Lauren Brown
AWARD-WINNING CREATIVE LEADER, STORYTELLER & AUTHOR
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Tech
LinkSquares MTN Ads
We had the opportunity to create three, 30-second ads for MTN, which would then appear to millions of viewers on their OTA, cable, streaming, and digital channels. For these, we wanted to focus on our overarching brand and the benefit of our product suite that answers several pain points: saving time. In-house legal teams mired in old-school, manual processes, waste hours of time searching through contracts, digging through emails, etc., which can cause business to stall – or worse, for deals to fall through. These ads showcase that struggle using humor, oversized props, and cheeky narration. I wrote the scripts and everything from connecting to production was done in-house by a very talented and scrappy creative team.
Award-Winning National Commercials
2023
The newest set of commercials evolves our brand building as we continue to differentiate ourselves with a bold message that resonates and pays off our creative platform: Without the human, it’s just work. This time, instead of showing what recognition looks like with the more emotional storytelling we did in 2021, we decided to show what it doesn’t look like with a device that no one will miss (because you can’t actually see it): invisibility. This concept was mine, I wrote the initial spec scripts for it, created a set of repeatable characters and their backstories, and collaborated on the scripting/production process with an eye on messaging/tone.
2021
As part of Workhuman’s rebranding, we launched our first-ever national commercial, followed by three more in the last quarter of 2021. We wanted to make a subtle nod to the pandemic and also to explain who we are and what we do on both a brand and product level. I wrote the scripts for the long- and short-form versions of the initial commercial. For the three subsequent, award-winning commercials (Bronze Telly for Online Commercials), I served as the lead writer on the in-house team. The commercials aired on 36 stations including DISH, ION, INSPIR, OWN, CNN, Food Network, TBS, and more.
Rebrand
Workhuman recently rebranded to evolve our brand voice and visual look, conveying who we are and what we do in a more human, accessible way. From bold, organic visuals created with a color palette reflecting human skin tones and warmth to establishing a signature conversational voice and tone, we created a comprehensive Brand Book and redesigned the website as part of this effort. I was the lead writer for both initiatives, spanning several months. For the Brand Book, I collaborated with the small team of our creative director of brand and our vice president of brand and design. For the website, I was part of a larger team consisting of an executive creative director, a creative director of digital design, a web development manager, several developers, and an outside UX specialist.
Campaigns
Moodtracker®
Moodtracker is a new employee pulse survey tool we launched in May. The campaign was to highlight the differentiators: it’s always free, it’s built by data scientists to remove guesswork, it involves AI, and it amplifies the Voice of Employee while also recommending solutions. We also wanted to pay a nod to these changing times, and how it’s more important than ever for companies to listen to what their people want and need. For this project and campaign, I wrote the product microsite, emails, and social ads in addition to reviewing the in-product copy, working hand in hand with product, creative, and the dev team.
COVID-19 Free Products
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Workhuman® wanted to honor it’s mission to build connection and lift employees in the best of times, the worst of times – and all the time. And as everyone moves forward with the “next normal,” keeping employees connected and engaged is key. Workplaces that are thriving in this landscape have one thing in common: strong work cultures. Our Workhuman® Cloud products facilitate this and can turn isolation into recognition, connection, and celebration. Now, and always, human connection is the most powerful force in the workplace – and the world. And to come out of this stronger, we need to lean into that fact. To help even more during these challenging times, we made our solutions free through March 2021. I wrote the microsite highlighting this sentiment as well as the social ads. More than 10% of our customer base raised their hands about this offer, and 1.5. million employees in organizations are impacted by it – staying close, connected, and on track.
The Gratitude Effect
Since Workhuman products, movement, and mission are founded on gratitude and positivity, we wanted to properly celebrate World Gratitude Day on Sept. 21 and beyond. We rolled out “The Gratitude Effect,” the first multi-channel, umbrella campaign that provided brand cover for individual tactics across departments (including internal communications and customer marketing) and also a platform to release data from our in-house research team. For this campaign, I worked with our creative director of Brand to conceptualize the design and overarching language by creating brand identity standards and did all the copy and execution, including regional billboards, radio spots, social posts, video scripts for pre-roll, and customer outreach communications and toolkit.
Healthcare
Healthcare HR professionals are a demographic we’re focusing on and these social ads I wrote were part of a rigorous test & learn campaign. What we discovered was that humanistic images with simple, provocative language like “Culture cure” performed infinitely better than images with statistics. With social, Facebook, lookalike modeling, a new LP, and video, we received 128 inquiries at $203 CPA.
Other Work
As one of the only writers for our in-house agency, I functioned as a copy generalist during my first three years at Workhuman. From print ads, emails, and case studies to collection headlines for our robust e-commerce platform, I've written the gamut for all departments. I also worked to establish the conversational tone and voice for our annual conference, Workhuman® Live, writing all the acquisition copy as well as the on-site experiential language. Additionally, there are always-on demand generation campaigns and other ad-hoc work across departments like product/UX, HR/employer brand, and customer marketing. And, even in my brand role, I've been the chosen writer for big bet campaigns and other brand-related work like the first example you'll see here where I got to write scripts for Paul Lieberstein (Toby from The Office) for 2023 Workhuman Live promos.
Freelance
Three Second Chances
The band behind 2022's newest holiday hit, "When the Tree Goes Up," needed the right brand voice for their new website – one that properly captures the contagious enthusiasm and playfulness of their candidly quirky 40-plus vibe. These former musicians began writing songs to connect during the pandemic, realized music was their true passion, and thought "Why not try again?" From that moment, Three Second Chances took off. And they're committed to staying true to their current reality as fun-loving but middle-aged folks. That means even though they're kinda rockstars, you'll never catch them trashing a hotel room because they're in bed by 10 p.m. They're inclusive, welcoming, and want to inspire others to keep chasing their dreams. The combo of their spunk and altruism is what I call "sasspirational." So, for copy, the voice is very conversational, friendly, funny, authentic, and warm in a way that invites others to share in their passion.
AceUp
AceUp is a leader in enterprise leadership development through strategic partnerships with Harvard University and experts in the science of coaching, a global network of the industry’s most qualified coaches, and a scalable technology and analytics platform for building high-performing coaching cultures. I've worked with them on e-books, reports, nurture emails, blogs, case studies, web copy, webinar assets, and fireside chat questions.
Gatehouse Media/Gannett
I worked with the B2B team at GateHouse Media/Gannett to help with print and digital copy during a period of rigorous multi-regional outreach. I wrote everything from emails and landing pages to print and digital ads, and an e-book for the recruiting division.
Sharalike Slideshow
Using AI-based technology, Sharalike is a photo sharing and marketing solution, built for scale, that helps businesses engage better with customers. Back in 2014-15, I wrote several emails, blogs, and landing pages for their site as a freelancer, spanning subjects from holidays to back-to-school
Healthcare
Patientslikeme
As Member Communications Manager for the Engagement Communications team at PatientsLikeMe, my job was just that: to engage particular disease communities and motivate them to continue updating their outcomes. In the last leg of my time there, much of what we did focused on engaging communities with syndromic conditions (ALS, Lupus, Parkinson’s, MS), and inviting them to participate in a program called DigitalMe®, where biological data would be collected and analyzed over time along with their patient-reported outcomes to start evolving healthcare into a more preventative field. Since joining an initiative like this is a very personal choice, we acknowledged this and focused the campaign around the idea that people are more than their conditions .
Finance
Santander
At Santander, as part of the corporate communications team, I saw the company through a rebrand (from Sovereign Bank). This entailed creating an entirely new Intranet and communicating about it to drive adoption. I also worked on sweeping organizational campaigns intended to engage our workforce like spirit weeks and the launch of a recognition platform. Additionally, I was responsible for covering news on specific business units for internal distribution to 9,000 employees nationally and 190,000 globally. Crafting and deploying emails on day-to-day happenings, notes from board meetings, updates from the CEO, and crafting long-form pieces like the annual CSR report were also in my wheelhouse there. For more finance writing samples, visit www.clippings.me/laurenbrown
Non-profit
Mount Auburn Cemetery
As managing editor for the bi-annual magazine, Sweet Auburn, and the Annual Report, I wrote, researched, edited, and produced the publications with the support of appropriate internal staff and external contracted work (photographers, designer, printer, etc.). Additionally, for the Annual Report, I wrote the president’s summary and board chair’s letter, and coordinated contributions of internal staff along with managing the work of external vendors.
L.S. Kilroy
Author L.S. Kilroy Brand
In my free time, I moonlight as award-winning indie author, L.S. Kilroy. I published my debut novel, The Vitruvian Heir in January 2015. The Vitruvian Heir is a futuristic dystopian work with steampunk influence that has garnered comparisons to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s been recognized as a 1st place winner in Chanticleer Books & Reviews’ 2015 Cygnus Award for Science Fiction & Speculative Fiction and a 2016 New England Book Show Winner. In 2020, I released an expanded 5th-anniversary edition that won the 2022 Feathered Quill Book Reviews Bronze for Science Fiction and the 2022 Big NYC Book Award for Steampunk. I'm currently turning it into a trilogy. My other two standalone novels are The Clothes That Make You (2017) and Heart Like Eyes (2019), both 5-Star Reader’s Favorites and The Clothes That Make You also won a 2022 Big NYC Book Award for New Adult. I’ve created a brand book and website, and run all the marketing for my books, acting as creative director for my imprint, Little Tree Press. I also have a monthly podcast, Kilroy Is Here. You can learn more about my books at lskilroy.com.
