pep expands into the creative field with new division “pep creative”
Across our vast network of clients, pep is known as the ultimate end-to-end marketing operations partner. From concept to delivery, our expertise in marketing sourcing, campaign management, eCommerce, digital, point of purchase—the list goes on—saves our clients time and money. In 2022, we uncovered that several of our clients were facing the same pain-point: they were looking for top quality creative work that seamlessly paired with the consumer activations we were already executing.
Thus, a new pep capability was born: pep Creative. This new team, led by Art Director Laura Miller, combines years of creative expertise across industries and a world of brands to form an innovative group of designers.
From quick-turn adaptations to full creative exploration, the pep Creative has experience in design for consumer activations, marketing, branding, packaging, retail environments and merchandising, and various print and digital activations for high-visibility brands.
“I’m thrilled to head-up this new capability and team at pep,” Laura Miller said. “We are small but mighty, and in just a few short months have already impacted our clients in a big way.”
Laura graduated from the University of Maryland as a dual degree student, with degrees in both graphic design and English Literature. Midway through college, Laura found a home at Nickelodeon with back-to-back summer internships in the competitive Viacom Internship Program. As if working in the Viacom Times Square headquarters wasn’t exciting enough, Laura’s first “real world” work experience opened the door to interactions with massive CPG clients, from Colgate to General Mills, where she designed packaging and products for toothpaste, cereal, bandages school supplies, and more.
“There’s nothing like seeing your work in a store,” Laura explained. “You spend hours looking at a design project on a computer screen—revising, critiquing, tweaking—to see it on a shelf, where it’s shoppable and will end up in someone’s cart, in their home; there’s nothing like it.”
With a team of experienced designers, pep Creative currently executes the creative for in-store programs for pep clients. From POS to shopping cart advertisements, at-shelf coupons and banners, pep Creative is at-the-ready to deliver end-to-end design solutions for retail.
After realizing her design heart was sold on the CPG world, Laura went on to work for a boutique creative agency with clients including TJX Companies, Macy’s, and Walmart. Laura took her love of designing for brands and partnered it with designing for retail: full exploratory creative work in branding, packaging, retail design and wayfinding, point of sale displays, and more.
After several years in the agency world, she was ready for a change: she went in-house. Laura began working as a senior designer for CHF Industries, a home textile manufacturer and marketer, in the Garment District of New York City. She continued to build relationships with the retailers she worked with in her past role, along with new retailers—and brands.
“I had my first taste of the luxury goods world while working at CHF,” she said. “Donna Karan, Michael Aram, John Robshaw: these were designers I’d seen on the shelves of Bloomingdale’s and in their SoHo boutiques…and suddenly I found myself on a set looking at their product for a photoshoot.”
She also worked on main-line brands like The Pioneer Woman, Martha Stewart, and Better Homes & Gardens, and developed, designed, and executed private label brands for national retailers. Her time at CHF gave her the runway to expand her skillsets in packaging design, photoshoot art direction, branding, marketing collateral and assets, environmental design, merchandising, and digital.
As more signs point toward digital as the future for consumer activations, pep Creative has developed digital tactics for clients, including microsites, digital ads and banners, assets for apps like Ibotta, digital coupons, and more.
In her last role before joining pep, Laura was the Manager of Brand Design for Century 21 Real Estate in their corporate headquarters, where she managed art direction and design for brand assets, collateral (yard signs, marketing materials, digital and print advertising), and brand guidelines for over 150,000 real estate agents worldwide. While working in the real estate industry—albeit on the corporate side—was a pivot in her career experience up to that point, Laura used the opportunity to learn and master invaluable design tools: flawless brand compliance, brand guideline development and rollouts, and design for mass-scale franchises.
“I’m so happy to be back on the agency-side of the creative world. The variety in the workday is unmatched. I may start the day working on an in-store activation for Dove, and by the end of the day wind up in discussions around Coca-Cola partnerships. The pep Creative team has the fortune of partnering with any of our clients on a huge assortment of tactics. There truly is never a dull moment!”
As pep’s first Art Director, Laura is eager to lead the pep Creative team and continue doing what they know best—creative—and mix it into pep’s incredible roster of clients, expertise, and beyond.
“Design is immensely adaptable,” Laura explained. “The team and I have had amazing opportunities to work in many distinctly different industries—from media to real estate and home textiles to packaged goods—but design consistently reveals itself as the common thread between all of them. I’m thrilled to work with pep and their remarkable clients, and even more excited to see where we can take pep Creative together.”
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To learn more about our creative services please reach out to laura.miller@peppromotions.com