Zulily is an online shopping retailer focused on making purchases fun for moms. To say that Zulily is a fan of moms is an understatement - their whole world is devoted to making mom’s day. They know moms are busy, and they want to provide a moment of escape in mom’s day for fun. And the best part? The deals. Because Zulily orders directly from the brand and doesn’t store the product, they’re able to offer huge discounts on goods that mom really wants.

The brief wanted us to communicate the fun escape that Zulily can provide, while making it clear that they’re not a brick and mortar business. We had to be sure to come up with something that showcased the products they offer in a beautiful way. Success would be if we communicated deals, fun, and empathizing with moms in a way that also elevates the brand look. After many brainstorming sessions and rough scripts, we knew we had to create something whimsical.

Zulily isn’t as well known in the market as other brands, so we had to come up with something that would be an own-able brand asset. Zulily was open to the idea of some sort of character that could carry into other areas of their site and advertising. Above all, making it clear that Zulily was an app and online store was important - moms needed to know that shopping with Zulily was easy and didn’t take precious time away from her day.

Zulily is the most fun shopping experience since the golden age of department store shopping, with exciting surprises on every floor. In this campaign, we show moms scrolling up and down in their Zulily feed, sending them into a Zulily elevator operated by our very own Zulily attendant. She takes them on a tour through hyper-fun, department-store-styled floors with Zulily products. On every level, moms will see the site experience reimagined in whimsical ways, all while having a blast and snagging great deals.

It was my responsibility to help define the kind of world we were going to build. In working with a copywriter to develop ideas for the scenarios mom would be in, we landed on a Willy Wonka meets Wes Anderson visual look with an unexpectedly delightful tone. The copywriter and I were also responsible for helping with scripts, storyboards, art direction, photography, selecting the production partner to work with, casting, wardrobe and set design.