Over the last six years, I've led all aspects of the marketing strategy and execution at Provenance Meals with a small team of full-time direct and half-time indirect reports, an external PR team, and a paid media agency. In addition, we've worked occasionally with various contract freelancers for graphic design, packaging design, website development, copywriting, and photo/video shoots. Here are a few of my favorite projects and campaigns.
Provenance Meals was created to make it easy and convenient to eat healthy, delicious meals all week. However, unlike other meal delivery services with a similar goal, the company promised to use only the highest-quality, sustainably sourced ingredients in their meals that would appeal to a self-actualizing need for improved health. Recognizing that these commitments would reflect a higher than average price point of products, the marketing team redesigned the brand’s positioning and presence from a simple farm-to-table meal delivery service into a luxury health & wellness program targeting a niche segment of high-end consumers.
The rebranding efforts included an overhaul to the company's value proposition, product positioning, logo, voice guidelines, creative direction and asset development, website design and development, packaging, and client service processes. New health coaching services were also introduced.
Project Timeline: 6 Months
Results: 147% Increase in Revenue
After 8 years of successfully operating in New York, NY, Provenance Meals was ready to expand to the west coast and launching in Los Angeles, CA - the largest market for health & wellness services.
The marketing team created and executed a multi-channel brand awareness campaign that included 6 months of PR Outreach, 33 on-site events, 300+ influencer and celebrity sampling, advertising on the Wondery podcast network, paid social media, and direct mail.
Campaign Timeline: 6 Months
Results: 21% Avg MOM Growth in New Clients, 32% Avg Growth MOM in Revenue
A core channel for marketing at Provenance was paid social. Reaching clients on Instagram and Facebook was the most effective channel for our paid media budget. The marketing team managed paid social campaigns in-house to set initial benchmarks for performance before we began to work with external agencies.
In addition to a constant flow of new creatives, we developed a full-funnel strategy for our campaigns. At the top of the funnel (TOFU), three campaigns were designed to optimize for video views, landing page views, and engagement. Tests at this level were by creative and interest-based audiences. This created a steady stream for our retargeting mid-funnel (MOFU) campaigns that were optimized for conversion. Ad sets at this level tested each of the TOFU campaigns was driving the most conversions.
Results: 4.6 ROAS
Email has been the number one method of communication for the company historically because it is low cost and an easy-to-execute method to share brand values, sales promotions, new products, and more. Because of the robust email marketing program already established, email has successfully been the largest owned channel to drive conversions.
To increase revenue from email marketing efforts, it was key to consistently grow the number of subscribers. In addition to an exit intent popup on the website, the marketing team coordinated a seasonal calendar of quarterly email sweeps campaigns by patterning with like-minded brands that have a similar target clientele.
Brand Partners over the last two years included SLT, Cryofuel, WTHN, Stretch*d, The Studio MDR, Angela Caglia Skincare, Stretch Lab, Jenni Kayne / Oak Essentials, Prismatic Plants, Berkey Filters, Oracle Olive Oil, Supernatural, Pursoma Life, Optimist Botanicals, Collective Laboratories, Apothenne, Dr. Tungs.
Budget: Product Gifting Only
Results: 25% Growth of Email List Subscribers, 18% Growth in Channel Revenue
Developed by celebrity trainer Taryn Toomey, The Class by Taryn Toomey has a cult following and similar like-minded audience to Provenance Meals. To increase sales of the cleanse program product line, the marketing team proposed and executed a co-branded product launch that brought The Class' DIY seasonal cleanse eBook guide to life for consumers in the NYC area.
This project encompassed contract negotiation, coordination with culinary teams for recipe development, coordination with operations team for fulfillment, and all marketing aspects including launch strategy, creative direction, photo shoot production, website product page, email and social, paid media, and PR.
Project Timeline: 4 Months
Results: 47% Incremental Revenue Increase in Cleanse Program Sales
After operating for seven years in the New York City market, Provenance Meals was ready for its next stage of growth and opening operations in Los Angeles. Success was completely bootstrapped without ever having outside investors. To fund the launch in LA, the company decided to open its first round of investment to friends, family, and clients through Republic, an equity crowdfunding platform.
The marketing team oversaw all aspects of the Friends & Family equity campaign including strategy and timeline, explanatory video production, campaign page copywriting and design, launch party, campaign updates, email marketing, paid and organic social media promotions.
View Republic Campaign Page and Video
Project Timeline: 12 Months
Results: $183,923 in Funding Secured, 9.0 ROAS
A strong brand is a consistent brand. A key aspect of the rebranding project was developing the voice guidelines that would be used in all marketing and client services communications, but also on the packaging and how the company described its dishes on the menu.
These guidelines included details on the personality (inspiring, grateful, grounded), tone (sophisticated, serious, contemporary), purpose (advise and empower wellness), and point of view for the company (first person - we, our nutrition experts, our chefs). The guidelines also outlined the overall strategy for how to describe dishes on the menu and specific mechanics that were to be followed (ex. no exclamation points, contractions, all caps, slang).
The marketing team was responsible for enforcing these guidelines company-wide and often had to liaise with operations and client services teams to provide copy or coach on how copy should be crafted.
A core principle of Provenance Meals' nutrition philosophy is that you can improve your health when you eat meals based on an anti-inflammatory protocol (dairy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free) that are also made from the highest-quality, organic ingredients.
To reassure clients that following this nutrition philosophy would result in better health, the marketing team created a brand equity campaign to feature client stories that have used Provenance as a nutritional tool to improve their wellbeing.
Provenance Meals constantly educated clients on the need to listen to your body – understand what it craves and when it's satiated – without relying on the harmful dieting trend of counting calories. To reinforce this messaging, the marketing team integrated communications around the topic of canceling diet culture in its marketing calendar to build the company's brand equity as a leader in this sensitive topic of conversation.
Meal delivery services are not environmentally friendly products. However, in addition to sourcing as locally as possible with strict sourcing standards, Provenance Meals has made a conscious decision to use only compostable, reusable, or premium recyclable products. Even though these choices have negatively affected the bottom line, the founder of the company has been adamant that it is the cost of doing business with the least negative impact on the planet.
To remind consumers of this commitment to sustainability, the marketing team shared multiple communications throughout the year with an emphasis in April to coincide with Earth Month.
