AWS Brand Campaign
World's Largest Startup
As AWS scaled in size and complexity, the brand became safer and more enterprise—losing the grit, inventiveness, and builder energy that once set it apart.
We developed The World's Biggest Startup campaign concept to get AWS back to its roots—the scrappy, inventive mindset that has always been there—reconnecting with builders and reclaiming what made the brand distinctive.
Creative Direction—Brand Voice, Copy, Creative strategy
AWS Product Campaign
Amazon Q
In the early wave of generative AI, the conversation was dominated by novelty—flashy outputs, viral experiments, and surface-level use cases. For serious builders, it was hard to separate what was impressive from what was actually useful.
Our campaign positioned Amazon Q as the AI for builders—grounded in real utility, real code, and real progress. We shifted the narrative from spectacle to substance by showing how AI can actually help developers move faster, clean up complexity, and build better things.
Creative Direction—Brand Voice, Copy
Starbucks Holiday 2019
Merry Coffee
Fast food chains had become Starbucks biggest competition with customers finding similar products (pumpkin spice chicken nuggets anyone?) at lower cost.
Our 360 campaign delivered holiday joy in a way that our competitors couldn’t—modern, sophisticated, fun, and rooted in our heritage (coffee).
Results: Starbucks first and biggest integrated holiday promo to date; YOY increase engagement on social; strengthened brand affinity/perception of Starbucks as a “holiday must”.
Creative Direction—Copy, Creative Strategy, Video Direction
STARBUCKS Fall 2020
Fall for All
After years of celebrating its most devoted PSL fans, the fall campaign had become predictable—limiting growth and missing a broader audience. As sales began to dip, Starbucks needed to expand beyond its core base without losing the cultural magic that made the season iconic.
The campaign reimagined fall as something for everyone—with flavors beyond pumpkin (gasp), cold beverages for our warm state friends, and a little bit fall magic delivered virtually via social and our exclusive fall hotline.
Creative Direction—Copy, Creative Strategy, Video Direction, Art Direction
Results: On launch day Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew was 40% over forecast. In social we saw a 30% increase in social conversation overall, the highest social engagement for a product in Starbucks history and 75% more shares than the previous year.
Starbucks Fall 2018
The Great PSL Hatch
With plateauing sales for the first time in nearly two decades and copycat pumpkin spice everything, PSL needed a way to get some fresh attention and connect with new customers.
Our response: Origin story. We doubled down on the super fans and delivered a Livestream "PSL Hatch" a la April the Giraffe, with 100 hours of pumpkin content leading up to the anticipated, but secret, hatching date of PSL.
In addition, we gave the super fans a secret Facebook group, "The Leaf Rakers Society" where they could geek out about fall in mid summer without judgement from the world.
Results: 8 million viewers, 21 million people reached, 28,000 active members, 140% increase in social conversation, sales +4% over forecast, 3 Gold ADDY awards, 1 Shorty award.
Creative Direction—Campaign Concept, Creative Strategy, Copy Direction
Starbucks Pride
Gaga x Cups of Kindness
To celebrate Pride month, we partnered with Lady Gaga to develop colorful drinks whose proceeds would benefit the "Born this Way" foundation. Lady Gaga personally visited a Stabucks to serve drinks, and the three day campaign raised $250k for her foundation.
Creative Direction—Concept, Art Direction, Casting, Copy
Starbucks
National Coffee Day
To celebrate National Coffee Day, we enlisted local illustrators to create custom cups for fellow coffee day lovers. All day long, we monitored what customers were saying about the holiday on Twitter and responded to dozens of them with custom-designed Starbucks cups. We tracked down the first person to ever tweet the word "Starbucks" and sent them a cup. And for the fans that opted in, we mailed the actual cups to their homes.
Results: Highly positive sentiment and engagement exceeding the benchmark for a promotional beverage post. Organically, thousands of coffee lovers joined the conversation and we received hundreds of original cup doodles from customers and employees in response to our posts.
Creative Direction—Campaign Concept, Creative Strategy, Copy Direction
