CASE STUDY · dtc performance creative
A full DTC performance creative engine, built from zero for a genuinely novel product.
SOLID had a sharp, first-mover product and no machine to sell it. Across one engagement I built the acquisition foundation from the ground up: a performance teardown, a repositioning that made the product defensible, a Pain × Persona × Awareness strategy system, a first round of short-form video shot on location in Kauai, and a scalable library of ad concepts. One connected pipeline, from what's true about the product to the system that scales it.
the situation
A sharp product. No acquisition engine.
SOLID sells dissolvable pre-workout and electrolyte "rounds" that absorb buccally instead of through the gut — a real first-mover product in a category drowning in identical powder scoops. But the brand had a sharp product and no acquisition engine: very few active Meta ads, a light paid creative infrastructure, organic alive but underpowered, and a narrowing competitive window. The brief wasn't "make better ads." It was "build the machine that turns a great product into a scaled brand."
Diagnose before touching creative.
01 - strategy
I ran a full DTC performance teardown: website conversion audit, competitive landscape mapping, organic assessment, and creative-gap analysis. It surfaced the real constraints — conversion gaps that would crater any paid spend, and overreaching product claims that needed reformulating to a defensible, speed-led angle before scaling. That repositioning protected the brand and became the spine of the creative.
From there I built a Creative Strategy System: a Pain × Persona × Awareness-Stage matrix — four pain buckets, five personas, all five awareness stages that turned ad-hoc concepting into a repeatable engine and exposed 14+ untouched messaging angles where the brand had been clustering in a single quadrant.
Proof competitors couldn't match.
02 - video production
I concepted, briefed, and produced four short-form videos on location in Kauai — two pre-workout, two electrolyte, each split between a demo concept and a narrative concept. Each came with production-ready briefs: shot lists, scripts, hook/tension/payoff structure, and dual-flavor capture to pull two assets from one shoot. The environment did the selling — mixing a powder on a jungle trail is absurd, so the voiceover argument added to the convenience narrative. All four were delivered and put into paid rotation and whitelisting.
"The Rehydration Window"
"The All-dat Kauai test"
"The trail test"
"the 90% problem"
ELECTROLYTE · demo
ELECTROLYTE · Narrative
PRE-WORKOUT · DEMO
PRE-WORKOUT · narrative
A concept library, not one-off ads.
03 - the ads
I developed eight full ad concept briefs mapped across the matrix — every awareness stage, all four pain buckets, all five personas built to test along two parallel paths: designed/editorial executions that carry the absorption math, and native/organic-mimicking creative that carries the brand's irreverent voice. Each brief carries the full stack: strategic intersection, messaging angle, creative mechanic, hook tactic, opening line, format, and production notes — handoff-ready.
Reframe
Social Witness
Reframe
Contrast
Storytelling
Overheard
Reframe
Contrast
The throughline
Not three projects. One pipeline.
The work moved as one connected pipeline, not three disconnected projects. Strategy defined what was true and defensible → production proved it with footage competitors couldn't match → paid scaled it into a system any creator or designer could execute against.
The matrix is the asset: the brand isn't buying one-off concepts that expire — it's getting a framework that keeps generating on-strategy angles long after handoff.
The transformation
No acquisition engine
a full performance creative pipeline
Ad-hoc connecting
a repeatable Pain × Persona × Awareness engine
Clustered in one quadrant
14+ untouched messaging angles mapped
A handful of active ads
a scalable, handoff-ready concept library
Overreaching claims
a defensible, speed-led position
capabilities demonstrated
Competitive & conversion teardown
Shot-list & brief writing
Hook development
Creative strategy systems
Paid Meta creative strategy
Audience segmentation
Designed + native testing
Awareness-stage mapping
AI-assisted production workflow
Creative concepting & production