Be a nerd.
It’s fine.
About
In the midst of building the “Whatever You’re Into” campaign, the leaders of TeePublic were focused on a series of experiments specifically targeted at the post-purchase experience for first time customers, hoping to gain insight into what leads to customer retention.
In a cross-functional team retreat, we developed a hypothesis that retention is formed when a customer understands and remembers TeePublic’s unique value proposition within the market. That is, our immense breadth and depth of unique design content. From there, the experiments were developed, the majority of which involved a large contribution from my team, including direct mail, new packaging, package inserts, a magnet and more.
My Role
ϟ Creative strategy
🗨 Creative direction
↗ Data and research
✎ Copywriting
✂ Graphic Design
☁ Concept and brainstorm facilitation
⁂ Project management
Credits
Kate Melvin - Creative Direction & Graphic Design
Jillian Fisher - Photography art direction & illustration
Nate Mumford - Photographer
Erica Lutz - Prop stylist
Direct Mailer Experiments
After years of testing direct mail, we knew it resonated with customers and brought them back. However, we hadn’t gotten granular about what content worked best. With this experiment we were focused on testing education of our value prop: that whatever you’re into, no matter how niche or weird,
an artist on the TeePublic marketplace has probably made it. And you can get it on anything you want. We tested three different sizes of mailers, a small 4x6 with minimal branding, a larger 6x9 with slightly more copy, and lastly a large bifold to truly communicate the TeePublic story.
In the TeePublic universe, “nerd” is a compliment. We’re all nerdy about something, whether it’s comic books, cooking, or even sports. We wanted to encourage customers to be themselves, no matter what. But we had to play it cool, too. So just be a nerd. It’s fine. Who cares?
We also wanted to emphasize that TeePublic isn’t some robot-run factory in the middle of nowhere. We’re real people with real interests, just like you. It was important to speak in a casual, irreverent tone to level with customers who very well could be our friends in real life.
