Building the growth engine behind a new brand.

Instacart had a bold new identity. The challenge was making it work just as hard in growth as it did in brand.

Its brand identity no longer reflected its mission or its post-pandemic expansion beyond groceries — the bar for "modern, vibrant, trusted" had moved without it. The problem wasn't just what the new brand should look like, but how to make dozens of always-on growth channels feel like the same brand without slowing the marketing engine down. A brand system that only lived in a style guide wasn't going to move retention or conversion.

I led Channel Creative on Instacart's Rebrand + Design Systems team, responsible for taking the new identity developed with Wolff Olins and making it work across the growth ecosystem.

My team translated the brand across CRM, lifecycle, paid media, ASO, seasonal campaigns and partnerships — partnering closely with Brand, Growth, Product, Media and Analytics.

The mandate was simple: scale the new brand without diluting it.

In partnership with Wolff Olins, CMO Laura Jones, ECD Kevin Byrd, CD Brand Adam Cote, and the Instacart creative team.

Instacart's first brand campaign under the new identity needed to announce, loudly, that the app was no longer just for groceries. "The World Is Your Cart" did that with a maximalist, Alice-in-Wonderland-style visual world — and Lizzo as the face of it. I was part of the team that helped bring Lizzo onto the campaign and helped bring the new brand system to life in its biggest, most visible moment yet.

We treated the design system like a recipe, not a rulebook — flexible enough to support dozens of campaign types without every send starting from a blank page. I built a Growth Creative Playbook mapping every campaign against a simple filter (off-limits, functional, emotional) and anchored seasonal moments to real jobs to be done — "First Basket," "Weekly Shop," "Picky Produce" — so Spring Cleaning, Summer Flavors, Halloween, and Fall Football solved something real instead of just decorating the calendar.

A cross-section of the growth CRM and ad creative running on the design system.

On the operational side, we rebuilt CRM from the ground up — flexible, pre-built layouts that sped up lifecycle sends, dynamic merchandising tied to user behavior and region, and AI-assisted creative that pulled from performance data and the DAM instead of hand-building every asset.

Seasonal flagship campaigns ran on that same system — Summer Flavors turned the "easy parts of summer" into a CPG-brand-sponsored campaign (Pepsi, Drumstick, Lay's BBQ); the P&G stock-up campaign leaned into the satisfaction of getting organized; Fall Football made CPG brands the MVPs of game day; Halloween built an interactive "Scare Score" tool around America's candy purchases — see it live.

Deal Week seasonal campaign toolkit + motion style guides.

Campaign photography across the seasonal calendar — I oversaw all of it, with Art Directors Anabelle Roeser and Emily Lin.

A couple more spots from the run, spanning brand campaign and partnership marketing. Creative Director: Philip Lowe. Executive Creative Director: Kevin Byrd.

Also led creative for the NYT Cooking × Instacart partnership — shoppable recipes that let readers add ingredients straight to an Instacart cart, aimed at driving awareness and basket size. Creative Director: Philip Lowe. Art Director: Genesis Silva.

The integrated recipes consistently pulled strong ratings and heavy engagement — exactly the kind of high-intent, add-to-cart moment the partnership was built around:

I also spearheaded Instacart's official GIPHY channel — "Add life to cart" — turning seasonal and cultural moments (bananas, game day, and more) into shareable GIFs and stickers native to how people already communicate.

More From the Feed

A sample of organic social work spanning different campaigns and formats — seasonal utilities and recipe content.

• Led creative strategy across performance marketing, CRM, lifecycle, paid social, video, and ASO — partnering with Growth, Product, Brand, Media, and Analytics to accelerate acquisition and retention.
• Helped exceed Instacart's $1.5B annual revenue goal and contributed to nearly 70% post-pandemic business growth.
• Generated $445M in incremental Gross Transaction Value (iGTV) through CRM lifecycle marketing and an additional $9.8M through App Store Optimization (ASO).
• Directed seasonal campaigns — Deal Week, Back-to-School, Halloween, Spring Cleaning, Summer Flavors, Fall Football — generating $34M+ GMV, $71M in-period iGTV, and 57% YoY revenue growth.

The work culminated in Instacart's IPO in September 2023 — I helped lead the brand and creative presence for the moment itself, Times Square billboard included — and went on to win a D&AD Yellow Pencil in Branding, 2023, one of the industry's highest honors.