Rebecca Faulkner

Creative Director + Writer

Hands-on creative leader who does it all: from managing creative teams to concepting brand-elevating work for brand and product marketing. Knows when to let the creatives shine and when to roll up my sleeves. Consensus builder. Creative talent cultivator. Loves a crisp brief.

Motherhood Works

When the pandemic hit, millions of people were forced to leave the workforce. Not surprisingly, 80% were moms. In less than a year and a half, women’s careers were set back by decades. In 2022, many moms were starting to feel that they’d left even more behind–their identity, self-reliance, lack of choice. As a company dedicated to the independent worker and their clients, Upwork had an opportunity to help her get these things back by helping her get back to work. So, how did we do it? We built a campaign that used real video footage and photography highlighting the challenges moms faced during the pandemic—so that clients all over the world can realize their value. Our GTM approach focused on building awareness, resonance and driving action and getting clients to think mom-first when hiring. Upwork showcased the value moms bring to any organization. And we didn't stop there! We backed our message by action, launching brand partnerships with Skillshare, Mastry and Care. How did it perform? 9.4MM total reach. Overall Organic Performance: 578.6K impressions delivered; exceeding goal of 222K. 2.43% average campaign engagement rate across IG, LinkedIn, and TikTok. Overall Paid Whitelisting Performance: 16.7MM impressions delivered; exceeding goal of 12MM. 22.4K total clicks to our dedicated campaign landing page.

Wake + Make

Winner: ADC Silver Cube.

Finalist: Corporate Film, seventh annual Brand Film Awards

Shortlist: One Show, Branded Entertainment

Shortlist: One Show, Brand Partnerships

Shortlist: Physical Product, Promotional

Our community is made of millions of entrepreneurs and talent, fueled by creativity, hard work, late nights and, well — coffee. So when international coffee day came around, we had to celebrate in a way that only Upwork could. With the help of five illustrators and one hand letterer from our platform, that’s exactly what we did. Together with Red Bay Coffee, a Black-owned roastery and certified B-Corp who shares our values, we created a signature coffee line dedicated to the grind, featuring beautiful, original illustrations from amazing talent around the globe. Finally, we brought it all to life with an independent filmmaker to tell the story. Our community buzzed about it, with a 400% increase in social engagement over other similar campaigns. So did our clients, with over $100,000 in new business leads in just a few short weeks. And most important of all, our talent saw immediate returns, gaining more exposure online and landing new projects as a direct result.

Upwork 2020 Brand Awareness Campaign

When the world is suddenly forced into working remotely, it helps to be a brand with 20 years of experience as the remote work leader. In April 2020, Upwork launched Work Together Talent Grants, giving $1 million in talent grants to support businesses working to counter the impact of COVID-19. While the spot was produced by Duncan Channon, concepting and social activation was driven by our internal creative team. We received thousands of grant applications within days of launch, greatly exceeding our projections. We ultimately funded 40 projects (60% of which were diversity led or focused) serving 7 countries.

StubHub 2020 Brand Awareness Campaign

2020 marked the first year StubHub took its brand awareness work in-house. The work resulted in a jaw-dropping 400% ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend). I led the copy team as ACD, and even flew to Toronto with my 9-month old baby to shoot these spots!

The campaign consists of over fifteen :06 unskippable pre-roll videos, along with other short form social videos to hit on StubHub’s “Reasons to Believe” in memorable, relevant and, above all, entertaining ways. We leaned into the short format of pre-roll to quickly hammer home each idea, and allow for optimization through time as we learned which assets performed best among fans.

Next, to celebrate the month of October, aka the busiest season in sports, we created the “#Sportober Challenge” to inspire and reward fans for getting out and seeing as many live sporting events as possible. We partnered with YouTube all-star team Dude Perfect to create a StubHub Sportober trick shot video and drive fans to and through the challenge.

StubHub - Only Good Surprises

This Q4 campaign included TV, digital, print and the multitalented Ticket Oak’s radio debut. The effort highlights that scoring good tickets at StubHub couldn’t be easier — or less aggravating — because there are never extra fees. Unlike the other guys, what you see at the start is what you pay at checkout. It’s called All-In-Pricing. Throw in a Fan Rewards program with discounts and seat upgrades for frequent users, and see how, at StubHub, fairytales always come true.

StubHub: MLB Digital, Paid Social

Baseball isn't just a game. It's the crack of the bat, the smell of fresh-cut grass, and the sight of your child taking in the emerald green field for the first time. We concepted, pitched and produced this digital campaign in-house, strategically shooting a series of short films that could be recut across all digital performance channels -- perfect for our modest production budget.

StubHub: Event Marketing #NoMoFoMo

An unforgettable 3 day event experience at Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco CA. Featuring acoustic sets from artists like Broods and Langhorne Slim, DJ sets from the legendary Hot Chip, and Giraffage, live improv from the Upright Citizens Brigade, epic dance parties, live band karaoke and much more! NeonTommy called it "the best idea in the history of festivals". (That's a big deal, coming from gen z'ers.) You can read more about the event in the LA Times. I creative directed the work from concept through production.

StubHub NFL Digital Campaign

For some fans, football isn't a sport. It's a religion. We concepted this campaign that spoke to the most ardent fans among us, tapping into the passion and faith that true football fans have for their teams. The campaign spanned digital video on social, plus all of our regular performance channels and CRM.

StubHub: Directing Illustration

My design partner and I directed illustrator Lauren Tamaki in the creation of these bespoke GIFs and illlustrations. They capture the spirit of specific artists and live events (despite the fact that we didn't have rights to photo or video content).

StubHub NFL 2018

Praise be. For the 2018 NFL season, my creative partner and I had fun developing this religiously-themed campaign, tapping into the passion and faith that true football fans have for their teams.

StubHub Experiential: New Orleans Super Bowl Pregame Bash

When you're spending thousands of dollars on a ticket for football's biggest game of the year, you want to feel like a VIP! For the Super Bowl XLVII, every customer who purchased an NFL ticket at StubHub enjoyed a free pass to a VIP pregame bash, packed with NFL celebs, food, drinks and more. The internal creative team at StubHub designed this activation from the ground up in an abandoned Woolworth's building on Canal Street in New Orleans. There was literally water dripping from the ceiling when we scouted the location (we made sure to fix that before the party). We branded the whole event and marketed the party across our owned and paid channels.

StubHub: #ThatLiveLife Video + Photo Social Content Series

In an effort to connect authentically with fans of sports, music and theater (and enrich our social channels with engaging fan content), we concepted #ThatLiveLife -- a series of beautifully shot still portraits, moving portraits, and documentary-style videos taken at live events around the world. Organic engagement with the portraits exceeded our baseline across all social channels -- sometimes up to 13X more.

StubHub: Rebrand + Brand Campaign

Let Your Fan Out was a full-funnel national media campaign (produced by Duncan Channon) which coincided with StubHub's 2015 brand refresh. I was creative lead, client side, approving and overseeing all aspects of creative production. The press release is my articulation of the design system. I helped lead the refresh rollout internally, evangelizing the changes and planning a launch party (complete with party-crashing champagne toast by a speedo-ed superfan).

StubHub: Ticket Oak Digital Holiday Campaign

Prior to StubHub's sophisticated 2015 and 2016 brand refreshes, our lovable mascot was Ticket Oak. Our internal creative team concepted and produced this digital holiday campaign that, like Ticket Oak, was cheeky, folksy, and a little (or maybe a lot) weird. After all, who wouldn't want to hide tickets in a pimento cheese sandwich?

StubHub: NFL Huge Packages Digital Campaign

StubHub partnered with NFL On Location, the Official Hospitality of the NFL, to launch a suite of VIP packages for Super Bowl 51 in Houston. My partner and I, inspired by the grandiosity of the packages, infused a healthy dose of innuendo into the messaging of this small-scale campaign. I presented the concept to several NFL stakeholders who laughed out loud at the copy lines. Some of the raunchier ones didn't make it to market but they should have! (shakes fist)

StubHub Instagram Memes

I spend way too much time following meme accounts on Instagram, but luckily I also get to write them and get paid. Here are a few of my favorite memes for StubHub.

2018 Concerts

Music isn’t just something you listen to. It’s something you feel, see, smell, taste and experience. From the mind-blowing visual effects of an arena show to the smell of something smokey wafting through the crowd to the feel of icy beer sloshing onto your wrist as you dance – nothing compares to a live show. This campaign was launched leading up to the Grammy awards and included a Billboard.com homepage takeover.

WWE Partnership

StubHub Product Marketing: Sellers

Selling tickets can be a little....transactional. We decided to bring some personality into that space by displaying a series of "reasons to sell" throughout stubhub.com.

Tonight, say yes to a show.

See it live, wherever you land.

Hamilton: Revolutionary Nights Start Here

Copa America

StubHub Product Marketing: App Relaunch

StubHub Product Marketing: Apple Watch launch

StubHub was one of the inaugural apps to launch on Apple Watch. We launched this very feature-driven campaign across our owned channels.

Brand Books and Style Sheets

I've written quite a few style guides and brand books. From aspirational prose about a brand's ethos to the nitty gritty of how to differentiate Christmas lights. I've handled it all.

StubHub Radio Scripts: ACD + CW

I never thought, as a woman in my late twenties, that I'd be writing scripts in the voice of sportscaster dudes, but here we are.

Wild Planet TV Spots

StubHub Center, Home of the LA Galaxy Branding

StubHub: "Be Like Ticket Oak" 2012 Holiday Campaign

Better Homes & Gardens: CW

Founded in 1922, Better Homes and Gardens is a truly iconic brand and brings in $1.4 billion for Walmart each year. I managed copy, compliance and editorial voice for thousands of SKUs of comforter sets, candles, and 6-in-1 slow cookers.

Holiday Time for Walmart: CW

Wild Planet: Spy Video TRAKR launch campaign

This was a really fun product launch spanning broadcast, print, packaging, digital and merch. Spy Video TRAKR was the world's first app-enabled video RC sold nationally at Target, Walmart and Toys-R-Us. It ran on open source software and could be hacked by anyone willing to learn a little C++ programming language. A big deal for kids, geeks and makers alike.

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