Kohl’s
My work as a creative marketing/copywriting intern at Kohl’s involved creative concepting, collaboration, and a lot of writing. The Kohl’s target audience is usually middle-aged, family-oriented moms, and my copy was written accordingly – entertaining but not too flowery, warm and friendly but not too casual.
Creative Concepting
Holiday Activation
Challenge:
Drive in-store traffic to Kohl’s retail locations for the 2021 holiday season via experiential marketing.
Concept:
Customers are invited on a “scavenger hunt” of five QR codes dispersed throughout the store; scanning one in the Kohl’s app displays an AR snowflake coin to be collected and converted into Kohl’s Cash to be used for holiday shopping. This spending would be matched in donations by Kohl’s up to a certain amount.
Gift-giving is a heartwarming process in and of itself. Knowing that a thoughtful (and free!) gift purchased for a friend or a loved one also means donation to a worthy cause invites customers to keep faith with Kohl’s 2021 holiday campaign: Give with all your heart.
(Hu)mannequins
Challenge:
Develop a marketing campaign for Kohl’s to drive engagement with millennial families while highlighting commitment to D&I initiatives.
Concept:
The (Hu)mannequins installation invites real families across America to share their unique experiences and family dynamics that many traditional marketing campaigns overlook: interracial families, single parents, families that flout gender norms.
Working with Kohl’s and local artists, these families can design mannequin art installations that they feel represent them best – in body type, skin tone, or hairstyle; or even more experimentally with patterns and decoration.
Whatever the case, the (Hu)mannequins campaign invites oft-marginalized families to take their representation into their own hands, signaling to the world a new commitment to genuine diversity in Kohl’s marketing.
Copywriting
Elephant Promotional Copy
A collection of elephant-related promotional copy to be used in tandem with Holiday 2021 marketing and the elephant holiday mascot for the season. The tone was accordingly playful and cheery.
Copy to be used in general holiday promotion. 
“Gifts galore” rhyming copy paired with gifts animation. 
“Step up your gifting” copy paired with an animation of the elephant mascot climbing up steps of gift boxes. 
“Blowout savings” copy paired with an elephant blowing animation. 
Copy options for a proposed alternative reindeer mascot.
Packaging Copy
A concept holiday packaging project made with three other interns for a holiday jewelry/sleepwear collection.
A creative brief was used internally to guide the design process, while short, sweet snippets from Christmas carols and general holiday phrases used on packaging speak to a sentiment of giving and thoughtfulness.
Spring 2022 Reusable Bags
Exploration for potential copy to be used on reusable Kohl’s bags for the Spring 2022 season, based on design trends identified by marketing research team.
Benjamin Chen 