Natasha Marie Sokulski is a first-generation American, Latinx executive creative director living and working in Brooklyn. Natasha has spent her entire professional career in experiential marketing, specializing in delivering strategic creative solutions for some of the world’s most influential brands.
Like many in the industry, she pivoted when the pandemic hit, bringing those same skills to content-driven & virtual experiences, all while leading a rapidly growing creative team.
with a strong competitor in the market, instagram recognized creators may break on another platform, but positioned instagram as the best place to turn that viral moment into a career. creator week is an invite-only, owned tentpole where top creators, industry experts, and instagram & facebook execs share insider knowledge and tips & tricks with emerging creators looking to level-up their careers.
FORD
in the midst of a pandemic that shut down production, followed by headlines of chip shortages, all coming on the heels of high ceo turn-over a plummeting stock prices, ford needed a big with with investors. the 90 mnute capital markets day virtual presentation to the finance world was programmed to “show not tell,” and prove that a new ford was here. Ford’s first capitl markets day in over 6 years resulted in a same day 8.5% stock price jump and over $5 billion addition to ford’s market cap in just 1.5 days.
WATCH THE FULL PRESENTATION HERE.
MCDONALD’S
Amid Covid-19, McDonald’s leadership faced a massive challenge: pivot the company’s National Conference – its largest, system-wide annual convening – and regional Field Office Summits into a virtual event designed to spotlight progress, recognize opportunities and build momentum heading into 2021-2022. Months of programming was condensed into one, week-long virtual event for 5k+ execs and franchisees, keeping them highly engaged and receiving more positive feedback from attendees than in previous years.
FORD
To underscore the depth of Ford’s brand values, showcase American manufacturing innovation, and honor the workers on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic, we partnered with filmmaker Peter Berg to create a documentary shorT – ON THE LINE – highlighting the essential role that Ford and THE UAW team members played in fighting the greatest health crisis OF OUR TIME. Simply put, Ford put people over profit.
WATCH ON THE LINE HERE.
The brand’s biggest event of the year was at VidCon, a convention dedicated to online video, showcasing its stars, and host to tens of thousands of tweens and teens. Instagram’s Neon Playground came to life on the Expo Floor, where it quickly became an attendee favorite and in the Creators Lounge, a VIP hospitality space for top Creators only. Both spaces were designed for both still photography, boomerang, and video content. Both spaces were some of the most widely shared throughout the entire convention.
STARZ
Starz celebrated the premiere of Vida – an official selection of the 2018 SXSW festival – on lively Rainey Street by inviting festival go-ers into its cross-cultural and intersectional world. In keeping with its feminist, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ themes, Starz worked with a variety of women-owned and queer-owned businesses and Latinx artists to bring THE backyard celebration to life.
AIRBNB
A LONGTIME SUPPORTER AND ALLY OF THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY, AIRBNB HAS HAD A PRESENCE AT PRIDE IN SAN FRANCISCO, NEW YORK, AND OTHER MAJOR GLOBAL CITIES FOR MANY YEARS. BUT ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STONEWALL RIOTS, AND DURING A TIME WHEN BRANDS ARE BEING SCRUTINIZED FOR RAINBOW-WASHING, IT WAS IMPORTANT AIRBNB SHOW UP IN AN AUTHENTIC WAY THAT SERVED, CELEBRATED, AND THOUGHTFULLY HOSTED THE COMMUNITY.
WEWORK
To celebrate hard-working members and show its commitment to supporting innovative ideas, WeWork HOSTED the Creator Awards, an international competition event series and community gathering. Though each event is hyper-localized, they all have the same key components: master classes taught by local innovators, a job fair, a Creators Market, the Pitch competition, where top Creators battle it out for prizes tied to funding, and a concert celebration.
WATCH THE DETROIT RECAP HERE.
vidcon – the largest gathering of content creators - is an important, but tough space for facebook to enter. facebook, a brand now older than many of today’s most influential young creators, invited those creators into a sanctuary from the chaos and provided access and opportunity to conduct business and create content in a safe, welcoming, and highly-sharable environment. Though one of many creator lounges throughout vidcon, facebook had one of the most popular and was seen as truly catering to creator needs.
WATCH THE WALK-THROUGH HERE.
WESTIN HOTELS & RESORTS
To announce the role as title sponsor of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series, and promote the newly created VIP packages for race weekends, a new concierge service was created: the RunWESTIN Concierge. A nationwide casting call led to the selection of Westin’s first dedicated Running concierge.
WATCH THE GUEST EXPERIENCE HERE.
FORD
With Silicon Valley tech giants entering the automotive space and changing the way investors, press, and consumers view transportation. Ford had something to prove: not only do they have a vision for the future. They have a plan. Over the course of three days, Ford welcomed top-tier media and investors to The Miami Experience, a self-driving journey through the streets of downtown Miami.
NIKE
Knowing the most dedicated LACROSSE players continue their training off-season at lacrosse summer camps, NIKE CAME TO THEM IN AN EFFORT TO BECOME THE UNDISPUTED KING OF LACROSSE AMONG ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE, and HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE PLAYERS. Nike created a pop-up tour, with over 10 stops across the northeast. Two shipping containers were dropped off in the morning, building intrigue and excitement throughout the day, and would pop open in the afternoon, revealing a place for players to hang out with their friends, test out some Nike training techniques, have their sticks restrung by a Nike Lacrosse stick doctor, try out the latest Nike Lacrosse gear, and view a surprise gallery featuring their day of training, professionally captured by an official Nike photographer.
AMERICAN EXPRESS
As fashion week evolved from an industry trade-show into a pop-culture moment, American Express saw an opportunity to bring its brand promise – membership has its privileges – to life and give unprecedented New York Fashion Week access to consumers. American Express created an exclusive viewing room and cardmembers-only show, brINGING the Rebecca Minkoff Spring 2014 collection to Cardmembers with a live performance by Janelle Monae AND EXCLUSIVE POST-SHOW INTERVIEW WITH Rebecca Minkoff BY HOST Kelly Osbourne.
Instagram announced their newest and most exciting feature to date the night before VidCon 2018. IGTV is the new long-form, vertical video app, To make a splash and facilitate new app downloads, VIPs were invited to the Instagram Creators Lounge, where they were surprised to find IGTV logos instead of Instagram ones, were surrounded by multiple vertical screens displaying IGTV content for inspiration, and of course, plenty of content creation opportunities.
FORD
Ford was launching the Ford EcoSport, its brand-new mini SUV that packed a big punch. The Life Hack Academy was a 3-pronged, campaign sharing life hacks from key influencers. The campaign kicked off with a Hearst partnership content series hosted by Tia Mowry, followed by an influencer brunch featured on Brit + Co, and finally, a live event in NYC showcasing immersive vignettes. Each vignette had a top influencer interacting with guests: Smitten Kitchen in Hack Your Meal Prep, The Points Guy in Hack Your Travel, The Minimalists in Hack Your Small Space, Jessamyn Stanley in Hack Your Fitness Goals, and Song Exploder featuring Skylar Grey in Hack Your Passion Project.
L’ORÉAL PARIS
L'Oréal Paris was having its biggest product launch in over 25 years: the Advanced Haircare line. In order to drum up excitement among its most valued allies, L’Oréal created a non-traditional press event to share the years of research and development that unlocked the secrets of great hair to create their 5 new customized solutions. Beauty editors were invited into the L'Oréal Vault to discover the secret ingredient in each of those 5 product lines in a fun and memorable way; each was brought to life through dramatic performances that kicked off a successful press event.