Creative strategy

An animation of a squiggly teal line

Case Study

CCA Brand Campaign

California College of the Arts (CCA) educates the next generation of artists, designers, and futurists through critical discourse and purposeful practice. As the school expands upon 116 years of impact in the San Francisco Bay Area, we created an institutional campaign that embraces the plurality and possibilities of now and what’s to come.

Pole banner reads "Futures of CRAFT" and "CCA in San Francisco" against a striated background of purples, blues, and pinks. Right hand side shows a jewelry arc welder heating a sheet of metal.
Static black text reads "futures of" with animated words changing below with words like "play, community, design, storytelling, craft, interaction, and architecture."

  • Debut of CCA brand font

    Visual ASMR

    Highlighting work by CCA artists and designers

    Open-ended messaging

  • Pole banners

    Bus sides

    Hyperallergic

    SF Arts Monthly (NY Times insert)

    Juxtapoz

  • 88.8K impressions on outdoor

    160K circulation on print placements

    80K impressions digitally

Client
California College of the Arts

Year
2023–2024

Role
Creative Director and Copywriter

Team
Joyce Alcantara
Nick Lea Bruno
Joel Gregory
Giorgia Sage

Concept

The foundation of this campaign is speculative design, a methodology to envision better futures. Our campaign reflects this iterative, inclusive, and radical spirit.

A conical shape sits in the middle of a line with "past" to the left and "future" to the right. Layers of the cone imagine impossible, possible, plausible, and probable options.
  • A pole banne reads "Futures of Storytelling" with work by Nicki Shocks to the right: A patterned dress against a same-patterned wallpaper in a white frame.

    Futures of [storytelling]

  • A macro photo of oil in water; shadows of dark green and orange color the image.

  • A pole banner reading "Futures of PLAY" with "CCA in San Francisco" near the bottom against a salmon organic background. Left side shows a curved wooden sculpture by Bryce LeFort.

    Futures of [play]

  • A macro photo of oil in water; a gel casts a salmon glow on the image..

  • A pole banner reads "Futures of ART" in a sans serif and digital font. The bottom reads "CCA in San Francisco." A 3D printed face fills the left-hand side.

    Futures of [art]

  • A close up of a 3D printed topography colored by teal lighting and shadows.

Case Study

A future in the making

How do you simply and dynamically share the art school experience? This multi-platform campaign centered art-making as a way to stop people in their (scrolling) tracks with something beautiful and unexpected. Copy and CTAs supported the goals of boosting enrollment through the funnel—from lead to inquiry to applicant.

  • Our campaign centers on visual ASMR: the hands-on vantage point of the maker. Copy added messaging points about location, diversity and inclusion, return on investment, and more.

  • Facebook, Google Search, Instagram, LinkedIn, programmatic display, online video, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube

  • 25.11% increase in web traffic

    Paid user numbers up 23%

    19.5% increase in new users

    Users 18-24 increased 29.47%

    Google Search was main conversion driver, with an industry-beating CVR and CPA

    TikTok campaigns drove highest CTR in top-of-funnel channels at 1.41%, with high engagement in 13-17 demographic (CTR of 1.43%)

    Display ads had overall CTR of 0.59% (against platform benchmark of 0.07%)

    Snapchat was highest click-driving channel

A two-part square ad that reads Critiques now / Careers next
A split-screen vertical GIF of a student sewing an arduino into a yellow jumpsuit on top and hot pink paint on the bottom. Text overlay reads: 'Rigorous theory, radical practice' then 'A future in the Making.'
A banner ad for CCA

Client
California College of the Arts

Year
2020–2023

Role
Creative Director and Content Strategist

Team
Jackie Mantey
Nick Lea Bruno
Joel Gregory

A split-screen image of someone pulling glass on the left and painting navy circles on the right.
A split-screen image of the golden gate bridge on the left and a student drawing architectural plans on the right.
 

Scrollytelling

Implemented a new design platform, vev.design, to create dynamic web experiences and enhance narrative and visual storytelling.

 
 
 

  • Worked with our Education Technology Services team to find and develop a storytelling solution outside our locked-down CMS (Wagtail) that enables animations and dynamic content with a flexible interface.

  • Nikol Plass, web producer; Althea Solis, developer; Joel Gregory, design

 
 
Visual director and writer for this dynamic page supporting prospective undergraduate students with portfolio resources

Bringing portfolios to life

Visual director and writer for this inbound content, which supports prospective undergraduate students with portfolio resources.

Strategy

  • Keyword clustering to increase organic reach

  • Worked with experts to develop page content

  • Use dynamic features like scroll to reveal, click to expand, typewriter animations, and GIFs

 
A screen recording of the story "What Does Making Look Like Now?"

Scroll-based storytelling

Interactive photo essay about students returning to in-person making at CCA

 

Data-driven experimentation 📈

 

Ongoing comprehensive reporting has been crucial to continually developing strategy, sharing work wtih stakeholders, and evaluating efficacy.

 
 
 
 
 

Case Studies 🔎

A screenshot of an inbound marketing piece

Key(word) research

Google Search Console informs my keyword strategy on inbound marketing blogs and SEO stories.

Mission-driven messaging

Our top-performing ads featured messaging about creative action. This data directly informed our copywriting strategy for the second half of the campaign.

Storytelling through data

Google DataStudio provides an up-to-date dashboard for reviewing website metrics.