I joined Sephora in 2022 to lead a creative team of designers and art directors who worked on multiple business units—Organic Social Creative, Sephora Collection and Sephora's iconic annual consumer event SEPHORiA. Since then, I've been a creative leader, deeply involved in projects at strategic as well as executional levels, managing people, process changes and cross-functional relationships, while navigating reorgs and business shifts. Under my supervision, we grew Sephora's cultural illustration projects to full-fledged cultural campaigns, collaborating with artists, beauty founders and influencers. I oversaw the transition from in-house production of social stills to Reels; and expanded our video capabilities from YouTube long-form videos to short-form talent videos for Instagram. My team began creating top-performing social content like clever memes and trend-inspired videos for major sales moments like Holiday and Sephora Savings Event and our evergreen Sephora feed, flaming fandom of the brand. We also relaunched the Sephora Squad branding for Sephora's influencer program; and orchestrated two successful years of SEPHORiA, despite unprecedented weather events.
This page gives a gives an overview of the work I've been involved in for the last 2.5 years.
Sephora social cultural illustrations began as collaborations with artists from diverse communities. We started with stills and lightly animated GIFs, continually expanding the types of communities we represented and spoke to.
Sound on for the animated videos below! These videos represented the first evolution of our cultural campaigns, utilizing music created by Sephora Sounds artists (talented, rising artists showcased on Sephora's social channels) in tandem with commissioned visual artists. In one instance, we told the story of a Sephora employee for International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
The illustration program was supported by product-based stills and reels that allowed shoppers to support brands created by founders from the community, and talent-based videos that showcased talent (influencers and founders) from the communities
We also added talent videos to the mix, highlighting Creators, Founders and Sephora employees from the communities, delving into GRWM storytelling and IYKYK themes while celebrating diverse brands.
Additionally, I oversaw the transition from product stills to product-based video shoots, and incorporating parts models in our posts, which was a crucial capability as Reels were increasingly favored by the Instagram algorithm. A few examples below.
I also oversaw the shift from purely designed posts (that weren't performing as well on social) to branded but native meme-ified content that blew up on social, and capitalized on the fandom of the Sephora brand and trending products. In videos, this relied on low-fi filming and trending formats like the student quiz example below and trending sound. We relied on this high-performing format heavily during sales to boost sales.
Occasionally, we had a little extra budget to build something more ambitious in-house or by collaborating with artists who are known for their distinct style on social media, to create something unique for Sephora. One such example is our collaboration with creator Aleia which promoted the concept of skincare with a side hustle. The products were shown working their 5-9 gigs! These performed so well, that we later collaborated with Aleia on our Sephora Savings Event post as well.
I also advocated for testing talent shoots with a wider group of directors who had social-first ideas and a desire to make something more ambitious than a standard beauty video showing makeup application. These videos also performed well by following social best practices like a strong hook at the start of the videos and tight editing.
Last but not least is SEPHORiA, Sephora's consumer-facing live beauty event that brings brands, founders, beauty influencers and clients all under one roof to allow the community to celebrate their common love for beauty. I worked on this high-visibility project two years in a row. The events happened in late September on the East Coast, and each year, we faced inclement weather conditions but didn't let that stop us from putting on a great show. For SEPHORiA, I was leading the design evolution as well as produced social promotions with a lean in-house team of three designers and an external agency partner. 2023 theme: New York, 2024 theme: Funhouse. Illustrations by Jade Purple Brown.
