Truly Hard Seltzer
From fragmented to future-ready: building a scalable creative engine for one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in the U.S.
Overview / The Challenge
When I joined Truly, the brand had never operated with an internal creative team. Content was fully outsourced, the brand identity was fragmented, and there had been three brand refreshes in three years, resulting in inconsistent messaging and out of control production costs.
I was brought in not just to fix that, but to reimagine what internal creative could be. Hired by the Global Head of Creative, I proposed a model that would treat content creation as a modular, strategic system; not a series of one-offs. The goal: to build a team, define a unified creative voice, and create a system that delivered better, faster, and smarter work.
What I Built
Starting from zero, I built Truly’s first in-house content team and established the creative infrastructure that allowed us to scale fast, and think long-term.
I hired and led a lean creative team (design, motion, copy, production) and built flexible systems to blend internal speed with external scale. I also introduced new tools and workflows that allowed us to work like a modern creative studio from inside the brand.
Key innovations included:
Truly’s first brand book and motion design system — unifying identity, tone, visuals, and positioning
A modular shoot model — enabling a high volume of usable content for multiple platforms from a single production
A proprietary 3D product library — allowing faster, more flexible asset creation
AI tool integration — led beta-stage workshops on Midjourney and ChatGPT for the creative org before the world was using them
Vendor onboarding systems — including insurance approvals that allowed us to self-produce
Social media strategy innovation — focusing on “growing the middle” to avoid algorithm fatigue and build long-term engagement
I also helped advise on the design of an internal shoot space for tabletop and stills—increasing our creative agility and cutting production timelines.
$1MM+ saved in year one
3x faster content delivery
Record-breaking paid media posts
Creative Work Highlights
With systems in place, we redefined how Truly showed up in the world. Not just more content—better content, created faster and with more creative control. Notable work includes:
The Truly Brand Book
Art Direction/Photography Guidance
Brand Positioning
Copy Guidelines
Dua Lipa Poolside Pack
Truly Flavored Vodka - Product Launch
Spots Created In-House
Results & Impact
🎯 $1MM+ saved vs. previous agency spend
🚀 Internal content team built from scratch
📈 Paid media performance records set across platforms
🧠 Creative systems adopted brand-wide
The systems we built weren’t just operational—they were cultural. They empowered the team, elevated the creative, and positioned Truly as a more agile, modern brand.