Branded/Essor

From TikTok Editor to Creative Media Manager (a hybrid role serving as both Creative Director and Social Media Manager), I helped Essor’s brands launch products that shine

• Role: Creative Media Manager

• Brand: Ototo

• Product-launch strategy: Every year, OTOTO, a kitchy and quirky kitchen gadget company, would release roughly 20 new products. Each quarter, we would release four to five products, often based on seasonality — like Halloween-themed products in Q4. Product launches began with founder calls, during which I gave feedback to my overseas founders and C-suite on new product ideas and the best ways to market them in America. Once products were approved, I moved into the content and creative asset development phase ahead of launch.

• Positioning: OTOTO positioned itself as the original playful kitchen gadget. We used a market-oriented pricing strategy, sometimes at a premium over the “normal” version of the tool. Our main competitor, Genuine Fred, relied heavily on pop culture, puns, and wordplay in their gadgets, so we decided to focus on character-driven storytelling. That’s why, in my social media content, I crafted personas and backstories/lore for each product and created a world where products interacted with one another.

• Campaign development: I developed organic and paid editorial calendars for product launches and worked closely with our paid ads team to identify promotional opportunities. Once I received samples of the new products, I directed my team of four full-time social media content creators to produce evergreen content for the product launch. I also flew from New York City to Paris to assist in the execution and creative direction of photo shoots for the new products. Once products launched, I made content that resonated with the zeitgeist to capitalize on viral trends and earn our products millions of organic social media views.

• Audience research: Together with OTOTO’s founders, I helped identify four customer personas to sell our products to: Mothers looking for a fun way to engage their children in the kitchen; Halloween fanatics; Gen Z, social-media-obsessed fans of our TikTok who frequently impulse-bought our products; and single/childless consumers ages 24-35 who had disposable income to spend on cute gadgets.

• Creative development: My team used a mix of static images from our photoshoots and short-form video to create engaging image carousels and trendy, high-performing TikToks and Reels. I have a knack for identifying TikTok trends that fit my brands, and our best content used these trends to entertain viewers while subtly marketing the product.

• Influencer strategy: I worked with our influencer team to identify influencers who matched the product well to create videos. Eventually, we started working with an influencer agency that made up to 30 pieces of content a month, all of which I reviewed and approved.

• Paid social: Once influencers posted their content, we would pay to boost it if it performed well and met our criteria for “viral” or directly drove a surge in sales. We would also repost some videos to our account if we felt our viewers would resonate with it.

• Results: 50+ product launches, a 33% increase in attributed sales, 1.3M views on top-performing product video, 60+ pieces of organic and paid monthly content, $20K+ monthly media budgets. Over 3.5 years, I also grew OTOTO’s TikTok to 233K followers and over 350M total views.