W&P - Vicky Gu

COMPANY

W&P
In the Very Great brand family, W&P is a B2B and DTC food & drink consumer product brand based in NYC.
wandpdesign.com

ROLE

As the Marketing Manager, I led crossfunctional efforts to envision, produce, and publish compelling product stories, in service of growing our brand and community to "eat & drink, better."

IMPACT

Two years after my time there, parent company Very Great is on track for $60M yearly revenue in 2021 and looking to acquire DTC companies, equipping them with economies of scale that my team built.

Marketing & Content Strategy

Working across teams, I crafted foundational brand and product marketing strategy for our DTC audiences and B2B sales accounts, from big box retailers to indie boutiques. I also set department goals and coached our Marketing Coordinator. As a result,

• our Instagram following grew 44% organically over two years, supported by 20 brand and 250 influencer partnerships I managed
• our twice per week emails held a 10% open rate, consistent with industry standards for our 120K list size
• and our blog drove website traffic and purchasing through evergreen content like recipes and interviews.

In two years, the Instagram (@wandpdesign) following doubled to 118K (in 2021), building on marketing playbooks and influencer relationships I developed.

Anatomy of a marketing campaign

An example of campaign thinking and deliverables.

Given sales priorities, creative bandwidth, and consumer discourse around sustainability, how might we:
simplify the complex narrative of plastic waste,
empower our community to build everyday sustainable habits, and
visualize it through W&P's Porter product collection?

Social giveaway in partnership with reusable Stasher bags

In-house produced imagery juxtaposing single-use plastic products with their reusable W&P counterparts

A snapshot of the campaign on Instagram, combining brand imagery and UGC (user generated content)

Creative Direction & Production

The creative studio was my second home in the office. I'd walk over to iterate on graphics, art direct shoots, and finesse timelines with our designers, photographers, videographer, retoucher, and project managers. Together, we established production systems to deliver assets on time, on spec, and on brand.

Anatomy of a photoshoot

Preparing props

Art directing the shoot

Refining the shot

Community & Partnerships

Managing our Instagram community gave me an active pulse on how people felt about us, as I listened to engaged followers and connected with aligned organizations. Over the course of a year, I oversaw partnerships with over 20 emerging and high profile product companies—all building brand love, industry cred, and visibility.

I developed our influencer partnership program, yielding 250 advocates tracked in a 600 person CRM. While I worked mostly with nano and microinfluencers (1-50K followings), I also attained unpaid product placement with macroinfluencers (500K range) like Food Network host Molly Yeh and Patrick Janelle.

Anatomy of W&P's Instagram community