I’ve been writing since floppy disks were a thing (still mourning the loss of my vampire novel), and decided to go pro in 2016. My career has spanned working with big brands in the outdoor industry, including as head of copy at Backcountry and freelance work with Gregory Mountain Products and EVO, to working as a journalist and copyeditor. In 2022, I transitioned into tech. Some career highlights:
I managed a team of 5 writers and a crew of contractors at Backcountry as Head of Copy, editing and delivering around 800 integrated marketing campaigns and adhoc projects per year.
Pitched and developed the highest performing social videos in Thumbtack history for the Halloween campaign, proving that if you offer entertainment, people don’t mind being sold to. Here are a few of my favorite comments on the videos: “I refuse to believe this is an ad,” “This felt nothing like an ad,” and “This is hilarious! What a great spot!”
As a staff journalist, I developed the content calendar for profiles and entertainment beats atThe Crested Butte News, CBCO, and Peak Magazine.
Brought 6 retail catalogs to print in one year for Backcountry by streamlining the creative process and relationship between the creative team, retention marketing, and product designers. By trimming down on unnecessary meetings and prioritizing conversations between writers, owned brand designers, and category buyers, I was able to reduce editing rounds.
Increased scroll depth and click through for the Backcountry homepage by developing SOPs and working directly with content design to marry brand and website design (while navigating the intricacies of accessibility).
Developed brand manifesto for Shaun White’s WHITESPACE brand, facilitating the inaugural launch of his products.
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WHITESPACE by Shaun White
Premium luxury snowboarding kits and apparel meet the hard charging chops of the most decorated snowboarder in the game — Shaun White.
For this campaign I interviewed Shaun and his brother Jesse to develop content spanning landing pages, email, social, catalog, and video spots. The brief entailed developing the narrative voice for the WHITESPACE brand and speaking to gear that can go from chairlift to barstool while maintaining its premium luxury appeal.Check out the “Behind the Design” video I developed interview questions and creative strategy for.
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Scrolling gif ads
I pitched a scrolling gif style ad to highlight customer procrastination towards getting their home projects done. I wanted to utilize fast paced “scrolling” video paired with bright and eye-catching visuals that poked fun at the nature of being on social media — the “scroll hole” of internet distraction. Many people procrastinate their chores and projects by “just checking” Facebook or Instagram, but with Thumbtack, you can easily find and hire top-quality pros to tackle your to-do list and then get back to procrastinating online.
The idea paid off with a iROAS of 5.74 and CTR of .44%
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Gerry the ghoul
We had a small budget for a Halloween campaign, but in true form, we wanted to squeeze as much as we could out of it.
I pitched Clayton as a way to avoid the cost of shooting in house while working with a content creator who just gets social. He does amazing characters and I knew we could create something spooky (and hilarious) with him.
Performance metrics:
Video 1 - clocks in at the highest viewed video on Thumbtack to date with over 8% engagement rate, and 20k impressions in less than 24 hours without boosting. Record number of shares and top performing boosted post.
Video 2 - saw over 9% engagement rate.TikTok paid media saw a +121% video completion rate and +80% average watch time compared to business as usual ads.
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Groundhogs Day integrated campaign
Taking the well known feeling of cleaning the kitchen only to… have to clean the kitchen again, we pounced on a holiday few brands in Thumbtack’s industry talk about: Groundhogs Day.
Like Bill Murray in the in film, home projects take on a sort of “not again” feeling that can make getting anything done difficult. But, with Thumbtack, you can get out of the procrastination time loop by hiring a pro to handle all the tasks on your to-do list. Easy. -
Art direction & copy for summer curb appeal
For the summer curb appeal campaign at Thumbtack I wanted to capture the spaciousness of blowing bubbles with your kids in the backyard, the joy of a sore jaw from so much laughing at the yard party, and the magic of pushing your beloved on the swing.
I knew for those of us old enough to remember snapping photos on disposable cameras, the feeling of film would instantly take our audience back to easier times. So I pitched the more difficult and time consuming idea of having a few employees take photos with disposable cameras to capture the joy of summer in the yard.
And then I stuck my flag in the hill when I received pushback that digital would be easier on all accounts because I knew the campaign wouldn’t be the same if we had employees take photos with their phones.
The photos we got captured the nostalgia beautifully, and I sorted through a hundred campy photos to develop storyboards and organic social videos. I drove to drop off cameras at my local film studio and collected and uploaded a few dozen release forms — all for the love of film.
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Toilet Day organic social
'Betcha didn’t know the busiest time of year for plumbers is the day after Thanksgiving, did you?
(Filing this under weird facts I never needed)
For this organic social campaign, we meme-ified a moment that literally no one cares about… but that’s usually half the battle on social media right?
With my intention to create organic social posts that make people see themselves (or their best friend), we made toilet personalities that read like astrology signs, meme-ified a fun fact you never needed, and turned the humble commode into works of art
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Winter Olympics ad spot
How to make the best outwear… start with Backcountry. This ad spot aired during the 2022 Winter Olympics and received over 60 million unique impressions. I wrote the voiceover copy and my dog, June, and I both acted in the spot.
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Email
Click here for selected emails
My goal in copy is to surprise and delight. We’re inundated with emails and majority of them end up in the trash — so what’s a brand to do? Give your audience value in every touch point (especially email, because you own that audience, so treat ‘em right).
I’m a word writer, as in I choose each word with care and consideration in areas where my character counts are minimal. Words are a vibe check, they carry the tone and voice of your brand, and they subconsciously speak to your customers, so you need to pick them well. I do this choosing intentionally.
During my time as head of copy at Backcountry I increased dollar/email by 7% for SteepAndCheap.com by revamping the brand voice and email content.
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Outervention
Needing an intervention but… outside? Backcountry took three people on an Outervention of a lifetime, traveling through the jungles of Costa Rica, the glacial valleys of Iceland, and the mountain bike trails of Cascadia in the PNW.
I lead copy direction and narrative development for this campaign that spanned long-form video, website, social, email, blogs, and a catalog. I lead the interview process for each video, teasing out the narrative through-line and bringing it to life in collaboration with production.
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Natural Selection Tour brand campaign
I was the Backcountry brand writer for three Natural Selection Tours. This involved writing interview questions for all the tour athletes (about 24 athletes) and developing full-stack campaign copy for each tour. This work involved profiling athletes and featuring them in email, social and print.
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Selected long form clips
Rewilding Woman - Crested Butte Magazine, article & photography
A family affair: one local chef draws inspiration from her mother - feature on Montanya Distillers chef, Rose Reyes, CB Visitors Guide
A space to create - feature on artists studios, article and photography, The Peak Magazine
