Art Direction + Copywriting
The Client
Wayfair Inc. is an American e-commerce company that sells furniture and home-goods. Formerly known as CSN Stores, the company was founded in 2002. Their digital platform offers 14 million items from more than 11,000 global suppliers. The online company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
My Role
In January of 2018, I was hired as Art Director/Video Producer for Wayfair. My responsibilities included art direction, copywriting, and creative direction on commercials, internal videos, and PR promotional campaigns. During my tenure, I led close to 20 different projects.
Research: Wayfair Creative Briefs
Wayfair is driven by data, and employs a number of talented people to read, understand, and then communicate consumer thinking. While I did not work within this department, my role did require that we meet with this team frequently, breaking down creative briefs for each campaign and making sure we were fully informed on both the consumer and company’s needs before embarking on creative concepting.
Research: Personas
Wayfair has a very specific brand for a very large (yet targeted) audience that has been sharpened and honed from many years in business.
As a result, Customer Personas have been created for both Wayfair and all its individual subsidiaries (All Modern, Joss & Main, Perigold, etc).
As a member of the creative team, it was important to use these personas as a North Star so we could keep in mind who these consumers were, what they wanted, how they thought, what motivated and scared them, and ultimately what would drive them to purchase Wayfair products.
“Wayfair: You got just what I need.”
— Practically every stranger’s response I met when I told them I worked at Wayfair
Problem & Solution:
Given each campaign was different, the problem and solution was ever changing and never the same. However, I created one that broadly speaks to my role in full.
Creative: Concepting + Pitching
Using the aforementioned data, I typically would escape for a few hours to a few days and try to bang out some concepts I could pitch to the stakeholders.
My personal creative goal is to try and remove limitations from the start to fully let an idea breath before setting in parameters and limitations. Having years of producorial experience, this was sometimes easier said than done.
Once I had at least 3-5 concepts I felt good about, I created pitch decks I could walk a client through that best explained the idea and thought process.
Creative: Writing + Storyboarding
Once stakeholders approved an idea (or sometimes, ideas), I would take to the writing process, using Final Draft software to write a conventional script. Although I could have just jumped into storyboarding, the scripts gave me a chance to read things aloud, get feedback from sounding boards when they existed, and pivot quickly if needed.
Once I felt I had a script that was working, I would create storyboards to build out the visual world. These were either done via pencil sketch when kept internal, or I chose to use Keynote or Storyboard That when it required me to present to others outside of my core team.
(It’s hardly a Picasso, but it works)
Creative: Pre-Viz
What one learns quickly in the world of creating ads is that it’s pretty hard to write something substantial in an under a minute. Having traditional screenwriting experience under my belt, this proved to be a real learning curve for me and it took some time to really adapt to the incredibly short medium.
Creating a Pre-viz (a test video run) was not just helpful, but beyond necessary as it really showed what was and wasn’t possible in each spot when it came to timing. This would not just inform the creative idea and bring forth changes, but also would give me confidence as we stepped into pre-production and further planning.
Creative: Pre/Production
Once a creative idea was solidified, the production quickly came together. These steps included:
Locking in an appropriate location(s)
Casting, callbacks, and more.
Walk-thrus and on-set rehearsals.
And finally, production day(s). Let’s get this thing rolling!
No actors dressed as animals were harmed in the making of this video
Look Closer - 2019
Testing: Creative
The right feedback (which is not the same thing as positive feedback) can really elevate a project and get it solid shape.
Wayfair is stacked with a talented team of writers, editors, and Creative Directors, all of whom contributed input and candor in the editing room, honing in on making the best project possible as we got it in shape for stakeholders.
Testing: Client/Stakeholder
Stakeholder presentations are the name of the game, and it’s always good not be too precious with any ideas, and be open-minded to various thoughts and feelings. Wayfair was a constant reminder that if something about the creative isn’t connecting with the stakeholder, chances are it won’t click with the consumer either.
In the same manner, it’s always worth sticking up for ideas you believe in, and being confident in the creative decisions you probably (hopefully) agreed on before shooting. Like everything, creative iteration can be a negotiation that requires you to garner patience and ditch the ego.
Back In My Day - 2019, co-created with Kelsey Petrie
The Shipping You Get - 2019, Director: Marcus Torotorici (I was a co-writer and brand supervisor)
Testing:
Quals and Quants
For some of the larger productions, we used focus testing and took note of qualitative and quantitative feedback which informed how to maximize success and returns.
Since embarking into the UX field, I’ve garnered first-hand experience with doing this myself, and hope to continue that deeper knowledge with forthcoming creative projects.
Output
Wayfair moved at a really rapid fire pace, so it wasn’t uncommon that the creative idea you concepted a couple months ago was on TV or the internet today.
During this time, it was important to develop an understanding of what was and wasn’t working when it came to an ad’s performance, and use such data to best inform your work ahead.
UK Summer Sale - 2018
Joss Amazing Finds - 2018
Takeaways
After nearly two years of working with the Wayfair team, there were a number of lessons learned…
IMO, the most effective ads are the ones with the most simple value props. Don’t make something that tries to say too much because it ultimately won’t say much of anything.
Always try to think like the consumer, and approach that openly and honestly. Cool looking ads can be great for the portfolio, but they won’t do anything for the business.
When it comes to pitching, if at first you don’t succeed…move onto another idea.
I appreciated this experience, learned a ton, and enjoyed working with a number of talented people on staff.