Turning BARK’s flagship DTC product into a brand powerhouse.
For six incredible years, I had the privilege of serving as the primary creative leader at BARK. In this role, I developed and oversaw a dynamic team responsible for toy design, copywriting, packaging, and marketing creative.
The founders had established an irreverent brand voice for BARK in the years leading up to my tenure, but my job was to define our humor and standards for quality and guide every execution from crazy idea to reality. My job was to execute the ultimate vision of what the BARK brand could be; in every product, easter egg, paid social ad, unboxing experience and poop joke.
I codified a mission for the team: make the world’s best products and experiences for dogs (and their people).
My mission: make our products absolutely irresistible and fabricate a modern lifestyle brand out of a “dog toy company”.
PRODUCT AS CONTENT
For BARK‘s monthly subscribers, I treated the monthly collection calendar as if it was original content on a streaming platform. An entertaining, broadly accessible storyline (theme) and truly unique product suite (toys and treats) they‘d never received in their monthly box. After all, customers pay more for their BarkBox than Netflix and Hulu combined. I didn’t take that for granted.
For the BarkBox plush line, the goal was to ship the cutest, funniest, most surprising and original, highest-quality dog toy in the world.
During my time leading creative at BARK, I turned the team into a relentless idea factory, inventing new play patterns, iterating on wins and learning from losses. Over and over. Thousands of new products and product launches.
LICENSING FOR GROWTH
We released our first licensed collection for The Grinch Movie in 2018 and its success paved the way for an entirely new view strategy for subscriber growth. Immediately, we set out to launch unique, category-best collections with every top tier media company and their flagship properties.
BRAND PARTNERSHIPS
Beyond our DTC subscription lines, we brought dog people and their favorite brands together with truly exceptional product drops that sell out faster than a greyhound’s zoomies.
EXCEPTIONAL FUNCTIONAL DESIGN
BARK’s plush toy business has traditionally been the most popular product line – always the boldest, silliest dog toys in the market. However, the design team’s primary brief was always function. These products might be “toys” but dogs play rough and use toys to soothe and work out their animal instincts.
Beyond the flagship plush toys, I’m extremely proud of my time growing and leading the team of talented industrial designers behind our popular Super Chewer hardline output. That side of our toy business does more than anyone in the industry to solve the functional brief while delivering award-winning, timeless design to the world of dog toys. The team continues to use the constraints of materials and dog physiology to produce unique, collectible, sculptural products.
Some of my favorite Super Chewer designs...
MARKETING & BRAND
I had the opportunity to lead all creative output for marketing our BarkBox and Super Chewer during my time at BARK. Being a primary author of the brand’s unique voice while leading product development gave me a clear view of the playfulness and fun we could mine to connect with consumers.
When I first started at BARK, I developed a series of shorts and 30s TV spots designed to engage dog people and express the magic of subscription life. Here’s my favorite that I directed during that time.
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
I never planned to spend my entire career as a leader of creative teams.
My “jobs” have always been about building creative cultures that unite individuals to produce original and specific “work”. My own creative output is the team. Building and tending the creative engine. Magic occurs when you combine excellent talent, a clear direction and a fertile culture is its own art form.
How do you invent standards for experimentation? How do you inspire constant quality from every team? How do you keep the most creative minds in the organization deeply engaged in the business mission.
I think culture is more important for creative than other functions because every writer or designer’s deliverable is personal. Creatives hand you their work and hold their breath. Trust is the key. The actual best idea always has to win. No egos allowed.
Managers earn the right to lead every day. You can’t fake this stuff.
Let me know if you wanna hear more!