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The San Francisco Environment Department came to us to find a way to encourage San Franciscans, especially Spanish and Chinese speakers, lower-income and older residents, to turn away from single-use plastic items and choose reusable alternatives instead.

Grounded in an idea from an early creative brainstorm that it would be great if the new “it” bag for the season wasn’t from Hermès or Gucci, but instead just a plain reusable canvas bag, we developed our own “fashion brand”; REUSE. We then hired a top-tier fashion photographer to create images with models accessorized with bags and other reusable items to drive home the message that “Disposable is never a good look.”

The images became the center point of an ad campaign that drove our target audiences to both a stylish, purpose-built website as well as pop-up activations where they could pose for their own high-fashion photo, and get a free reusable bag or mug in exchange for posting their image on social—further boosting buzz around the campaign.

Digital channels boosted the frequency of exposure and geotargeting drove day-of activation attendance, where thousands of residents lined up to participate over several weeks.

In 2023, the Presidio, a spectacular National Park located in San Francisco, embarked on a campaign to increase visitation from Bay Area residents—in particular those residents who have never visited and who have been an historically underrepresented presence in national parks. The objective was to promote a sense of belonging, delivering on the Park mission to provide national park experiences for all.

To ensure that our campaign would effectively challenge dated perceptions and better reflect the diversity of people and interests within our communities, we engaged community partners and leaders, an outdoor equity consultant, and stakeholders of the Park. At the end of our discovery process, we decided to strategically “flip the script” on traditional National Park messaging and put the emphasis on what our unique visitors contribute to the park experience, rather than focusing solely on the benefits of the park itself.

The resulting campaign showcased the visitors as much as the natural environment, driven by the inclusive invitation to “Bring Your Own” personality, culture, and interests to the Park.

The San Francisco Public Utilities asked us to develop a campaign to drive enrollment in their SuperGreen 100% Renewable Energy product, stipulating that the campaign should be supported by an out-of-the-box, culturally-competent activation.

We recommended that the campaign focus on renters. They comprise over 60% of the SF population and most aren’t aware they can upgrade to 100% renewable energy—just like homeowners.

Our creative team decided to use a visual pun to playfully convey the idea of making your apartment Super Green, by first constructing a detailed recreation of an apartment living room and then literally painting the set, and everything in it, vivid green. The resulting video made for scroll-stopping digital content—but that was only the first half of the idea. The “SuperGreen ” apartment was broken down and reassembled at street fairs across the city to create an Instagram-able pop up that extended the digital campaign, fueled our social campaign and inspired San Francisco residents to sign up for SuperGreen clean energy, on the spot.

The San Francisco Climate Action Plan (CAP) charts a path for San Francisco to realize net-zero emissions by 2040. The Plan impacts almost every aspect of life in San Francisco, yet, most San Franciscans had never heard of it.

Our challenge: How do you make San Franciscans care about a “Plan”, and get them to adopt the many actions it prescribes?

First, we established a brand platform and visual guidelines, so that the Climate Plan became a recognizable and trusted “brand” over time. Next, we dug into research that revealed how years of negative news had rendered many residents disengaged and pessimistic about climate change, when, in fact, the everyday actions San Franciscans were taking had made a remarkable positive impact: Climate pollution in SF was down 48% since the Climate Plan was enacted.

We decided to anchor our campaign around a singular, encouraging message to every San Francisco resident: “Thanks to you, the plan is working.”

Ariel Investments is the world’s largest African-American-owned Mutual Fund. Founded by John Rogers, who is recognized as one of the best money managers of the modern era, Ariel is committed to spreading financial literacy, especially to underserved audiences.

Ariel sought to further that mission using social media, and hired us to help. To build community with new and underserved investors we created content that inspires, entertains, and educates around financial literacy. We developed a fresh new design system and launched John Rogers, Mellody Hobson and Ariel Investments on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. 12 months later we’d built robust, engaged communities across all platforms, and we’re proud to say, helped a wide array of uninitiated investors become educated and confident about their money.

The San Francisco Reframing Aging Campaign, a collective of city agencies, asked us to help increase public awareness of ageism and disrupt negative stereotypes of aging.

In researching the issue and looking into the eyes of residents affected by ageism, it became clear that ageism erodes the self-worth of those subject to it. Thus our campaign came to focus on the eyes, or the “windows to the soul” (and, fun fact, the only part of the human body that does not visibly age from birth). Challenging the association of vitality and youth, we juxtaposed the vibrant eyes of an older adult over the face of a younger person, creating a slightly disorienting but engaging visual.

To deepen the impact of the campaign, we cast five older San Franciscans with storied pasts as the “eye” models. Visitors to the campaign website were able to reveal the full portrait of the individuals featured and discover their unique personal histories.