest Tea's "Honesty Index" social experiment.
SOLUTION: Create an information-heavy explainer post supplemented with fun gifs to bring a bit of humor.
*note: I did not write this post, I only provided the gifs.
11 Delicious Overnight Oats Recipes To Jump Start Your Morning
GOAL: To capitalize on the Overnight Oats trend by putting Quaker Oats in the center of that conversation.
SOLUTION: Create a hyper-specific recipes post using unique ingredients and eye-catching visuals.
*note: A recipe consultant was hired to create the recipes - I art directed the photoshoot and created the gifs.
APPAREL
Apparel is fun to shoot. The products are made to look good on screen. I had the good fortune of working with brands that trusted the BuzzFeed process of eye-catching visuals paired with informational content.
BRANDS:
Adidas // Macys // Parley // Aeropostale
BEAUTY
Honestly, beauty is a beast. Brands often want exceptional, polished output. And for good reason! Looks and perception are everything in the beauty industry. So, navigating that guardrail on a shoestring budget was always a challenge. One I was up for, for sure.
BRANDS:
SK-II // Olay
DIRECT TO CONSUMER
Oh man I wish I had the opportunity to work with more DTC clients. Zoning in on one specific and often delightfully unique service offered by a DTC business was a brainstorming dream.
BRAND:
Barkbox
TRAVEL
Travel clients were a personal favorite, in no small part because they generally sent me to really cool places to capture content that let me escape our in-house studio and see the actual sun for once. Since our readership is more likely than ever to travel for fun, these concepts always connected in a way that traditional sponsored content could only dream of connecting.
BRAND:
Carnival
TECH
Tech and Telco! KPIs were always all over the place with this vertical, which made for really interesting and fun brainstorming sessions. Running around NYC with a Google Pixel taking pictures of strangers' dogs has been - legitimately - the highlight of my career.
BRANDS:
Google Pixel // Amazon // Samsung
Expectation Vs. Reality: Getting A Text
GOAL: Support AT&T's "It Can Wait" initiative by encouraging young adults to not text and drive.
SOLUTION: Tap into relatable texting moments to create a conversation around when texting is ok, and when it's not.
Texting Etiquette 101: A Guide
GOAL: Support AT&T's "It Can Wait" initiative by encouraging young adults to not text and drive.
SOLUTION: Another identity post - this time listing out the "rules" of texting, ending with a legitimate rule - don't text and drive.
22 Things To Do With This Thing You Just Found On The Floor
GOAL: A unique initiative sponsored by Friskies where we were tasked with creating an entire BuzzFeed homepage as if the readership were actual cats.
SOLUTION: My editorial-style post - a parody of the classic BuzzFeed frame - "X Things To Do With [insert household item here]"
The Legend Of Zelda: A Timeline
GOAL: Hype up the release of Nintendo's latest Zelda game - "Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds"
SOLUTION: Create a dense, information-rich niche post to attract true Zelda fans and create excitement and anticipation.