Selected Works
Health Savings Account Video (Saturna Capital)
Motion Graphic Video, 1 min. -
Writer / Animator / Narrator
While serving as an in-house media producer for Saturna Capital, a need was identified for investor education regarding the benefits of Health Savings Accounts with an eye toward promoting Saturna’s own low-cost offering. I proposed a brief video and adopted it as a personal project, serving as writer, animator, editor, and narrator.
I began by distilling elements from Saturna’s existing HSA brochure into a digestible, one minute narration, aided by conversations with Saturna’s fund distribution specialists to highlight what they wished retail investors knew about Health Savings Accounts. I then recorded my own reading of the resulting script. Using it as a skeleton, I designed a “piggy bank” variation of an orca (the orca being a staple of Saturna iconography at the time) and used it, along with motion text and stock images/clips to reinforce the script with visual elements.
Halal Money Matters Podcast (Amana Funds)
Episode 4, “Hajj: 2020 and Beyond,” 50 min.
Producer / Editor / Co-Host
As the creator, and, at the time, producer/editor/co-host of the podcast Halal Money Matters—a series focused on Islamic finance—my co-host and I decided to produce an episode about the practice of Hajj amid pandemic shutdowns. With its niche subject matter, the Halal Money Matters audience was overwhelmingly made of Muslim investors. The episode explores the costs and financial implications of Hajj, how to invest for it in an Islamically compliant fashion, and impacts of pandemic shutdowns on Hajj pilgrims.
My co-host Monem Salam secured Imam Tahir Anwar as our guest and I set to work researching Anwar, watching his talks, and writing interview questions for Monem and I to share. We held the interview remotely over Zoom and after, I edited the podcast, produced a transcript, and ushered the resulting episode through our internal compliance process to ensure it met FINRA communications standards—applying disclosures where needed.
Digging for Idols - Podcast Market Research
Market Interviews to Evaluate Content & Artwork
Writer / Interviewer
This market research piece was created for Digging for Idols, a podcast that I produce and co-host. It was also created as my semester project for COMSTRAT 565 - Professional Marketing Communication Management and Campaigns, as part of the Strategic Communications MA program at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. The course centered on the use of theory and research to guide communications campaign decisions. For it, I conducted twelve interviews with confirmed Digging for Idols listeners. During each, I presented them with a sample of unaired audio from the podcast to gauge interest in new avenues of subject matter for the podcast, followed by a draft of a Digging for Idols poster to measure the clarity of and demand for an innovative design as potential podcast merch. I analyzed the interview results qualitatively and draw conclusions as written in the report, which includes transcripts of all twelve interviews. In addition to demonstrating course knowledge, it was applied practically in podcast production to guide the show’s approach to pacing and editing moving forward.
The materials market tested for Digging for Idols listeners as created for COM 561 were innovative to the scope of the podcast and would represent new formats and topics if adopted. As a small show with a niche focus, the best testing method seemed to be in-depth interviews with confirmed podcast listeners, allowing for rich conversations that touched on why they choose some podcasts over others, what they like about Digging for Idols, how accommodating they would be to the tested approaches, and their desire for and immediate perceptions of a unique poster design presented to them in real time. I leveraged the podcast’s social accounts to invite participation and secured twelve subjects with conversations taking place over the course of several weeks through a mix of online video conferencing and in-person meetings. The conversations were recorded (with permission) and transcribed. Key words, reactions, and answers to questions were pooled and weighed for frequency and strength across all interviews. The results were written in this report which includes the conclusions reached and the resulting changes to the poster design as well as a subsequent podcast episode that leaned toward the listener preferences as discovered in interviews.
“Thryftids” - Digital Marketing Campaign
Digital Media Awareness Campaign
Designer / Strategist / Concept By
This digital marketing campaign with mock-ups was created for COMSTRAT 563 – Digital Content Promotion, as part of the Strategic Communication MA at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. It’s based on a real concept I have for a social multimedia venture called Thryftids and the course—which focuses on the use of digital media platforms for advertising, PR, and persuasion campaigns—was a perfect setting to develop what promoting a project like Thryftids would look like. For this project, I did all the writing and graphic mock-ups
The campaign began with a concept—Thryftids—that I have had kicking around my brain for a while. It’s ultra specific in subject matter and, most pertinently for this project, would constitute an ongoing multi-platform presence using social media video, podcast, and even beyond digital platform with a print companion. The campaign plan calls for slogans, messaging, goals, as well as demo graphics that would seek to build followership across platforms, seeking to cultivate depth of engagement as opposed to breadth. All assets were created by me using Adobe tools, in some cases incorporating elements of royalty-free assets from Pexels.
Designed to open the launch of Thryftids as a project, the campaign begins with an assessment of what Thryftid is and its most basic needs, designing an awareness push from there that establishes its complex central conceit to targeted audiences. It then gently seeks to build followership across multiple platforms. It constitutes a playbook for the initial wave of communication and assets that would support growth based on planned objectives.
Severin Films - Brand Relationship Proposition
Brand Analysis & Relationship Pitch
Writer / Strategist / Designer
This project was created for COMSTRAT 564 – Consumer Behavior and Brand Development as part of the Strategic Communication MA program at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. The purpose of this course was to thoroughly define the concept and function of a brand and learn strategies for managing a brand’s relationship with its consumers/followers. To that end, I chose a real company—boutique physical media distributor Severin Films—and over the course of the semester researched the deeply held emotional and psychological factors that lead collectors to work against market trends in their purchasing of physical media from companies like Severin. The totality of my findings resulted in a proposed label under the Severin Films brand.
The concept, the Severin VHS Cult (a subscription services that supplies customers with monthly curated remastered VHS format exclusives), pitches that sub-brand and proposes a relationship between it. The touch points listed seek to meet the core targeted audience where it is, acknowledge their reverence for physical media, and focus on distributions of lost films in formats that show respect for filmmakers and collectors alike.
The highlight of this project was engaging in a thoughtful level of depth in my interviews with Severin customers. Exploring their preferences and allowing their strongly held preferences to be seen and understood was essential in the creation of the proposed sub-brand. Although the proposed subscription service focuses on what the public might call a “dead” format and actively works against the larger marketplace, it was fascinating and exciting to build a concept around a depth of understanding of a niche consumer group.
