What's In? Why, Social Media is What's In!

Ah, yes. The long-awaited launch of the Marshalls/T.J.Maxx social media communities has occurred. What's In is set to take retail by storm!

Here's a little back story for you: a brilliant idea was hatched to create a social media site wherein Marshalls and T.J.Maxx customers could go into the store, spot a too-good-to-be-true find from a fabulous designer, take a picture of it with their cell phone and then upload it to the site to let fellow community members know that there's a fabulous [insert designer] [insert product] at the [insert city] Marshalls store! Plus, of course, members can create an online profile, post pictures of their favorite finds and ask and answer questions in forums.

How did this all come about, you ask? Frickin' hard work. Luckily for me, our dedicated team was very, very small. Luckily? Yes: I got to be intimately involved in everything from creating the site architecture to crafting all of the messaging. You know what, kids? Content strategy is tons of fun.

Here are a few screen shots from the site. (You can poke around it yourself at www.marshallsonline.com/whatsin )

My Shop On Swan Song

Well, right before I left, the rest of the Marshalls team and I went through a comprehesive rebranding of the Shop On campaign.

Here are a couple of pages from the "Aren't You Bright" direct mail piece. This is all swipe imagery, but the copy, oh, the copy's for real. Design by Melody Olbrych.

The Beauty of Signage

For the new limited-release of the Marshalls Beauty shop, I was tasked to write a signage package describing categories within the shop in the "Shop On" campaign voice. Tons of fun and pieces I'm pretty proud of. Take a little look-see:

Gotta Love the Cube

And I do. But my fondness for the department is soooooo (* quintessential teen/young adult speak. It takes a little bit of practice.) outweighed by my adoration for the microsite.

Here are a couple of shots from the site, www.marshallscube.com

(Design by Sara Rubinow)

Fall Web Madness!

Mm, okay, maybe not madness. More like, say, fall web refresh. Here are some screen grabs of our ladies', men's and home department pages.

(Design by Sara Rubinow, Michelle Carlson and Emily Taylor)
(And thanks to Pope Carlos for teaching me the joys of the apple-shift-4 screen grab image selection.)

What's More Terrifying Than Halloween?

Paying too much for your costume.

Or, at least, that's what we on the Marshalls creative team would like you to believe. Here's a look at one of my favorite iterations of this year's Halloween DM. It changed to a different look and feel as the direction from brand changed, but this was some copy I was sad to see go - especially the Halloween 2007 tag line on the back.

(Design by Pope Carlos)

Huzzah for New Campaigns!

Oh Marshalls Laws, I hardly knew ye...would be a lie. I knew you only too well. I've know the agony of fitting in an event message, a savings message and a cute little quip into eight words or less. Again and again and again. You paid my bills for a long time, but there's a new game in town and we're giving you the boot.

Enter the "Shop On" campaign (as created by Mullen Advertising). It's an empowered yet playful call to shoppers of the world, encouraging them to revel in the delight of shopping and celebrate the spectacular savings at Marshalls.

To that end, here are some pages from our Men's Fall DM. It's actually much longer than this, but I've pulled out some of my favorite lines. The piece is aimed at women who need to shop for fall clothes for their husbands, boyfriends or sons. (Or all three. I'm not here to judge.) Take a little peak and don't miss the first line of the last page. A personal favorite that went over big with the brand, as well.
(Design by Pope Carlos)

Fall Fashion by Way of the British Isles

One of our concepts for the fall package this year involved shooting in London and infusing British elements into the designs for institutional signage, web, direct mail, newspaper, consumer print and tv.

Alas, said campaign was not chosen, but here are a couple of signage elements for your viewing pleasure:


















(Designs by Pope Carlos)

Summertime Shopping Enticement

So, here in the retail world, we live many months into the future. You are living mid-spring and we are living back to school and fall. "What's happening in the future," you ask? Tunics again. And cures for all debilitating diseases.


I'll return for a moment, though, to your time and share with you a few pages of the oh-so-lovely summer direct mail piece, as designed by the talented Miss Melody Olbrych. Bask in the glow and then give in to the urge to buy sandals. (Digression: have you actually been in to a Marshalls Shoe MegaShop, speaking of sandals? Divine. And this is coming from someone who usually has a hard time with the whole "joy of the hunt" paradigm.) Without further ado:

Shoe Strategy

Here's a little concept I'm particularly proud of because it hit what our brand was looking for spot-on. One of the designers (Melody - it's often Melody. She's an insanely good partner for both concepting and design) and I were challenged to come up with a way to convey the key points of the Marshalls Shoe MegaShops (name not our doing) to frequent and infrequent customers. The crux of the Shoe MegaShop is that it is a much larger selection of family shoes in a layout that lets people shop by shoe and not by size. This direct mail piece was being sent to announce that the already-existing Marshalls in their area had just opened this new department.

And so, without further ado, the middle panel of copy from our "Stepped Up/Step In" concept:


(Design by: Anthony Shea and Melody Olbrych)

Thoughts on Directing Talent...

...or, Why Playing Shelby in a High School Production of Steel Magnolias Significantly Aided My Career


Having just listened to the final cut of the newest Marshalls CUBE radio spot with some senior management (rave reviews, thank you), they were struck by how the seemingly small changes in wording and intonation-directing that I made as we were recording enhanced my original script. And, actually, I got the same kind of pleasantly surprised reaction when I was working on a video series for Indiana University a few years ago. Change a few words, suggest a different emphasis and messages change dramatically.

So, of course, I smile humbly while giving myself a big old internal round of applause for putting in some quality time with the drama kids in high school. Because, what it comes down to is that you can’t write copy without inhabiting the personality of the voice. Some campaigns and companies definitely have more personality to their copy than others, but in order to write it, you’ve got to have a good understanding of that voice behind the copy -- just the same way you have to understand the character behind the lines in a play. And then, once you understand that character/personality/voice, you can make changes (or direct people to make changes) in ways that are true to that personality and message. So, I guess what it all comes down to is that I owe a certain portion of my skills as a copywriter to weeks of studying Ibsen in class and rehearsing Shelby on stage.

This also may mean I should have been less of a pain in the ass in class. Well, live and learn.

A little more about concepting...

Here was another little challenge. One of the designers and I were tasked to come up with a newspaper ad to call attention to the summer shoe selection without the benefit of an actual event. Read: make our standard institutional message compelling. And I think we did.

Here are our three concepts (designs by Melody Olbrych):

A little about concepting...

So here's a challenge I face at Marshalls on a regular basis: we're not able to mention the names of the designers or the stores from which we obtain our merchandise. They're big designers and high-end stores, but must remain nameless, nonetheless.

Here are a couple concepts one of the designers and I came up with to allude to "that high-end New York department store" without actually using the name. (Note: the Manhattan versus Lexington ave. versions depend on where the ad ran. Lexington Ave. would run in the New York market and Manhattan would run in Boston.)


(Designs by Melody Olbrych)

Marshalls Laws

Oh, Marshalls Laws, you've been my bread and butter for quite a while now. Since the laws I've written number in the several hundreds, let's look at a few of the favorites:

Marshalls Law #145

Find faux flowers for peonies on the dollar

Marshalls Law #34

Get gifts for dad at just a few bucks a pop

Marshalls Law #54

Shop for cropped pants without coming up short.

Every single law had to incorporate fashion and savings in less than 10 or so words. Again, I've written hundreds. That's commitment, baby.

(Above design by Sid Lee and Melody Olbrych)

Men's Trend Report

"What?" you say, "are there really fashion trends for men?" Just barely. Through the magic of copy, watch me create an entire Men's Trend Report based on madras and polos.

(Design by Michelle Carlson)

Marshalls Fashion Police Microsite

These Marshalls Fashion Police don't mess around. Just how tough are they? Well, judge for yourself at http://www.marshallsfashionpolice.com/. It's all a public relations tie-in to the Marshalls Law concept and, of course, it's all my copy.
(Design by Sara Rubinow)