Custom Studio for Microsoft
High-volume, fast-paced creative team of production designers, copywriters, QC, project and design managers creating 40,000+ digital assets annually.
This team augments Microsoft’s in-house e-commerce studio team and supports markets in the Americas, EMEA & APAC.
The work displays on Microsoft.com, Microsoft Stores app, Xbox console dashboard, and in various ads online.
My role: Built and owned the delivery of this multi-million dollar program from Nov 2017 through Jan 2022. Hired and managed 25+ creatives with a 99% retention rate. Continually analyzed and optimized our success metrics (KPI’s) for quality, efficiency and improvements. Client satisfaction very high.
Quick stats:
120K+ assets created
~70% of assets visualized online, on digital storefront and on gaming platform
$110.4B in revenue supported
Team responsible for preparing thousands of titles for Xbox. Depending on which country these display, assets are manipulated in photoshop for size, image quality, removal or addition of content, etc.
Work appears across various channels, including Microsoft.com. creative review, quality assurance and approval rounds are built into studio operations. Assets are released in various CSM tools, including Adobe Experience Manager.
During the Holiday Campaign each year, the volume increases by more than 30%. Additional short-term hires are added to support this. Successfully scaling studio up and down meets client goals.
Team writes and designs to specifications. Promotional moments, like Holiday Campaigns, have guidance and templates, but the team has creative freedom within these perimeters to best promote the products.
Microsoft has promotional campaigns throughout the year and toolkits provide guidance for us. Requests come directly from internal clients inside Microsoft. Our team handles all the project management, quality control (QC), revisions and rounds and delivers finals, thus alleviating some of the operational responsibilities for Microsoft.
The challenge. The solution. The results.
https://www.teksystems.com/en/insights/success-stories/microsoft-creative-design-production-studio
https://www.teksystems.com/-/media/teksystems/files/success%20stories/creative-studio-success-story.pdf?la=en
I led this program from Nov 2017 to Jan 2022.
Rebrand: Group Health to Kaiser Permanente Washington.
Website(s), online ads, print materials, pharmacy digital displays, building signage, event materials, brand guidelines, etc.
My role: Associate Creative Director (supervisory and hands-on design) Contract role to supplement in-house team and successfully launch a major rebrand.
Rebrand. Designed websites, print materials, pharmacy kiosks, building signage, and various digital assets from Group Health to Kaiser Permanente.
Complete overhaul of website to adhere to new Kaiser Permanente brand. New, regional photography was selected or shot for Northwest market.
Hundreds of web and print materials were redesigned during this 8-month rebrand.
Designed displays for various locations in buildings throughout the Northwest clinics and hospitals.
https://www.slideshare.net/MichelleKindall/kaiser-permanente-exam-room-screen-displays
Coinstar® is the global leader in self-service coin counting with 23,000 kiosks worldwide. During my tenure, we expanded into Spain, France Germany and Italy. Coinstar processes more than $2.7 billion worth of coins annually.
My role: Creative Director. Led an in-house team of 6-10. I also managed creative freelancers and provided support to marketing with agency partners.
Various marketing for Coinstar: Web banners, ads, UI kiosks, emails, mobile ads, B2B banners for grocery stores. Hired and provided the creative oversight for contract illustrators, copywriters, motion designers, UI/UX designers, and front-end developers as needed.
Redbox and Coinstar ran promotional campaigns together. Under the parent company Outerwall, we shared resources for engineering/development. Our creative departments were separate and collaborative.
In addition to Redbox promos, my team created created campaigns with Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot and various groceries. These offers often required quick turnarounds and highly-coordinated teams.
In addition to the digital marketing, my team was responsible for creating all physical kiosk signage and in-store displays (stantions, window and floor displays, etc.) New campaigns, like the “How much money do you have in your jar?” were distributed to all kiosks nationwide.
Understanding our user was key to successful marketing. Heuristic evaluation, personas, journey mapping and interative testing gave us information on how best to prioritize what’s most important to our users.
The new kiosk, Coinstar Exchange, allowed you to sell your gift cards for instant cash. The former Coinstar website required a complete overhaul to accommodate this new offer. My team provided the prototyping and testing, and we hired and collaborated with an outside development team to launch.
New Features: Location mapping with new iconic graphics of both machines, real-time estimates for gift cards. Live social feed.
The original user interface was complicated and needed improvement. Evaluations, focus groups, and research informed us where the break points were. Upon launching new UI, there was an 50% improvement in transaction rates.
In addition to digital marketing, we turned up the in-store marketing with conveyor belt graphics and grocery cart signage.
Our in-house team handled all email campaigns and social. Annually, we worked with an outside agency to create videos.
Summer Sunglasses Campaign
Part of a small team that creates seasonal promotional marketing campaigns for Kaiser Permanente Eye Care of Washington. I serve as the creative/art director and create the overall concept as well as providing much of the collateral. This includes website banners digital ads, digital in-store displays, emails and landing pages, in-store banners, posters, flyers, window clings, exam room slips and various other assets specific to the campaign.
These typically run quarterly.
