Emily Resling O'Connor

My role: Copy, design collaboration, stakeholder presentation.

Starbucks Reserve Coffee highlights incredibly special, small-lot coffees. The challenge is to take an in-depth, passionate, multi-page brief and create a micro-story (120 words max) about the people, place, and culture behind one specific bean source. These stories are either clipped to, or printed on, the specific bean's packaging. I was lucky enough to do a handful of them during my Shanghai Roastery contract. Here are my three favorites. 

Julep’s first major brand campaign.

My role included multi-day photshoot production, content strategy and creation for influencer box, B2C strategy for customer acquisition across all channels.

I acted as “expression prompter” during our photoshoot, sitting just off camera talking to our models, drawing out their most authentic and confident selves for the camera to capture.

While each woman was in hair & makeup, I spent one-on-one time connecting about her beauty routines, her philosophy on makeup, the pressures to be beautiful, things that make her feel confident. What she would say to her younger self. Where her beauty confidence or insecurities came from. The stories revealed to me were incredible in their vulnerabilities and intimate details. Tears were shed. Belly laughs had. Hands held. These testimonials served as the foundation for the entire #bravepretty movement, which was alive and well (and thriving!) up until Julep’s acquisition in the late twenty-teens.  

My role: Content strategy, copy, SME approvals, stakeholder management.

An early challenge for this B2C educational piece was to inspire B2B partners to care enough to share it with customers.

The solution was landing on a content strategy rich enough to make a difference for the reader, light enough to not overwhelm, and a joy to read, adhering to the brand’s “brave, nerdy, joyful” brand voice.

This became Leafly’s most-requested B2B support item. Keeping partners happy and helping customers find the right cannabis? Check and check.

My role: Brand storytelling interviews and research, long-form copy, CTA copy, product naming.

Fat Cork's inaugural holiday Champagne catalog. 

Loaded with brand story, anecdotes, tasting notes, gift sets, and Champagne facts. 

My role: Content strategy, copy, stakeholder management.

Sample of deliverables Julep provided to retail partners Nordstrom, Sephora, Beauty Brands, and Ulta. Includes website banners, brand pages, in-store signage, and staff education sheets. 

My role: Pre-launch brand concepting, naming, planning; launch events; all copy everywhere physical and digital; product naming and menu writing; establish all social channels and manage content and cadence for four years.

I was on the lean team that launched Marination Mobile, America's Sauciest Food Truck. Marination Station came next, then Marination Ma Kai.

I get free food for life. It's written into the employee handbook. (I wrote it.) 

Here’s a smattering of what those years looked like.

My role: Concept creation including pitch, copy.

I created three concepts to drive Zoo and NW Trek annual membership. This one, the client's choice, is called "Priceless." 

Value is a highly motivating factor in consumer spending, and this concept is a straight-shooter.  Head shots of animals paired with a now-classic cultural phrase work together to highlight the value of membership. The take away: Membership pays for itself in three visits, but no price tag equals this up-close and personal experience with wildlife. You get so much more than you pay for.

My role: Content strategy, copy, mapping the station for message hierarchy (eg: "hello, and good buy" at the fare booth) to avoid repetition and keep the entire activation fresh and delightful.

To celebrate and promote the first Nordstrom Rack opening in Canada, we launched an omni channel campaign that included covering every available ad space In Toronto's bustling Yonge-Bloor subway station. This went live on opening day, the new store was up at street level from this station. In addition to introducing the Canada market to the Rack with value props around every corner (latest trends, lowest price), we wanted to convey an overall feeling of Rack's excitement to finally be in Canada. 

At the same time, opening day ads went live on social media, across various publications through media buys, and inside the trains that came to this station.

My role: Research, copy, user testing

Leafly worked with scientists and certified labs to create a more-clear system for talking about cannabis. Indica, sativa, and hybrid don’t tell the whole story, and Leafly’s core mission is to educate consumers on how to find the right cannabis for their personal goals.

We developed a brand-new language for cannabis based entirely on lab data. It’s complex, there’s a learning curve, and this four screen pop-up was the beginning of the B2C journey.

My role: Research, content strategy, copy, stakeholder management and presentation.

Leafly gave the cannabis industry an entirely new language to better understand cannabis based on lab data — and introduced it with a pizza box delivery to thousands of legal retailers across the country.

My work journey involved data scientists, cannabis SMEs, editorial and creative professionals, budtenders, retail owners, growers, and Leafly leadership. My challenge was to make an extraordinary amount of scientific info digestible and sticky.

Pizza box included: a introduction letter with QR code to dive deeper, a wall poster to help customers understand, a counter mat for educational touchpoint at point of sale, and terpene “trading cards” for educational merchandising.

My role: Research, content strategy, storytelling, copy, stakeholder presentation to globally-dispersed team.

This project was an incredible challenge creatively, strategically, and user experience-wise. I loved it!

The ask was to build an app that used augmented reality to help customers inside Shanghai’s Starbucks Roastery understand the unique, functional, and historical details of the building, while also providing a map and description of the seven bars spread across the building’s four floors, plus storytelling the history of coffee and Starbuck’s dedication to the global industry, as well as work as an alert system to grab your beverage when it’s ready. The app is geographically tied to the building, the full experience is only available to people within 100 yards of the Shanghai Roastery.

My role: Overall holiday theme, product naming, packaging copy, in-store assets, B2C channels, B2B educational materials.

This Holiday

Thrill your list with big, joyful gestures and lavish little moments. Give conversation starters. Give secrets you can't keep. Give Julep—the only beauty gift where 'beautiful' is just a bonus. And get Julep, too. Yes, something for you!

When you look good, you gift good.
Give. Get. Gifted.

This page in order:

Holiday catalog launch sample

PR Gift Guide

Holiday product naming sample

In-store signage for retail partners

My role: Collab pitch, packaging copy, interview collaborators for digital storytelling. 

Julep releases 1-3 hero products each month. Press mentions include: Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Oprah, Rachel Zoe's "The Zoe Report", Byrdie, Refinery29, Allure, and Glamour.  

A hodge podge of Julep things.