Employer
- Flowers Foods, parent company of Mrs. Freshley's
Date
- May 2018 - Current
Job Responsibilities and Accomplishments
- ● Increased creative development while functioning as Creative Director, Photographer, and Co-Founder of the internal agency
- ● Increased sales and marketing performance by creating world-class designs for brands such as Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder Bread, and Tastykake, increasing equity from $4.3 to $4.9 billion
- ● Managed external creative partnerships with companies like Disney, Sega, Sony, Nickelodeon and the USO
- ● Lead the design team and oversaw external agencies for all creative projects
- ● Manage internal team of 7, while also developing and mentoring their professional development
- ● Integrated stay interviews with department to help retain exceptional talent.
- ● Led website and digital marketing team while steering social media, digital, and print campaigns
- ● Generated $54,000 in annual savings by moving 6 websites under 1 platform.
- ● Drove a 25% improvement in design turnaround time by integrating project management tools.
- ● Saved $2 million by bringing 80% of all design work back in-house.
Nickelodeon and Paw Patrol Partnership
In May of 2019, I was approached by a member of the Flowers Executive team to mock up a box of Paw Patrol mini muffins that were in the shape of a paw. They wanted to present to Nickelodeon an idea that could work for a co-branded mini muffin produced by Flower using the children’s popular show as a draw.
Below you’ll see the original concept art for the box that was created simply with items and images found via Google image search. Since we didn’t have any official artwork to use, that was the only method we had to achieve this mock-up.
The concept was a hit and Nickelodeon jumped at the opportunity to make the product. As such, Nickelodeon presented us with art files and brand guidelines for the packaging. This was exciting as Flowers would be the very first company to use their brand new style/product guide to create a new CPG item for Paw Patrol. You can see the final images of the boxes in the gallery above.
Building the concept
As mentioned above, these muffins were the first CPG product to use the new art assets and guidelines created by Nickelodeon, as such, we were able to push the envelope a little bit with our designs as there were no “true” guardrails in place for a food/snack item.
The focus for us became the characters first and foremost, and secondly, was the fact that these muffins, unlike the competition, were shaped like paw prints. So large photography was used opposite of the characters. Another big aspect was the fact that these muffins had 33% less sugar than our closest competitor, Little Bites. This was a demand by Nickelodeon as they tried to remain conscious of the fact that children would be demanding these and parents wouldn’t want a lot of sugar.
Social Ad Campaign
Like our other products, we had a strong social media push to get the product in front of parents, as our target launch date was in August, right in time for back to school.
For this campaign, we primarily focused on Facebook, which we found to be the best source for parents (especially moms) who would see the product and share it with like-minded parents.
Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while working.