Netflix needed some tagline and pedigree line options for its up-coming theater mockumentary comedy starring David Harbour of Stranger Things. It was one of their first mockumentaries about theater and acting, and so, to make it special, they wanted both the pedigree line and tagline to capture the serious silliness of the film. As copywriting with a touch of playfulness and wit is my speciality, I presented over 30 tone-appropriate options for both categories.
The final pedigree line chosen: A NETFLIX PLAYHOUSE FEATURETTE
The final tagline: DAVID HARBOUR AS DAVID HARBOUR AS DAVID HARBOUR
Here are some other fun tagline options for Frankenstein’s Monster:
MADE POSSIBLE BY RUSSIAN DIRTY MONEY
BREAK THE FOURTH WALL. AND THE FIFTH. AND THE SIXTH...
THERE’S NO CURE FOR TELEVISED THEATRE
ACTING IS A GHASTLY CREATURE
QUITE POSSIBLY EVEN STRANGER THAN STRANGER THINGS
SOME THEATRE IS BETTER LEFT UNTELEVISED
YOU’LL HATE IT SO MUCH YOU’LL LOVE IT
As Lead Copywriter at Harbor (now part of Citizen app), I was responsible for crafting the brand’s unique voice and utilizing this tone in engaging and informative e-commerce emails and drip campaigns triggered as users navigated the Harbor app.
Collaborating with designers, my goal was to maximize customer conversion rates. I balanced an informative yet friendly and conversational tone that highlighted the key features of the Harbor readiness platform while promoting special shopping discounts, app features, and encouraging user engagement.
Given that the subject of emergency preparedness can be serious and sometimes intimidating, this refreshing and lighter tonal approach not only improved user engagement but also significantly enhanced our conversion metrics, resulting in increased clicks, sales, and app downloads.
Here are a few examples of those high-performing emails.
As a Freelance Copywriter with We Believers Advertising Agency in New York, I was tasked to come up with a couple funny Virgin Mobile spots that poked fun at the stressful lives of customer service representatives - all to get more people to switch to Virgin Mobile.
A movie about food, travel, and love, Hallmark Channel’s A Pinch of Portugal needed a succinct, catchy tagline with a familiar food flair with a Portuguese twist. Playing with one of the most common quick-read food phrases on earth, I gave it a Lisbon wink.
In addition to LISBON APPÉTIT, other fun ones included:
COOK. PLAY. LOVE.
A CHOPPING BOARD TO CENTER STAGE STORY
GOURMET THE DAY
COOK WITHOUT RESERVATION. LOVE WITHOUT HESITATION.
Lucent Los Angeles tasked me with creating a new brand voice that embodied “LA cool.” I began by applying this voice to their boot line, and following its success, expanded the tone to their entire clothing product line.
The process included the development of on-brand product names and engaging descriptions for various items, such as jackets, shirts, button-downs, sweaters, slacks, and jeans. I maintained a consistent vibe, incorporating elements like aspirational movers and shakers, iconic LA locations, and exclusive California experiences.
Each clothing item received a unique product description that infused the new tone of voice. The descriptions evoked feelings of hope, creativity, wildness, and the encouragement to dream big.
As a result of these intriguingly crafted descriptions, we experienced a noticeable increase in sales. Below are a few examples of my favorite product descriptions that highlight this approach.
Each year at Hallmark Channel, we do a B2B Ad Sales campaign that focuses on appreciation for our partners via a number of Gift Mailers.
This is a good example of implementing the season’s global marketing “Countdown to Christmas” campaign, blending a cohesive brand tone and design with both digital and print, at multiple client-facing touch-points: E-blast with CTA, Website with Info Form, Thank You Page, and Printed Insert accompanying each gift.
Here are a few of 2024’s Ad Sales Mailers:
Throughout the year, Hallmark Channel changes their billboards to reflect the changing seasons and evolving trends. It’s my job to brainstorm, concept, and write tag lines for these billboards.
Pictured are some of the final lines chosen, and here are some other favorites I’ve come up with too:
Dear LA, We hope your day feels like one of our movies.
Whoever needs to see this, We Hallmark Channel You Very Much
Summer Checklist: Brunch, Beach, Sunset, Popcorn, Cuddles, Rom-Coms, Repeat
Hallmark story short – Yes, he’s the one, and now you’re a royal princess.
Summer is never a bummer on Hallmark Channel.
This is a sign that love is just down the road for you.
Summertime, and the Christmas is easy.
S’more Christmas Movies Please.
The Hollywood Hills are alive with the sound of Hallmark movies.
Hallmark Channel & Thrill
Nestle needed some taglines for Butterfinger that centered around the idea of using the idea of BOLDNESS for its Super Bowl commercials. Here are a few of the chocolatiest.
This was another Netflix tagline exploration for an up-coming “Lifetime”-like thriller with a strong female lead. It was groundbreaking for Netflix, so they wanted the line to capture the dramatic, suspenseful essence of the movie.
The final tagline chosen: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU REMEMBER
Here are some other final taglines I presented for this project:
A PICTURE’S WORTH A THOUSAND LIES
LOVE IS A POSSESSION
MEMORY LIES. LOVE KILLS
HE LOVES YOU TO DEATH
Fiction, 285 Pages - Published April 4, 2017
Colin is a lustful, failed writer living with his boyfriend Rudolfo in Astoria, Queens; he’s also a 9-to-5-er at Heller, Heller, & Hah, an esteemed insurance brokerage firm in a tall brass tower on Park Avenue. It’s a place where the verbal abuse is more pungent than the instant coffee shit-pods and the CEO is a Korean dictator in love with Napoleon and money. On Colin’s usual morning walk to HH&H, a tragic accident occurs and a revelation ensues. Bleeding out, Colin transforms into a wandering, shape-shifting soothsayer throughout time and place. Conjured by his own slow demise, Colin travels through kaleidoscopic memory, visions of the future, and the sacred, forgotten words of his past, eventually revealing the most important wisdom ever spoken to him. Wanton, surreal, and hilariously raw, Park Avenue Purgatory is a testament that lightly bears witness to the darkest of thoughts that hide within: Will this be the day one of us is found dead?
For Hallmark Channel’s month-long Valentine’s Day on-air and online stunt, Loveuary, there was a need for a digital package as a gift for all the fans that joined our new Book Club celebrating Jane Austen books.
Also, for the entire month we premiered Jane Austen themed movies, including Hallmark Channel’s own take on Sense & Sensibility.
Following the Brand Voice Guide I created for Hallmark Channel, I made sure the copy for the GIFs was playful, warm, and shareable so that true Jane Austen fans would immediately fall in love with them.
In addition to the ones highlighted here, I conjured up many GIF-brief, catchy copy lines, such as:
Proudly Austen-tatious
Read Between the Wines
Talk Darcy to Me
Here for Quips & Tips
Match Made in Pemberley
2 Literary to Quit
Got Wit, Won’t Quit
Strike a Prose
Darcy: OG Hallmark Hunk
Never Plain Jane
All Pride, No Prejudice
Hallmark Sense, Loveuary Sensibility
Obstinate, Headstrong Hallmark Girl
Jane Austen out of ten
Feeling Cute. Might Loveuary Later.
No Bookshelf Control
Manners & Manors
Wish Upon a Literary Star
Jane in the Membrane
Comma Here Often?
As Hallmark Channel’s principal Copywriter, I was tasked to brainstorm new taglines for its complete brand refresh. We wanted the line to embody the “transformational power of love,” yet also speak to Hallmark’s hopeful future of welcoming more diverse storylines and an ever-expanding audience. We decided to rejuvenate the brand by presenting it as an always-happy, always-loving place where one can escape to feel good.
The final tagline:
WHERE LOVE HAPPENS
Here are some other notable finalists:
LOVE REIGNS
HAPPILY EVER ALWAYS
THE FUTURE IS HAPPY
LIVE YOUR LOVE
WELCOME HOME
SEE YOURSELF HERE
THE CROWN OF LOVE
LONG LIVE LOVE
MADE IN LOVE
WELCOME TO LOVELAND
As Hallmark Channel’s very first movie about a gay love story featuring a gay couple as the lead characters, it was important for us to strike a balance between culturally playful, yet exciting. The line needed to have an inviting Christmas wink and cheekiness without hitting people over the head.
In addition to the clear winner, SAY GUNCLE, here are some other favorite final options:
KID TESTED, GUNCLE APPROVED
GUNCLE’S COMING TO TOWN
WON’T YOU BE MY GUNCLE?
WHEN THE NEIGHBOR HANDYMAN MEETS THE NANNY-MAN
FAMILY IS WHOEVER FLIPS YOUR PANCAKES
As Lead Copywriter at Harbor, a disaster preparedness platform and app, my constant task was to invent and manage a brand voice that could be ownable and distinct in the readiness space.
As part of that, one strategy was to come up with a way to engage with harbor’s growing community in a friendly, human, less stuffy way - to make our communications stand apart from government organizations like FEMA or the CDC.
After a naming convention exploration, I came up with the high five newsletter, “how to meet uncertainty like a badass.” I then regularly pumped out newsletters that had a unique and ownable brand tone that was engaging, approachable, young, fun, conversational, happy, hopeful, occasionally witty, and always helpful.
Spectrum was in the process of launching their new mobile service, and they wanted to target a cross-section between the Hispanic market and the General market.
I was brought in to infuse a uniquely American insight into the scripts as well as young-and-fun language that could appeal to both English and Spanish speakers.
For example, knowing that “eando” was the equivalent of “ing” in English, I came up with many “Spanglish” words like “FaceTimeando” or “BingeWatcheando.”
During the process, I proposed multiple scripts of completely original songs, each with varying tones and insights. I even sang the songs for the client. Some of the song options I presented were:
Spectrum Mobileful, Spectrum Mobileability, Spectrum Mobiling . . .
The Spectrum Mobilicous script had to be my favorite:
SPECTRUM MOBILICIOUS
Girl: There’s a new mobile plan in town, and it’s ambitious
Boy: Word is, it’s called Spectrum Mobilicious
Girl: Unlimited TALKalicious, TEXTalicious
Boy: Hit up your boys, it’s Facetimealicious
Girl: Work with your girls, it’s side-gigaliciuos
Boy: Get swole all day, it’s YouTubealcious
Girl: Binge-watch all night, it’s Netflixalicious
Boy: Swipealicious, Matchalicious
Both: Save on your bill, it’s Cashalicious
Both: With Spectrum Mobilicious
Part of my job at Hallmark Channel is to come up with billboard lines/concepts for the holidays. This billboard is especially important because it sits right outside Crown Media’s headquarters in Studio City, LA.
Pictured are some of the final lines chosen, and here are some other favorites I’ve come up with too:
It’s Love O’clock
Watch your heart out, Cupid.
You’re as beautiful as the day we subscribed to Hallmark Channel.
Tonight you’ve got a double-date with popcorn and Hallmark Channel.
The most heart-healthy workout in 2022: Hallmark Channel
2022 Resolutions: Pet puppies, Eat cookies & Watch Hallmark Channel
Next year we’re putting a giant Christmas tree on the moon.
There’s no time like the Hallmark present.
Hallmark movies are a girl’s best friend.
When your zodiac sign is a Christmasittarius…
As Lead Copywriter for Harbor, an emergency preparedness app, I had the opportunity to contribute to the brand's development, launch, and ongoing redesign of the app experience from the ground up.
In this role, I was responsible for writing and editing the complete UX/UI experience within the Harbor app (now part of Citizen app). This included establishing naming conventions, creating all informational content for the 11-week emergency preparedness program, and detailing potential risks such as hurricanes, wildfires, and earthquakes. I also developed Harbor’s Brand Voice Guide, ensuring consistency across in-app language, marketing communications, e-commerce, email drip campaigns, and social media.
The combination of playful yet informative content and a user-friendly experience significantly enhanced user engagement, resulting in positive feedback from our community.
For a closer look at the content and tonal aspects of this UX/UI project, here’s a brief screen recording walkthrough along with a selection of screenshots.
As part of Hallmark Media’s year-end Ad Sales corporate appreciation Mailers, we send out a nice bottle of champagne to some of our corporate clients in celebration of a successful year.
The copy is cohesive with Hallmark Channel’s 2024 Countdown to Christmas theme, “Joy to Your World,” while the design leans more into Hallmark Media’s corporate look of purples and celebratory graphics.
This is an example of copy/design synergy with a cohesive E-blast with CTA, Website with Info form, Thank You page, and Printed Bellyband for the accompanying gift.
At Supercharged, an LA-based fitness, life coaching, and philanthropic collection of brands, I was responsible for all email marketing. Instead of trying to “sell” our products via email in a salesy kind of way—because no one reads those emails!—my strategy and alternative approach was to keep our growing community of fans engaged and inspired to be their best selves.
To achieve this, we blasted out catchy, on-going, and easy-to-read tips for personal empowerment, happiness, and well-being to foster a sense of belonging. Instead of trying to overtly get something tangible from them, we gave them something intangibly priceless: increased self-love. From this, we saw increased growth and engagement with the company across the board. Result?
They bought more things.
Hallmark Channel Wines needed to push their brand new canned Cheers bubbly Rośe for the summer. We needed to capture the summer fun vibe of the wine, the convenience of it, as well as the Hallmark ethos of joy and celebrating life’s moments.
In addition to the lines chosen for the web campaign, these were some other favorites I bubbled up:
Drink Pink
DIY pool service, anyone?
Happy as a can
Pretty in Pink Rośe
Fizz into Summer
Rośe for every pool dé
Marco Yolo
A Hallmark movie in a can
Tastes like a Hallmark movie
Poolside vibes with your lady tribe
A toast to your happily ever after!
From California with love
Others choose beers. You Cheers!
No glass? No problem.
Pool your summer resources.
In addition to launching the Harbor safety app, we also launched a family of completely new safety products. The goal here was to create easy-to-use, no-nonsense products that were sleekly designed, playfully named, and also effective at keeping you safer.
As Lead Copywriter for Harbor, using the Brand Voice Guide I created, I conducted extensive copy explorations to name all of our new products, and I explored snappy, catchy taglines for each product that would convert well for ads, social media, and other communications.
Shown are pictures of the final products that were available on our Harbor Shop, which sold out quite regularly (Harbor has since been acquired by Citizen app). Here are the final names and accompanying final tag lines:
Fire Stopper. Save space. Stop flames.
First Aid Flask. Your on-the-go safety bottle.
Pain Stopper & Pain Stopper Pro. Face trouble. Patch wounds. Feel better.
Cut & Shatter. Never get stuck.
Flame & Rain Blocker. Heatproof. Wetproof. Worryproof.
Shock & Lock. Like seatbelts for your cabinets.
Shake Stopper. For Earthquakes, Kidquakes, & Petquakes.
Sun Shower. Sun-warmed water. On-the-go shower.
This is the second spot in the series of Virgin Mobile funny videos that I helped write. Here Carlos is clearly on the front lines of what it’s like to be a customer service representative at a company that is clearly not Virgin Mobile.
Los Angeles Magazine needed a snappy, entertaining, easy-to-read article about the bougie yet welcoming Montana Avenue shopping district in Santa Monica. On behalf of the Montana Avenue Merchants Association, I wrote a piece that highlighted the wellness aspect of the street and its upcoming holiday walk.
As a Freelance Copywriter at We Believers I was the lead writer for Aaron’s social media under the “Own It” tag line. Our team was responsible for maintaining a regular month-long social media calendar, which included Facebook and Twitter posts as well as banner ads and promotional concepts for in-store and in-stadium events.
The third installment in Netflix’s popular family-friendly Christmas movie, A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby needed a simple tagline that had a sprinkle of happy intrigue and a sparkle of hopeful holiday delight.
Playing with the idea of “expecting” a baby and also a cheeky suspense for what’s to come next in the story, the final tagline chosen was:
THIS HOLIDAY SEASON EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Here are some other favorite finals:
HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE ONE
HEIR ON THE SIDE OF MAGIC
IT TAKES A CHILD TO RAISE A KINGDOM
LITTLE THINGS BRING EVERYONE TOGETHER
Hallmark Channel fans are really into destination romances, and so Love’s Greek to Me, a love story on the famed beautiful island of Santorini, was the perfect choice to go big with catchy key art and a tagline that summed up the story in a sassy way.
In addition to the final tagline, here are some other favorites that spoke to Greek culture and family:
OLIVE YOU, AND YOUR FAMILY TOO
MY BIG NEW FAMILY TREE IN SANTORINI
AN ARCHAEOLOGIST LEARNS TO DIG SOMETHING NEW
ISLE LOVE YOU TO YOUR FAMILY AND BACK.
A bold, new fashion brand based here in LA - Lucent Los Angeles - needed a fresh brand voice that felt all-at-once edgy, playful, luxurious, sophisticated, manly, and distinctly Made in LA.
To accomplish this, as inspiration I used aspirational movers and shakers, LA’s coolest places and streets, and only-in-California experiences, from which I could guide all branded communication. I also incorporated an ever-constant, energetic thread that is wholly unique to this city: hope, creativity, wildness, and encouragement to dream big.
While many products are actually quite similar, through an unmistakable brand voice, I set out to make each and every product special, and therefore elevated and worth a purchase. These images capture just some of my many favorite names and descriptions.
For Hallmark Channel’s Number 1 Fan Sweepstakes, there was a need for a digital fan package as a gift for all the fans that submitted an entry.
Following the Brand Voice Guide I created for Hallmark Channel, we wanted the copy for the GIFs and social media backgrounds to be playful, warm, human, and shareable so that fans would immediately smile when they saw them, actually use them, and also share them with friends.
Here are some examples:
Sketch comedy scriptwriting (and acting) is a passion of mine.
As such, with my comedy partner, we regularly write, produce, and act in our own SNL-style sketches that we share on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
This is a selection of just a few of my recent sketches. Check out more on my YouTube Channel: Buffunny
For this story, Hallmark Mystery needed a tagline that captured both the overall love story and also the heartwarming message of the movie - that art teachers inspire students to be their best selves. In addition to the final chosen, some other catchy tag lines included:
THEY’RE IN A CLASS OF THEIR OWN
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COLOR IS A DREAM
TWO HEARTS TEACHING AS ONE
TEACHING IS A WORK OF HEART
In a push for more love stories that embrace Hanukkah and Jewish traditions, Hallmark Channel’s Hanukkah on Rye boldly invites all to celebrate in a uniquely Jewish story of coming together. As the movie title is already playful, the tagline needed to maintain that playfulness yet also shed some light on the plot, which centered around a latke recipe.
In addition to the winner, here are some more lines that I loved writing:
OY TO THE WORLD!
A NEW YORK DELI LOVE STORY OF GELT OR GLORY
TWO RIVAL DELIS. ONE ROMANCE IN A PICKLE.
HAPPY CHALLAH DAYS
For Hallmark Channel’s smashing new TV series, The Way Home, we needed a tagline for Season 2 to synergize with the bold new key art that was all about the legend of the Landry family, the magic of the pond, diving into the past, and getting to know the characters on an even deeper level.
Here are some other creative lines that exemplified this strategy:
A TIME TO BE BORN, A TIME TO DIVE
DIVE FORWARD TO THE PAST
HOW FAR WOULD YOU REFLECT?
LANDRY WATERS RUN DEEP
THE FAMILY POND RUNS DEEP
THE ANCESTRAL DIVE DEEPENS
THE LEGEND OF THE LANDRYS
PONDER THE POSSIBILITIES
ARE WE JUST A DROP IN THE POND?
EVERY FAMILY POND HAS A BEGINNING.
ONCE A POND A TIME…
For Season 11 of one of Hallmark Channel’s most beloved series, When Calls the Heart, we needed a line that encapsulated the love of the series, new paths and horizons, healing, hope, and a touch of playfulness.
In addition to the final line, THE HEART OF SOMETHING NEW, here are some other favorites I came up with too:
HOPE HEALS ALL WOUNDS
PIONEERING A NEW PATH FOR ALL
HOPE ON THE HORIZON
HAPPINESS ON THE HORIZON
HOPE HEALS EVERY HORIZON
THE DAWN OF SOMETHING TRUE
TURNING OVER A NEW LOVE
HEALING HEARTS. NEW STARTS.
As the harbor shop continues to expand, we wanted to personalize the ecommerce shopping experience, so that when someone opens up a product, it doesn’t just feel like any other box of stuff in the mail. We wanted to offer a touch of specialness to it.
In our team, I came up with the idea/concept to play off the old HOLLYWOODLAND sign as a way to make the harbor shop experience feel bigger than just a store, but an actual always-hopeful and safe destination - a magical dreamy place where one feels adequately prepared for anything.
We created an actual front-and-back postcard that you can display on your fridge, and on the back there’s a cute thank you note along with a QR-code CTA to download the harbor app to further synergize all silos of the harbor business.
For Hallmark Channel’s A Scottish Love Scheme, we wanted to portray destination love story vibes and the beauty of Scotland, while hinting at the storyline that also included a whisky business - without making the movie sound like it was all about drinking alcohol.
The winning line was definitely my favorite line that I wrote, but here are a few other fun ones too:
LIFE IS A WHISKY BUSINESS
FROM AULD ACQUAINTANCE TO HIGHLAND ROMANCE
AULD FRIENDS MAKE THE BEST FUTURES
A LOCH OF MEMORIES UNLOCKS A HIGHLAND HAPPINESS
IN THE HIGHLANDS, LIFE IS SERVED NEAT
IN THE HIGHLANDS, MEMORIES ARE SERVED NEAT
ONLY THE HIGHLANDS RAISE YOUR SPIRITS
RAISE YOUR SPIRITS
For Hallmark Channel Wines, we wanted to promote our holiday wines online with snappy headlines that drove click-through to buy all four wines: Holly, Jolly, Jingle, and Joy.
In addition to the winning lines shown here, some other options I whipped up were:
Let it Snow & Let it Breathe
It’s about Christmastime for Good Wine
Four Holiday Trends for Your Family and Friends
Nothing was stirring, but glasses were definitely pouring
Good will & Good wine toward everyone
Christmas Class in a Glass
Hallmark Channel’s hyper-successful TV series, When Calls the Heart, needed a refreshed tagline for the new season that symbolized a happy, hopeful future in Hope Valley, while also igniting intrigue and mystery as to what might come next.
In addition to the final, GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO HOPE, here are other finals I came up with for the show:
HOPE SPRINGS
WHERE HOPE SPRINGS, LOVE FOLLOWS
FOLLOW YOUR HOPE
When I joined harbor there was no social media presence at all. We began with Instagram and worked our way outward to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok. The goal was to epitomize the harbor ethos in social media form.
During this time, I created the brand’s tonal guide, which we used for all social media posting, all customer-facing communication, and the tone for the entire app as well. We didn’t want to feel fear-based, doom-and-gloom, or boring. We wanted to bring humanity, approachability, and even humor to disaster preparedness.
Here are some notable examples from IG, or you can check out harbor’s IG account. In addition to all the copy, I also had a hand in a lot of the design work using FIGMA. Additionally, you’ll see a video with a glimpse of the social media video that I created myself.
Another hit for Mahogany - a Hallmark Cards product line catered towards people of color and also now a movie franchise within Hallmark Media - Napa Ever After needed a catchy line that could continue to inspire new audiences to tune in.
This was the winning line, which captured both the tone of the story, wine-tasting vibes, as well as a bit of plot line:
OLD VINEYARD. NEW PAIRING.
Here are some other favorite lines that I came up with:
LIFE UNCORKED
AGED TO AFFECTION
SEALED WITH A SIP
NOTES OF THE PAST. HINTS OF THE FUTURE.
DECANT STOP LOVE
Non-Fiction, 260 Pages - Published October 8, 2014
Enjoying the fat of the land isn’t always an easy process; it takes time to float up. Sometimes things are separated and left behind in a dizzying whirlwind, and sometimes you’re stuck at the bottom of the centrifuge of your seemingly sour life because all your dreams still have yet to coagulate.
A non-fiction memoir, American Cream is the neo-immigrant tale of one man’s soulful, hilarious struggle – churning through every definition of the word “bottom” – to rise, rise, rise in hopes of finding the thick essence of what it means to live happily, somewhere at the top.
From an old island of Thai snakes, Russian thieves, and emotional shipwrecks, he floats on couches back to the new world, a land called Wal-Mart County. Scalded from the heat and frustrated with something tapping within, he whips away to the big apple, which turns out to be far from peachy. Haunted by the timeless, swirling words of a wizardly fisherman named James, he then scales the slippery paper walls of the welfare office where it’s raining babies. He soon wades through the evil gym caves of the rancid-rich, and encounters Bessie-Ann the deer nurse, Sandy the crab-puppeteer, Crab-apple the liar, and all the other gooey creatures that creep in the city’s deep.
After visions of a mysterious coastline, a spring rain comes again and brings with it a growing new sound, the revelation of something bright, lush, yellowish-white, and finally ready to be scraped away.
Hallmark Channel’s super-fun story about a woman having her quinceañera later in life, Never Too Late to Celebrate, needed a line that was as cheeky as the story itself. Additionally, the line needed to capture Hispanic-America viewers with a bit of Spanish - a fast-growing target segment - so they would tune in more to the network. We also need to maintain core viewers; so the line couldn’t be too far out there.
This is the sassy line that beat the rest:
QUINCEAÑERA AT 30? NO PROBLEMA.
Here are some of the other fun final lines:
AGE IS JUST A NUMBER OF QUINCEAÑERAS
TWO QUINCEAÑERAS ARE BETTER THAN ONE
TWO QUINCEÑERAS OLD & READY FOR THAT TIARA
Christmas at the Golden Dragon is one of the many All New Hallmark Originals that symbolizes Hallmark Channel’s new strategy to showcase every kind of love story from every culture. Therefore, the tagline needed to highlight a fusion of Chinese culture, family, love, and of course include the rom-com flair that Hallmark is always known for.
In addition to the line chosen, here are some other fun lines I wrote:
DIM SUM-THING WONDERFUL ABOUT LOVE
SOMETHING DIM SUM-THING WONDERFUL ABOUT LOVE
SERVING CHINESE FUSION OF FAMILY AND LOVE
A VERY MERRY WICHITA KANSAS CHINESE LOVE STORY
A WICHITA KANSAS CHINESE LOVE STORY
FAMILY IS THE GREATEST FORTUNE
WHERE FAMILY IS THE GREATEST FORTUNE
LOVE IS ALWAYS THE TASTIEST CHINESE DISH
LOVE IS ALWAYS A SIT-DOWN MEAL
At Hallmark Channel, we teamed up with the Bissinger’s brand to spread awareness of our holiday programming while also clearly promoting their holiday-friendly chocolate Advent calendar and their hot cocoa bombs on our website. I helped whip up catchy lines that would be a quick, delicious read for our target audience:
In addition to the winners shown here, some other lines included:
All is Calm, All is Chocolate
Sweet Your Heart Out
Chocolate to the World
Oh Chocolate Divine
Dreaming of a Cocoa Christmas
Santa Loves Milk & Cocoa Bombs
Loco for Cocoa?
During Hallmark Channel’s “June Weddings” linear TV stunt, we saw an opportunity for Hallmark Channel Wines to highlight one of its newest sparkling wine products: Sparkle
Here are some other fun lines on top of the ones shown here:
For every Bubbling Bride
I now pronounce you Sparkling
Rom-Com meet Sparkle
Bottomless Rom-Coms, anyone?
Be the reason someone Sparkles today
filmMED, a healthcare marketing agency start-up, needed revamped, fresh, and exciting online presence that encouraged more clients to join their agency. They wanted to stand out from their stodgy, stuffy competition in the healthcare marketing agency arena.
After conducting a brand voice competitive analysis, I created a new brand tone that was approachable, happy, fun, and human - in other words, no more stale medical marketing talk.
I then used this new Brand Voice Guide for the new website launch and for accompanying e-blasts, social media, and other branded communications. The result was positive feedback and brand new clients.
Here are a few screenshots of the web copy:
Come Fly With Me is one of Hallmark Channel’s pushes to capture that slice of the market that’s patriotic, all-American, and pro-military. A unique story that’s all-at-once love story, family story, and a bit Top Gun, the line needed to capture both military vibes - in an approachable Hallmark way - and a key part of the story about a heart transplant.
Here’s the line that won:
THUNDERBIRD HEARTS CAN’T BE BROKEN
These other lines that came in a close second:
STARS, STRIPES, HEARTS FOREVER
FAMILY IS WORTH FLYING FOR
HOME OF THE BRAVE. A HEART TO SAVE.
During my time at Supercharged Fitness as head Writer & Content Strategist, I was tasked with revamping the brand from stuffy to sassy. In addition to redoing the entire website and crafting over 50 gen-Z friendly blog posts, I also wrote a stockpile of over 30 mini-scripts intended to be filmed for social media to spread the word about Supercharged. Here are some examples of those videos that I also directed.
As Lead Copywriter & Content Strategist at harbor, I was tasked with helping to revamp the harbor SHOP with catchier risk-specific headlines, product descriptions that were fun to read, and added value copy that highlighted interesting facts about each of our products.
For the product descriptions specifically, we wanted each product to have some personality that would make shoppers smile, instead of just spouting off features and prices. For instance, for a solar lantern from luminAID, the product description was, “When life gives you lemons, make luminAID” or for a water storage container made of plastic bricks the description was, “She’s a BPA-free FDA-approved brick house full of water.”
For the added value copy specifically, we wanted an “Aha!” moment for each product. For instance, for an enamelware percolator, the line was, “Fun Fact: Enamelware became popular in the Industrial Revolution and is popular still!”
I’ve included some screenshots, but to fully enjoy the breadth of work, feel free to explore the harbor SHOP here.
Hallmark Mystery was launching a new flagship mystery series, and we needed a catchy tagline that showed the lead character as a powerful female hero who always sets out to get justice and find the truth. We also needed to make it clear that this was not just a movie, but an entire series launch.
In addition to the line chosen, here are some other options I came up with:
JUSTICE IS JUST BEGINNING
JUSTICE IS JUST THE BEGINNING
THE TRUTH IS JUST THE BEGINNING
THE TRUTH IS JUST BEGINNING
A NEW FIGHT FOR TRUTH BEGINS
NOW SHE’S GOT A MIND TO FIGHT INJUSTICE
INJUSTICE IS JUST BEGINNING TO GET A PIECE OF HER MIND
JUST THE BEGINNING OF JUSTICE WINNING
A cute movie about board game designers falling in love, Hallmark Channel’s Game of Love needed a tagline that quickly evoked this cuteness with an intriguing wink enough to get people to watch the film.
In addition to the winner, ROMANCE DOESN’T PLAY AROUND, here are some other playful finals:
PLAYING HEART TO GET
YOUR MOVE
ALWAYS PLAYED WITH BOWS ‘N EROS
HEART TO WIN
RELATIONSHIP ADVICE FOR DICE
FROM NO DICE TO PLAYING NICE
Along with gifts and printed inserts, Hallmark Channel sends out email blasts to entice Ad Sales clients to register for the gifts. I added a needed dose of friendliness and playfulness to the copy and the CTAs.
To keep our Ad Sales clients engaged during the holiday season, Hallmark Channel sends mailers with unique gifts and printed branded inserts. I saw an opportunity to add a touch of warmth and playfulness to the copy, so that everyone who opened up a gift would smile and feel good. Here are a few examples.
Maintaining relationships with advertising partners is paramount to Hallmark Channel’s continued success. One way we keep people in the loop is with gifts mailed out to partners to thank them for their business and get them excited for our upcoming content.
The challenge with this particular mailer included making a gift of wine and cards cohesive with speaking to our upcoming seasonal franchises. The end result was something both informative, yet happy and generous.
When I joined the harbor team, they didn’t have any TikTok presence. So, as Lead Copywriter & Content Strategist I took it upon myself to create TikToks that were relevant to the readiness and disaster preparedness realm like tips, safety tricks, and fun facts.
Some videos have garnered thousands of views. All TikToks for the harbor brand can be found here, and the video here is a sampling of a few of my favorites.
It’s also important to note that on my personal TikTok page, multiple videos have reached 500k and reached over 140k likes. Be sure to check that out too!
As Hallmark Channel’s Copywriter, one way I support the Consumer Marketing team is by spearheading the naming explorations for new wines launching for Hallmark Channel Wines.
Pictured are some of the new seasonal wines that I helped name, and below are some of my other favorites that I came up with during that brainstorming process:
Snuggle Season
Harvest Swoon
Rainbow Rain
Yay Ray
Day Date
Golden Hour
Razzle Dazzle
Fall Y’all
Be Grapeful
Pajama Party
Trick or Sweet
Bloom
Glow
Yay!
Glitz
At Harbor, we wanted to not only increase our SEO-friendliness, but also provide valuable content that both entertained and informed about all things emergency preparedness, readiness, and resilience. (Harbor has since been acquired by Citizen app.)
Here are several of my favorites out of many written and edited:
Hallmark Channel headquarters (Hallmark Media) in Los Angeles needed to add some much-needed flair to the office as we returned from working from home. I repurposed many of the billboard lines to create posters used throughout the building to inspired creativity and a mood boost.
Hallmark Mystery needed a tag line for the heartfelt Italian family drama, Our Italian Christmas Memories. It needed to all-at-once capture the essence of Italian culture, family, love, togetherness, nostalgia, and the importance of food.
In addition to the line chosen, here are more Italian fusion lines that I whipped up:
SAVOR EVERY MOMENTO
FOOD IS LOVE. FAMIGLIA IS EVERYTHING.
FOOD IS AMORE. FAMILY IS EVERYTHING.
GOOD TIMES ALWAYS START FROM SCRATCH
For In Merry Measure, Hallmark Channel needed a tagline that playfully reflected a love story sparkling in the midst of a heated singing competition. In addition to the line chosen, here are some other favorites I came up with:
DO-RE-MI-FA-LA-LA IN LOVE
JOIN THE CHORUS. WIN CHRISTMAS.
THEIR VOICES ARE JOYFUL. THEIR HARMONY NEEDS A LITTLE WORK.
Can an app make PrEP as Easy to Get as Pizza?
Nurx’s tech-based approach to prescribing Truvada cuts out the shame and inconvenience of a doctor’s visit.
Hallmark Channel’s Betty’s Bad Luck in Love presented a unique challenge in that we needed to show key art with a tagline that adequately told the story of our protagonist’s “curse,” without going against any of Hallmark’s brand attributes. We didn’t want to get too morbid, sad, or even Satanic, but we did want to evoke that something lightly dark and magical was at play.
In addition to the winning line, here are some other finals that I wrote:
ACCEPTING HEX-BOYFRIEND APPLICATIONS
WILL HE BE HER FUTURE HEX-BOYFRIEND?
SPELLBOUND OR BOUND TO BE TOGETHER?
A GETTING HEXED TO GETTING HITCHED STORY
MALEVOLENT SPELL OR BENEVOLENT TALE TO TELL?
BEWITCHED, WILL SHE EVER GET HITCHED?
LOOKING FOR ROMANCE, THE HEX-TENDED EDITION
Here’s just one of several published essays in Human Parts Magazine on Medium. I love writing about real-life situations, sexual encounters and learnings, super-raw emotions, universal spirituality, honesty, and humor. My essays have garnered thousands of Medium “claps” and highlights.
My first job out of grad school getting my MBA was at the renowned ad agency, The Community Ad Agency, working at first as a Junior Account Executive and then as an Account Executive for many brands, one of which was Remy Martin.
As The Community was small and nimble, I wore many creative hats, including not only the day-to-day duties of managing the client/creative relationship but also throwing my Copywriting ideas into the ring.
This is one of the first 360-degree global brand campaigns I worked on - THINGS ARE GETTING INTERESTING - that included various ooh, print, web, video, social, and gorilla iterations in locations around the country, especially NYC.
Here are a few visuals I was able to scrounge up from back then that showcased what was a truly provocative campaign (for its time) featuring lesbian relationships, three-ways, bondage, and heavy sexual innuendo:
Hallmark Channel’s The Wedding Veil has turned into an on-going multi-movie franchise, and as such each new movie needed to have a familiar vibe to it while also feeling new enough to capture the excitement of an ever-evolving story.
For this sixth movie, SET VEIL TO SOMEWHERE NEW was the clear winner, but here are some other favorites I enjoyed creating:
AVEILABLE HEARTS GROW STRONGER
MAGIC MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER
VEIL AWAY TO NEW BEGINNINGS
AVEILABLE FOR ADVENTURE
This is one of my first published pieces back in the day. At the time some of them went decently viral with thousands of views and shares. I still love to write about humor, relationships, sexual encounters, fitness, spirituality, and the creative process.
As part of Hallmark Channel’s on-going strategy to diversify its storytelling to show all types of love, including LGBTQ stories, this movie exemplified an opportunity to show simple, approachable key art with a tagline that hinted at the story of two women falling for each other. The key was subtlety: authentically hint at a lesbian love story, while also not alienate viewers with subject matter they might not be familiar with.
Here are several other taglines that almost made it:
HOLD THE PERSON WHO HOLIDAYS YOU BACK
YULE ALWAYS FIND WHO’S BRIGHT FOR YOU
LOVE ALWAYS SHINES A WAY
LOVE SPARKLES WHEN YOU LET IT
In addition to coming up with web copy, scripts, blogs, newsletters, and all written content for the brand, at Supercharged I was responsible for all social media concepts and captions on all channels as well. Here are a few Instagram examples from the time that our creative team decided to focus on the idea of empowerment.
Hallmark Channel needed a catchy tagline for their All New Original, A Kismet Christmas. It needed to encapsulate the somewhat magical themes of the movie, that destiny is guiding us all. It also needed to give a little hint at the story of how it call comes down to the cookies.
In addition to the line chosen, here are some other fun ones I helped whip up:
YOUR STORY’S ALREADY SMITTEN
YOUR NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO BE SWEET
TRUST THE COOKIE
YOU HAD ME AT COOKIE
LOVE’S JUST WAITING FOR YOU TO MAKE THE FIRST COOKIE
TV spots shouldn’t be boring; they should make you laugh out loud and make you want to join in on the fun. This was a script I wrote as a proof of concept; I also acted in the sketch as well. Because the best part of waking up is definitely not poop in a cup. Because good coffee.
Hallmark Channel needed a fun, whimsical, magical tag line that matched the energy of the All New Original, A Magical Christmas Village. As this movie was not a typical rom-com, with elements of childlike wonder, the tagline needed to make a reader feel the same without saying it.
In addition to the final line, here are some others I dreamed up:
WHAT IF SOMETHING SO SMALL COULD BE SO GREAT?
BE HAPPY WHAT YOU WISH FOR
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MINIATURE THINGS
IT ALL BEGAN WITH A WISH
REMEMBER WHEN YOU FIRST WISHED?
REMEMBER YOUR FIRST WISH?
A SMALL TOWN WISH. AND MAYBE A KISS.
MAKE A WISH UPON…
