upside
brand
High gas prices drove millions of downloads for Upside. But the app is diversifying — it needed an identity that would work for restaurants, grocery and anywhere else people might earn cash back in the future.
So Upside unveiled a brand campaign in early 2023 with a new tagline: Cash back for doing you. It added personality and positioned the app as something for everyone and every little errand.
In-house, we took the campaign nationwide with new tactics that built on the concept with fun lines and lots of value.
Creative Director: Luis Rodriguez
Copywriter: Patrick McMahon
Designers: Joseph Chae, Lauren Ransom
consumer growth + acquisition
On TikTok, Reels, and YouTube, I led a push to move Upside from underperforming performance creative to scripted and UGC creative.
Our resulting work immediately felt more native and — in line with “cash back for doing you” — put stories and personalities up front.
Best of all, we saw longer watch times, reduced cost per sign up (CPSU) and a 9% month-over-month increase in return on ad spend (ROAS).
lifecycle + retention
With senior lifecycle marketing team members, I wrote and developed strategy for dozens of day-to-day campaigns for app users — the transactional emails and in-app/push notifications that help define the experience of using Upside. Some were as simple as a new retailer launch, some were as complicated as the campaigns below. (Aside: I have A LOT of this work. More samples available by request.)
My approach was direct, simple, and actionable. (Read as: These are here not because they’re beautiful, but because they’re effective.)
Recent Inactive User Bonus
Challenge: Reactivate users who have not claimed an offer in 30 days with $0.10/gal bonus cash back. Some of them have bonuses on their accounts already — in subject lines and emails I stacked the new and old bonuses to serve the biggest number I could.
Assets: Email, push and in-app notifications for an initial send and two rounds of reminder communications
Results: 41% average open rate + 1.14% average click rate + 14.6% reactivation rate
Dead User Reactivation
Challenge: Bring back “dead” users who have not used the app for a year or more with a $0.15/gal bonus. This campaign is almost too simple but it A) worked B) on a really difficult audience C) without using a super-rich bonus — just effective subject lines and notifications that prompted them to act and made it sound simple.
Assets: Email and in-app notifications for an initial send and four rounds of reminder communications
Results: 29% open rate + 0.53% click rate + 17.2% reactivation rate