Campaigns – The San Francisco Chronicle

Campaigns

During my time working at The San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate, I had the opportunity to lead the creative direction for several exciting campaigns that celebrated the city's rich history and innovative spirit. Here are three examples that I'm particularly proud of:

The first campaign, called #lovelocalSF, was a city-wide celebration of San Francisco that coincided with the 20th anniversary of SFGate. As the lead designer, I worked to create a vibrant and visually engaging campaign that showcased the unique local businesses, cultural landmarks, and iconic neighborhoods that make San Francisco such a special place. This campaign was a huge success, generating widespread community engagement and positive feedback from readers.

The second campaign, Visionary of the Year, was an inaugural program that honored Bay Area innovators who have redefined their professions and made a positive impact on the community. As the creative lead for this project, I worked closely with the editorial team to develop a cohesive branding strategy that would reflect the visionary spirit of the program. The result was a visually stunning campaign that captured the essence of each honoree's unique story and contributions. The success of this campaign inspired the continuation of the program for years to come.

The third campaign was a new subscription effort targeted at acquiring new customers by offering enticing member-only benefits. As the creative lead, I developed a comprehensive branding strategy that emphasized the value of being a member and showcased the exclusive perks available to subscribers. The result was a visually engaging campaign that effectively communicated the benefits of subscribing to The San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate. This campaign played a critical role in attracting new customers and expanding the publication's reach.

#lovelocalSF

The objective was to enlist advertisers and partners to help make special SF-centric celebrations possible on Wednesday, November 5th, 2014.

With the help of the mayor’s office, November 5th was declared #LovelocalSF day and both SFGate and an entourage of partners helped paint the town red in a variety of fun and interesting ways. With a total profit revenue of $4.5MM in media value, 9.4MM pageviews, 200 partners, 75+ sponsors, 25.3MM impressions and 6.4MM+ people reached via social media, the celebration reached a whole new level of love for San Francisco!

Visionary of the Year

Visionary of the Year was a three-month-long marketing campaign that included a C-level executive dinner and awards ceremony. The inaugural event, in collaboration with Saint Mary's College's School of Economics and Business Administration, celebrated Bay Area innovators who had redefined their professions and made a positive impact on the community through a prestigious awards program.

The program was designed to champion leadership characteristics that embodied The San Francisco Chronicle's spirit and inspired others to make a difference. Thirteen nominees were selected by a committee of six, including Anne Wilson (Chief Officer of United Way Bay Area), Daniel Lurie (founder of poverty-fighting organization Tipping Point), Ronnie Lott (the 49ers Hall of Fame cornerback), Zhan Li (Dean of the Business School at Saint Mary's), and Laurene Powell Jobs (founder and chair of Emerson Collective and wife of Apple icon Steve Jobs).

As the creative lead for this project, I worked closely with the editorial team to develop a cohesive branding strategy that reflected the visionary spirit of the program. The result was a visually stunning campaign that captured the essence of each honoree's unique story and contributions. The success of this campaign inspired the continuation of the program for years to come, cementing The San Francisco Chronicle's reputation as a champion of visionary leadership in the Bay Area.

Creating Awareness

Marketing of the event included print ads, digital ads, homepage take overs, invitation, and full event branding.

The Chronicle Membership Program

As the lead designer, I spearheaded the development of The Chronicle Membership Program, a groundbreaking subscription initiative aimed at incentivizing new and current paying customers. The San Francisco Chronicle had been facing a steady decline in both print and digital subscribers, and we knew that we needed to offer more value to our readers in order to reverse this trend.

The Membership Program was designed to provide subscribers with a range of exclusive perks, from early movie screenings to curated art gallery tours led by The Chronicle's renowned art critic. These offerings were carefully selected to appeal to a broad range of interests and lifestyles, and we made sure that they were seamlessly integrated into the overall user experience.

Once the program launched, we saw an immediate impact on subscription sales. Within the first three months, we measured a 28% increase in new subscriptions, and by the six-month mark, we had achieved an impressive 44% overall increase. These results exceeded our expectations and confirmed the effectiveness of the program in driving subscriber engagement and loyalty.

Overall, the success of The Chronicle Membership Program was a testament to the power of design thinking in addressing complex business challenges. By putting the needs and interests of our readers at the center of our strategy, we were able to create a truly innovative and impactful solution that revitalized our subscription business and strengthened our relationship with our audience.

Planning & Design

I partnered with the Director of Subscriptions and Sales to build the microsite for the program. I worked with developers to conduct A/B testing and helped with QA using basic front-end coding (HTML, CSS).

In addition to capturing the digital audiences, I designed the branding specifically for the membership program, creating 50+ printed advertisements and program assets.