A direct-to-consumer THCa brand where tone, cultural relevance, and brand identity directly influence customer engagement.
Over 2.5 years, I was a consistent creative force for Bay Smokes as the brand landscape evolved with shifting client preferences, sudden branding changes, and audience expectations.
My role focused on translating campaign concepts into email design, copy, subject lines, and messaging that better aligned with customer behavior, brand tone, and performance patterns.
As Bay Smokes evolved, I began to identify a critical disconnect: campaigns that leaned too heavily on broad, generic appeal often generated opens, but failed to convert attention into deeper engagement.
The Challenge
Client-led campaigns heavily relied on irrelevant lifestyle aesthetics, AI-generated visuals, and generalized copy intended to appeal to a wide audience.
Key Friction Points:
Generic “appeal to everyone” messaging
Inconsistent brand identity
Less product-specific relevance
Broad seasonal themes over customer priorities
Low personality
Opens without meaningful click-through
Key Points I Analyzed:
Customer Reviews
Repeat Buyer Language
Audience Culture
Product Priorities
Audience Responded Strongly To:
Budget-conscious value
Strain-specific relevance
Conversational, insider-style language
Humor + relatability
Direct product clarity
A “homie” tone over polished genericism
+33.3%
Open Rate Increase*
+300%
Click Rate Increase*
+200%
Place Order Rate Increase*
+436.%
Revenue Increase*
*Approximate percentage lifts comparing creative-led campaigns against the lower-performing client-heavy benchmarks
My Creative Strategy
Rather than over-indexing on generalized seasonal aesthetics, I refined creative execution around:
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Using audience tone and language compiled from reviews and social media to into more culturally aligned copy.
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Leaning into Bay Smokes’ established personality rather than broad market-safe messaging.
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Recognizing that a significant portion of the audience was price-conscious and more motivated by affordability.
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Making strain relevance, effects, and product strengths more obvious.
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Honing in on the customer tone to craft a short, curiosity-invoking subject and preview line.
Before vs After Performance Example
While client-led subject lines earned some attention, the customer journey frequently lost momentum due to diluted tone and misalignment with customer values.
Client-led Campaign
Subject Line: “FINAL HOURS: 20% off ends at midnight”
Open Rate: 47.37%
Click Rate: 0.21%
Subject Line: “Beat the Sunday scaries (naturally)”
Open Rate: 53.88%
Click Rate: 0.27%
Creative-led Campaign
Subject Line: “bro I can’t stop laughing.”
Open Rate: 60.14%
Click Rate: 0.69%
Subject Line: “How to never count nugs again.”
Open Rate: 48.39%
Click Rate: 0.84%