Your Majesty - Karen Sulkis

Red Bull Music Academy Radio
Led tone + voice effort for relaunch of RBMA Radio, a curated, ad-free, international Internet radio service.

• Created guidelines for voice and messaging.
• Attended daily team and client standups.
• You need to hear this! It's all about the delight of discovery. You can find music you like online, but RBMA Radio plays the stuff you didn’t know you were looking for.

Case Studies

• Crafted and enforced content strategy for international design experience firm's case studies. 
• Produced guidelines, so all agency staff could add new stories with minimal editorial involvement.

UNIQLO.com Launch - Karen Sulkis

Tone, Voice, Content Strategy, Relationship Management

Filling in for the ACD on the Razorfish/NY creative team, I oversaw copy creation and strategy for the tight-timeline launch of the Japanese retailer's Webby award-winning website, UNIQLO.com. I also served as a liaison between London, Tokyo and NYC teams and wrote interaction copy, product descriptions, site promos and error-page haikus. (Yes, haikus.)

• Fleshed out voice through FUN-ctional and responsive navigation, including naming, buttons and directional copy.
• Smoothed, supported and managed the product copy process between Tokyo product development team, London translation company and NYC-based design team and junior copywriter.
• Drew upon expertise acquired as Editorial Manager at Oldnavy.com to ease concerns of high-level executives about product nomenclature.

Results: UNIQLO.com was an instant, Webby award-winning hit, introducing millions of American fashion fans to the beloved retailer and giving its parent company (Fast Retailing) the insights to open dozens of stores in the U.S.



 
Launch Package
Much of the launch content has since been replaced. However, this package showcases some of our thinking and a few original design pieces.






404 Error Haiku

500 Error Haiku

Postscript: A few years after the UNIQLO.com launch, The Science Project, a boutique creative agency in Lower Manhattan, engaged me for help with interface and interaction language for an in-store app it was developing for the opening of the UNIQLO Chicago flagship store. The app was so successful, it's currently rolling out to additional flagships.

Herman Miller - Karen Sulkis

Creative Concepting/Message Freshening (Primarily Consumer)

Herman Miller is known around the world for its ergonomic chairs. Perhaps too well known. Even with the company's close collaboration with many mid-century modern design luminaries, many prospective customer associate its products with work, work, work. The online challenge: Highlight the array of items for the home -- dining, entertaining, relaxation (Hello, Eames Chair + Ottoman!), even sleeping -- and encourage shoppers to invest in iconic, well-made design.

Since October 2015, I've crafted nearly two dozen Herman Miller web campaigns, including marketing banners, landing pages, emails and social posts.


Entertaining as Art
For an early Holiday gather-round-the-table campaign, we went outside the usual shopping paradigm to offer advice on how to throw a party like design icon and dazzling hostess Ray Eames. I researched the content and quotes, pitched the approach and wrote all copy.

Results: Uptick in customer engagement, request for more "content-only" landing pages.




Spring Sale Email
Herman Miller Sale happens twice a year. Every item on the site is 15% off. That may not sound like a huge discount for a typical ecommerce transaction, but it's a big deal if it means nearly $750 off that Eames Lounge Chair + Ottoman you've been fantasizing about. The 2016 brief called for 6 touches, all of which had to include the 15% messaging: Before the sale, it's time for the sale, the sale is on, only 1 more week, only 1 more DAY, last chance!

The tote giveaway was Marketing's idea. But the friendly, stripped down "Our Gift to You" approach was mine. The sale did well, and the email series was picked up on marketing blogs. Really Good Emails gave us a shout, while Infusionsoft included the image and copy to the right in an article titled, "How to Write Email Copy that Reads Like Buttah."