The Situation
adidas Baseball signed Fernando Tatis Jr. to its roster. In his first full MLB season he caused quite a stir, but his stellar performance and playoff run put him in early MVP talks. With the season coming to an end and the sport falling out of conversation until Spring Training, adidas wanted to put a spotlight on this young phenom.
The Strategy
Love him or hate him, Fernando Tatis Jr. has brought a renewed level of excitement to a sport perceived as very boring. He has been forced to apologize throughout the season for breaking the “unwritten rules” of baseball. Tatis plays the game we grew up loving, which upsets the uptight fans who’d prefer the game to be played as it always has been.
The Creative Idea
We killed baseball as we knew it. And with the death, a new baseball was reborn. A better, more exciting baseball.
Baseball is Dead. Long Live Baseball.
The Execution
We made a video to hyperbolize the outdated view points of those who defended these “unwritten rules.” We worked with the brand to produce a t-shirt that brought to life the excitement of the player and a eulogy to the baseball we were leaving behind.
Right before the campaign launched, it was announced that Fernando Tatis Jr. would not be a finalist in the MVP selection process, which inspired content we used to tease the campaign.
With very little budget allocated towards media, the video was viewed over 10 million times and received national coverage.
[SILVER CANNES MEDIA LION, SHORTLISTED CANNES INNOVATION LION]
Adidas was about to release its greatest running shoe—the Ultraboost19, and they wanted to get sneakerheads across America excited to buy the shoes. The only catch was— all we had was a picture of what this shoe looked like.
The Strategy
We realized that our demographic, sneakerheads, think about sneakers in three places— stores where they buy sneakers, events where they go to show-off their sneakers, and social media—where they post about their newest sneakers.
So we wanted to hijack every single major sneaker store and fashion boutique in New York, LA, and Houston and have people who are in the market for new sneakers, try-on OUR sneakers instead.
Then we dropped the experience onto people’s phones at basketball games, hip-hop concerts and most importantly—Snapchat to reach everyone deep in the sneaker culture and have them talking about it.
The Creative Idea
We used augmented reality to create A/R Drops, the first ever digital shoe try-on experience, where you could point your phone at your feet and it would turn your shoes into the Ultraboost19. Now you could try the shoes right through your phone from wherever you are.
Then, we went to all our competitor’s stores to find customers in the market for new sneakers, and used Apple’s AirDrop (a feature used to share pictures and videos) to drop our digital shoe right onto people’s phones. So for the first time ever, people were trying adidas shoes— in Nike stores.
The Execution
The week of the Ultraboost19 launch, people shopping in Nike stores got a notification via Apple’s AirDrop: “Ultraboost19 is here, be the first to try it on”. When they clicked this digital flyer, it opened up a first-of-its-kind augmented reality experience that let them try on the new adidas sneaker, just by pointing their phone at their feet. So they could try on adidas shoes, in Nike stores. We did this across all major competitor stores, fashion boutiques, basketball games and hip-hop concerts. We even put the AR experience on Snapchat, so anyone could try on this unreleased shoe wherever they were. Over 60 Million digital pairs of shoes were tried on in the first day.
In June 2015, myself and two friends launched DIFRactive Technology, a software company that can turn any video into an interactive experience. In simplest terms we were Pinterest for video.
We designed our user experience around the idea that content should remain the focus and this was an added feature. Unlike our competitor, we did not want to interrupt the video experience or be seen as a distraction. We would allow viewers to bookmark scenes and let them access information about the people, places, products, music, etc. they were interested in at the end or if they paused the video.
To build our software we developed a backend platform to upload any data regarding items and content that will be included in the video, as well as a front-end API that can be overlaid on any video platform (e.g. YouTube, Hulu, Netflix).
We had our first prototype by November 2016 and launched our MVP in January 2018. The company shut down at the end of December 2018.
My Role
∙ Brand Development
∙ Communications Strategy
∙ Product UX Design
∙ Product Roadmap Development
∙ Website Strategy/UX/Build
∙ Business Development/Sales
∙ Event Coordinator
∙ Social Media Manager
Personas have become a tool to humanize target audiences; giving creative teams an easy reference when trying to best communicate their message. However, bucketing every possible customer for the brand in broad strokes limits the possibility of connecting with people on a more individual levels.
The Idea
Rather provide a “persona placement” that gives the general profile of the consumer, we broke personas down into a formula: (Audience + Goal) x Life Event.
Audience
Audiences is the original persona. It gives a sense of who they are and how the brand should talk to them. In this example, we were working with a bank, so their main audiences were those who were commercial bankers and financially-savvy and non-financially-savvy consumers. Within non-financially-savvy, we also considered the fact that some people who don’t know much about banking are actually interested in learning, so we wanted to offer experiences that could help people go from being a novice to an expert.
Goals
People have different reasons for interacting with a brand, especially at different stages of the journey. Sometimes they are looking to just simply get informed and get a feel for the brand. Sometimes they are hoping to rely on the customer service tools available by the brands and sometimes they are looking to directly engage with the brand by converting or continuing their relationship. Identifying a person’s goal through implicit and explicit information, would allow a brand to know how to talk to people and begin building a relationship of respect and value.
Life Event
With audience and goals addressing how we talk to people in both tone and their sales approach, life event is a variable that will help the brand know what they should talk to that person about. When brands understand the variable component of this formula, they can create relevancy, providing the necessary information, tools, products, etc. immediately and not requiring people to search too long for it. Additionally, when brands know the life event that brought the person to the brand, the brand can also have an idea of where to go next.
The Results
By using a formula rather than a generic persona, we can create micro-personas that allows the brand to speak to the right person in the right approach with the right content. Additionally you won’t just be trying to resonate with entire audiences on the premise of a handful of profiles, but have hundreds of audiences to plug-and-play with to be more personalized.
Consumer Experience Journey Mapping (or CXJM) is the practice of understanding experiences people have and the steps they take that would eventually lead them to considering, engaging, and potentially purchasing from the brand. The purpose is to identify those moments, whether it be a pain point/barrier or a positive highlight, that brands can leverage to improve the overall experience.
∙ What are they experiencing during this stage of the journey?
∙ How are they feeling and how do those feelings change throughout the journey?
∙ What is going through their head?
∙ What are those pain points that really stick with them?
∙ What are those moments that they look forward to?
∙ How do they complete specific actions?
∙ What do they do after they complete the path to purchase?
(These are a sample of the questions a journey map is able to help with)
However, one of the things we discovered is this large map is a lot and can be difficult to prioritize. Over the past 2+ years, I’ve worked on quantifying those actions in order to help identify what actions generate the most emotions, are the most important, and the most consistent experiences people have along the journey. Through this process we are able to better understand what actions brands can take that will have the most impact on the journey.
Frustrated with my experiences on dating apps and sites, I set out on a social experiment where I approach online dating differently. Instead of the traditional process of matching with a person, having an initial conversation in a chat box, and meeting up when we felt comfortable, I simply matched with them and we met up, saving the excitement of getting to know one another on the actual date.
To execute the idea, I modified my profiles on various dating sites/apps (e.g. OKCupid, Tinder, Bumble) to only include my pictures, my height, and a brief description of my interest to meet in person. In return, I don't check their profile either, but only look at their images. After the date, I logged details about the date and recorded any differences in that date compared to my past experiences with online dating.
I then built the site, blindonlinedating.com (no longer live), to share my experiences. I created a video and released a date once a week to build a following. Additionally, I provided insights and learnings about the experiment.
At L2 we were constantly encouraged to propose new ideas that can be used for content and further drive business. With this in mind, I launched a new blog series titled "Ask L2."
The purpose of the series was to identify key pain points brands were experiencing and to repurpose our existing data that provides solutions. At the end of each blog post, readers were encouraged to send in their own questions, which would drive new content as well as potentially influence our methodology as we begin to better understand brand prioritization.
The blog's first post was the most read blog post that week and was considered to be a video series (rough draft attached), which would have increased its reach. However, due to resource limitations the video execution was put on hold.
It was in May 2016—just after Donald J. Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee—when people needed to stop seeing him as late-night material, but as a realistic presidential candidate. To show a glimpse at what a future under President Trump would look like signs, jackets, and flyers were posted throughout the city.
The art installation was picked up by local blogs, as well as PIX11 and ABC. The Buzzfeed article shows the full extent of the execution.
In addition to the individual projects I shared, I also have 15 years of advertising and marketing experience working on a wide range of accounts from B2B and government to everyday consumer brands. My role has also been wide range from handling the business side of the operations (account management, client-facing communications) to the strategic side that includes writing briefs and communication plans, establishing strategy systems and brand platforms, leading research exercises (surveys, competitive research, interviews, focus groups, ethnography), and developing consumer experience journey maps and dynamic personas. All of which can be found on my resume.
