SUGARFIX by BaubleBar Carding
The Background:
In 2017, BaubleBar launched a collaborative online and in-store partnership with Target. It was called SUGARFIX: a collection of accessibly priced accessories that Target shoppers could scoop up alongside their groceries, cosmetics, and front-of-store Starbucks order.
By the time I arrived at BaubleBar in 2019, the SUGARFIX line was a major success. The BaubleBar wholesale team worked closely alongside Target on the line’s product development, and the marketing team supported their endeavors with occasional social features and email plugs.
In 2020, BaubleBar.com launched a line of novelty earrings (think dangly charcuterie boards, studded sushi rolls, and tiny ice cream trucks). For that specific collection, marketing leaders hoped to create a unique packaging experience that spoke to both the product and our brand voice. The intention was for these earrings to be immediately gift-able, requiring no wrapping in addition to the product itself.
One of BaubleBar’s co-founders asked me to lead the copy development for this packaging project. I ended up writing unique copy that sat on the carding for each set of earrings, which is the piece of packaging that earrings are bolted to when you first purchase them. The earrings sat in a box, and when it was opened, you’d be greeted with a fun sentence or two about your new accessory.
This copy soon caught the eye of the Target team, who had their own line of novelty earrings in development. They approached us and asked if I would write similar copy for their earring carding.
The Challenge:
This project presented a unique challenge, since I didn’t work directly for Target — meaning that I had to satisfy BaubleBar’s needs of brand voice and continuity while also staying within the parameters of Target’s editorial guidelines. Additionally, I needed to make the copy particularly eye-catching and unique, as the Target team was especially interested in driving in-store engagement with the product.
The Solution:
For close to three years at BaubleBar, I ideated and wrote the copy that sat on all of SUGARFIX by BaubleBar’s earring carding (in every Target location across the U.S.). Soon, thanks to great sales results, the packaging concept expanded to other product categories, including necklaces and bracelets. Our strategy also drove significant in-store engagement and a noticeable uptick in SUGARFIX UGC — specifically images that showed Target customers shopping the collection in person.
Eventually, I also trained and oversaw another copywriter in the development of this packaging.
This was probably one of my most rewarding projects to date. There’s nothing quite like taking a quick trip to Target and getting to see your own words.
Here are some images that SUGARFIX customers snapped while shopping the collection in-store:
About Us Page
The Background:
When I started at BaubleBar in 2019, the brand’s About Us page hadn’t been updated for a few years. When we eventually sat down in 2021 to review its content and copy, our takeaway was that it really just wasn’t an accurate representation of the brand anymore.
The Challenge:
There were a lot of ideas and opinions about the right direction to take for this project. Some thought we should tell the brand story. Others thought we should keep it as simple as possible, using it as an opportunity to shout out our loyal BB community. One thing was certain across the board, though: everyone wanted to emphasize the breadth of assortment that BaubleBar now sells, having previously offered just jewelry. This was the perfect opportunity to bump the brand up to a level amongst other full-assortment retailers.
As I approached the project, I needed to take into account the two founders’ POV, what message about the brand we wanted customers to walk away with, and how the content and copy could prompt a reader make a purchase — or interact with our products in another meaningful way.
As we brainstormed, we also identified this project as an opportunity to create a new brand tagline.
The Solution:
First I worked with BaubleBar’s co-founders and marketing leadership to ideate and land on BaubleBar’s new tagline, Embellish Every Day.
Next, on the About Us page, we found an innovative way to tell BaubleBar’s unique story, highlight the brand’s product offerings, and honor our community — all while staying true to the brand voice.
This new page presented an easy route of discovery for new customers and, in addition, a place for third-party editors and journalists to learn about the brand. This page is often quoted in BaubleBar’s press hits:
The Background:
An often overlooked element of the marketing mix is retention strategy. Many claim that email marketing, specifically, is “over” — and choose to set their sights on more emerging platforms, like SMS. However, the email marketing team at BaubleBar saw an opportunity to win customers over (or back again) using an abandonment email strategy and enlisted my help. At the time, our abandonment email series — which is what’s automatically sent to customers when they abandon a page, cart, or checkout — wasn’t driving significant conversion or meaningful brand awareness. But the team knew it had potential, so they decided to devote the time required to revamp it.
The Challenge:
Not only was the series not driving what we needed it to, it also just didn’t align with our brand voice or larger brand strategy. At all. We needed to figure out a way to solve both inconsistencies in order to offer the customer a seamless brand experience and encourage them to shop again.
This was the most in-depth email marketing project I’d ever worked on. Abandonment email series are complicated: they’re automated, there’s a list of criteria that different types of customers need to meet to receive certain messages, and what seems like one million different flows to pay attention to. Getting to know each flow and deeply understanding where the customer was in their journey was essential to making this project worthwhile.
The Solution:
The email marketing team and I worked together to completely overhaul the current abandonment email series. I met the challenge of ideating copy strategies that aligned with our larger brand voice, but also addressed essential email marketing needs. The result was punchy, creative writing that enticed customers to click through the entire email experience. I incorporated references to pop culture, calls for urgency, and enticing offers where relevant.
Once the new copy strategy and content changes were put into place, we saw pretty immediately that our work drove increased CVR and, as a result, daily demand.
Below, I’ve included some examples of high-performing subject lines and few full-experience flows.
Email Abandonment Series
Subject Line Examples
Flow Examples
Subject Line
Once opened, the following email copy was displayed to the customer:
Subject Line
Subject Line
Once opened, the following email copy was displayed to the customer:
Once opened, the following email copy was displayed to the customer:
Subject Line
Once opened, the following email copy was displayed to the customer:
NBA x BaubleBar
The Background:
Recognizing a gap in the market for on-trend licensed accessories, BaubleBar developed and designed a collection of officially licensed NBA products. The collection — launched for the first time in 2021 and refreshed each basketball season thereafter — featured earrings, necklaces, bracelets, charms, and more. It also helped further establish the brand as a reputable and reliable licensing partner in the market, with NBA joining Disney on BaubleBar’s roster of world-renowned licensers.
The Challenge:
When we launched the initial NBA x BaubleBar collection, it was the first time we’d spoken directly to a sports demographic. Since I oversaw BaubleBar’s content strategy and copy, I completed extensive market research on other fashion/sports collaborations, as well as our target audience, to help bring this launch, collection, and campaign to life. Bringing that information to the table, I then worked closely with BaubleBar’s creative director, photographer, and graphic designers to brainstorm compelling content strategies, assets, and copy that would stand out amongst the sports-fan crowd.
Delving into the sports category also required me to, funnily enough, keep up with sports themselves. To ensure that our content calendar was hitting important NBA milestones throughout the season, I had to stay up-to-date with team standings, playoff calendars, and fan sentiment. I also went the extra mile to write targeted copy that would resonate with our customers, learning the characteristics of each team we carried — including their city, mascot, slogan, rivalries, and colors.
Another challenge of a partnership like this was developing content and copy that also aligned with the NBA’s own brand guidelines and styles. Not only did we have to meet our own brand standards, we had to do so within the parameters of the basketball league giant, too. Each asset we created was sent to the NBA for review, and we worked closely with them to ensure that we were representing their brand in a way they’d be proud of.
The Solution:
The NBA x BaubleBar collection was a resounding success, paving the way for two other major sports licensing partnerships for BaubleBar (see NFL and MLB, which I also both worked on, below). I led the content and copy strategy for the initial launch, as well as updates to the collection for the rest of my time at BaubleBar.
Ads:
Emails:
Press:
NFL x BaubleBar
The Background:
Seeing the positive reaction and interest to the NBA Collection inspired BaubleBar’s licensing team to pursue a partnership with the NFL. The NBA collection was limited to just a few popular teams, so for the NFL x BaubleBar collection, they hoped to create accessories for each of the 32 NFL teams. That way, BaubleBar would be offering something to every football fan — no matter their team allegiance.
The Challenge:
Similar to the NBA collection, the NFL partnership required me to do an extensive amount of market research to determine exactly what kind of content and positioning would resonate with both current and new customers. However, the NFL was a much larger and broader demographic than we had taken on previously, prompting an even more extensive competitive analysis and deep dive into the audience we would be speaking to.
I also needed to ensure that the content and copy we created met the NFL’s brand guidelines. Using the same process we implemented with the NBA, each asset we created was sent to the NFL for review. We didn’t always get their voice exactly right the first time, so editing our creative required an immense amount of collaboration with the NFL team and a willingness to be flexible and creative.
The Solution:
Armed with a deep understanding of each team’s fan base as well as the applicable NFL demographic, I successfully created content and copy strategies that were unique and brand-new in the sports fashion market. Specifically, I capitalized on the lack of truly on-trend sports merchandise — landing on a catchy, overarching positioning of “bringing fashion to football.” I also used a lot of football-related language to describe our products in a fun, fresh way.
The NFL x BaubleBar collection was another hit success, and we continued to launch collections with the NFL each year of my time with the brand. I project managed each of these launches, continuing to oversee positioning, content strategy, and copy.
Excitingly, our unique collaboration earned a shoutout from AdWeek, which I’ve linked below.
Ads:
Emails:
Press:
MLB Collection
The Background:
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably not surprised that BaubleBar decided to seek out a collaboration with the MLB next. By this point, the brand was becoming known for its sports collaborations — so adding another professional league to the mix just made sense.
The Challenge:
Similar to the previous two sports collections that we launched, this project also required an extensive amount of research on the MLB, its fans, and the demographic that our content and copy would serve to reach. One important nuance with this collection is that we wanted to keep these sports launches exciting — while it seemed like a natural next step, this launch was really an answer to the hundreds of requests we had gotten from customers asking for MLB accessories. We wanted them to know we were listening.
The Solution:
This launch relied heavily on a teaser strategy. We used our community’s voice to create our own content, sourcing the comments we received over the past year that had asked for a collection featuring MLB teams and repurposing them for our own assets.
A huge advantage of this project was that we were already well-versed in what kinds of content and copy resonated with a sports-minded audience. I was able to strategize more efficiently with our creative team to concept exactly the kinds of assets we needed to create.
