BRIEF:
Between 2020–2023 Marqeta went from a Unicorn fintech startup with 300 employees to a public company with close to 1000. The company strategically placed a billboard in the heart of Silicon Valley on Hwy 101 to grow brand presence and explain what the platform does.
The Marketing dept. owned the strategy of this ad placement and stakeholders regularly received pushback to using customer logos to showcase the major brands that run on the Marqeta platform (i.e. Square, Doordash, Instacart, Coinbase, etc.). Advertising strategy became a design problem that needed to be solved.
MY PART:
As a Senior Designer on the Brand Creative team, I lead design on the past billboard executions, so I was tasked by the Creative Director to focus on deconstructing the past ads in order to execute the next ad.
I lead the cross-functional discussions on strategy for this ad placement and it’s relation to upcoming marketing efforts and product launches. I used a 6-step approach involving multiple stakeholders to align on future billboard design efforts. The approach worked extremely well up to step 6, when creative exploration was put on hold due to budget cuts.
- Review and analyze past Marqeta billboards, gather and discuss inspiration
- Synthesize and summarize key takeaways
- Build matrix of subjects vs. tactics to show gaps and fuel ideation
- Make suggestions for the 3 highest caliber subjects to explore further
- Meet and align with stakeholders – agreement on 1-2 focal subjects
- Start creative exploration for copy and visuals and schedule upcoming design reviews with stakeholders
kaytie gamble :: designer, art director, idea maker 