bay smokesCreative Strategy
A direct-to-consumer THCa brand where tone, cultural relevance, and brand language 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 challengeClient-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:01 Customer Reviews
02 Repeat Buyer Language
03 Audience Culture
04 Product Priorities
01 Budget-conscious value
02 Strain-specific relevance
03 Conversational, insider-style language
04 Humor + relatability
05 Direct product clarity
06 A “homie” tone over polished genericism
Audience Responded Strongly To:
+33.3%*Open Rate Increase*
+300%*Click Rate Increase*
+200%*Revenue Increase*
+436%*Placed Order Rate Increase*
*Approximate percentage lifts comparing a sample of five creative-led campaigns against a sample of five lower-performing client-heavy benchmarks
MY CREATIVE STRATEGYRather 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 create 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 ExamplesWhile client-led subject lines earned some attention, the customer journey frequently lost momentum due to diluted tone and misalignment with their values.
Client-led Subject Lines
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%
My Subject Lines
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%