Cracked Brand Promotion
Objective
GROWING CRACKED
In order to grow a brand, distinguish itself from its competitors and to carve out a niche in the industry, you have to have to have a comprehensive Brand Promotion and Marketing Communication Strategy. This is done with the purpose of promoting brand awareness to create consumer’s interest. The core objective for me as a design leader was to make sure that this strategy was executed in an engaging, functional and appealing way to help inform, persuade and influence the audience and convert them into loyal fans.
STRATEGIES
Email Newsletter
Social Media
House Ads
Marketing to Advertisers: Marketing Collateral & ‘Advertise With Us’ Microsite
Email Newsletter
KEEPING FANS INFORMED
Email Newsletter Design
To keep our loyal fans informed, and to direct traffic to the site, I led the design effort for the Cracked email newsletter which would be sent out on a daily or weekly basis. It was designed with a responsive layout so that it would be just as engaging being viewed on a mobile device as it would on a larger desktop monitor. I used the basic design system I created for the website redesign to maintain brand cohesion when users opened the newsletter in their inbox.
BUSINESS OBJECTIVE
The newsletter was designed so the brand could notify their loyal users of the release of the latest featured content as well as keep them up to date with the latest ongoings with the company. We could also track the readers interests and customize the content sent to them based on their clicks and consumption behavior. The newsletter also gave the company a way to advertise and promote specific strategic initiatives such as offering discounts on the Cracked Store, or to promote the latest product i.e., ‘The Cracked iOS TV app’. With the newsletter, we could direct traffic to our site, grow the brands social media community, as well as drive sales through product promotions.
Social Media
Social Media
Leading the creative of social media for Cracked gave me the opportunity of working on a wide variety of fun projects for the brand. From the “Cracked Studios” video launches, video episode premieres, book releases from one of our many talented writers/editors, new t-shirt design promos for the Cracked store, to promoting live podcast events, everyday there was always something new to work on to help promote and grow the Cracked brand. I was in charge of all the asset creations for the brand, which included the image treatments, title treatments for the video series and the overall art direction of the promotions. My focus as an Art Director and Designer was to make sure the promotional artwork was engaging, conveyed our brand voice and always maintained a consistent visual branding across all social platforms.
Starship Icarus: new video series promotions
Welcome Back Potter: new video series promotions
‘Rom.com’ Season 2: new season video promotions
House Ads
House Ads
Along with creating social media promotions for the brand, I was also in charge of the creation of all assets for the promotional ad placements that would run on the Cracked website as well as our email newsletter. Below are just a few examples of some promotional takeover designs I made while working for Cracked. We averaged around 4 per week for over 7 years.
Party Anxiety: new video series promotional skin
After Hours: new episode promotional skin
After Hours: new episode promotional skin
Cracked Podcast Live at the UCB: promotional skin
Marketing to Advertisers
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Marketing Collateral
Cracked had a dedicated Sales Team whose main objective was to close deals on advertisement and sponsorship opportunities for the property. To support the sales team, I was in charge of making sure they had everything they needed from a creative standpoint. From powerpoint presentations, to marketing one sheets and a promotional microsite. We worked together as a team, to boost revenue for the brand.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Though Cracked’s design team was a lean, mean, designing machine, it was challenging at times trying to keep up with all the RFP creative requests and other sponsorship opportunities the sales team needed artwork for, without delaying other projects. Since these sponsorship opportunities were very important for the business, I came up with a design solution that would make the creation process a lot more efficient for the creative team. I created a few different design templates, from multiple page layouts to single page one sheet designs, so when the sales team needed some artwork that had a quick turn around deadline, we now had a template to choose from which accelerated the creation process tremendously.
Cracked battlecard marketing one-sheet
Single Page Marketing Template
Oscars edition: Podcast Live at UCB Sunset marketing one-sheet
Psychological Myths: Podcast Live at UCB Sunset marketing one-sheet
Shocking Truth About Cats, Dogs & More: Podcast Live at UCB Sunset marketing one-sheet
Advertise With Us: Microsite
Cracked had a portfolio of some highly successful ad campaign executions, where they leveraged their large audience through custom content experiences, that drove high amounts of traffic and brand awareness for their clients. Cracked wanted to showcase these specific examples in a detailed, yet engaging way that could easily be shared by the Cracked sales team and then accessed by potential clients. So I was tasked with designing the ‘advertise with us” responsive web microsite. The responsive microsite consisted of a landing page that described the history of Cracked through interactive timelines, descriptive copy, videos and quantitative data metrics. Through this landing page, users could navigate to the case study pages that highlighted some of Cracked’s most successful ad campaigns that consisted of custom content created by Cracked’s editorial team, including custom videos, articles and live podcasts. This information could now easily be shared by the sales team to potential clients in an engaging way for them to consume on any device.
‘Advertise With Us’ Microsite: Landing Page
Conclusion
Results
Under my leadership, I spearheaded the design strategy that propelled Cracked.com to become the top humor and entertainment brand worldwide. Despite its initial purchase for under 1 million dollars, the company experienced extraordinary growth and success with my guidance. After seven years, Cracked.com was sold for an impressive 39 million dollars.
Cracked.com emerged as the ultimate destination for comedy enthusiasts across the globe during my tenure. Our website gained immense popularity, and we established a strong presence on various social media platforms. With a remarkable following of 3.8 million Facebook fans, over 965 thousand Twitter followers, and a staggering 1.5 million YouTube subscribers, we proved our ability to captivate and engage audiences on multiple levels.
Cracked's remarkable growth attracted a multitude of sponsors, and we successfully executed highly successful media campaigns for a diverse range of partners. Notable names among our sponsors included NBC, Lionsgate, GE, Hulu, Secret, Activision, Virgin Mobile, Fruit of the Loom, Old Spice, Fox, Bacardi, Netflix, and Pandora, just to name a few. Together, we achieved outstanding results, showcasing our ability to integrate sponsorships seamlessly while preserving our authentic and entertaining style.