Build. Win. And everything in between.
I build brand functions from scratch and grow brands that punch above their weight in the US market. 15+ years across strategy, creative and communications, agency side and in-house. Today I lead Brand & Communications at Hily, a dating app with 44M+ downloads.
Building a brand inside a performance machine
I joined Hily as its first dedicated brand hire, in a performance-driven company that was skeptical of brand. In 2.5 years I built a team of 13 across brand, creative, social, PR, partnerships and creators, tripled the brand budget and grew awareness by 16 points. The work goes well beyond campaigns: measurement that proves brand works, a value proposition that shaped product strategy, a PR engine that went from 3 to 50+ Tier-1 mentions a quarter, and one brand across product, support and marketing.
Date as You Are: the rebrand
Founded in 2017, Hily found itself a bit stuck in 2023. Based on extensive research and interviews with daters, we predicted the trend of authenticity and made Hily's bet. From visual identity and foundation brand strategy to tone of voice and imagery, Hily got a new image and a slogan that reflects the core change — Date As You Are.
+16pp awareness in 2 years ↗
Dare to Date as You Are
A zero-AI YouTube-first campaign with three authentic artists interpretting Hily's message and daring daters to drop the act.
8% brand lift vs 3.5% benchmark ↗
Date Scare-Free
44% of Gen Z daters admitted that they might have been dating out of fear of being single. We turned those fears into horror posters in 40 cinemas.
+17% replies · 40 cinemas ↗
Violette, Junior Assistant Associate Social Media Manager
A digital product had nothing to show but a phone screen. So we gave it a face: the butterfly in your stomach.
3–4× engagement vs branded content ↗
Mystery Donut: Hily × Trejo's Donuts, LA
Donuts are like dates, sometimes — you never know until you try. Limited-edition Mystery Donuts earned us the funniest TV mention we ever got, from KT LA.
Earned TV on KTLA ↗Reputation turnaround
What people find when they look us up decides whether they install, pay or stay. Positive Google results on key searches: 15% → 80%+, held every quarter.
PR system · 2024–2026Data-driven PR
Earned media instead of a bigger budget: data, experts and stunts took us from 3 to 50+ Tier-1 mentions a quarter, regular TV airtime and stronger visibility in AI answers.
Product & CX · 2025–2026Brand beyond marketing
In a brand-sceptical company, I built the case first: brand tracking and incrementality studies, a value proposition with Product, one brand across UX and support, and an in-house creative team that does most of the work for a fraction of agency cost.
More from Hily
Proving a channel works when the MMM can’t see it: a GeoLift test of bar screens in Colorado
Getting real, offline: solving a trust problem for an app with nothing to hold
Fewer views, more business impact: turning a 30M-views meme factory into socials that prove we’re real
Hily's Birthday Time Capsule Digital Activation: because 2017 was really, really cool.
Look Beyond the Pictures: launching the Icks & Clicks quiz. 2025
Date as a Labradoodle: a kinder way to date. Halloween 2024
The strategy years
25+ brands built or revitalized across tech, CPG and education, for clients in the US, UK, Israel and Europe, from pre-seed AI startups to Microsoft and Toyota.
(NDA) Complex tech B2B's comms humanization
From feature lists to people under pressure: a voice and message system that won both engineers and their managers, and went live.
Open the case ↗ Foundational strategy · Consumer app(NDA) Brand platform for a travel-planning app
Six motivation segments, one shared stopper, and a brand essence that answers it. It shaped the identity, the product and the test-launch GTM.
Open the case ↗ Positioning & naming · How I workTesting sprints: from zero to a verified hypothesis
As a consultant, I helped founders find the strongest starting point for a new brand, and prove the direction before launch.
See how I work ↗Where the craft comes from
Five years of agency work for Pepsi, MARS, AB InBev, Mondelēz, McDonald's, Visa, Toyota, Lexus and Samsung, and 47 awards along the way.
Karpatska Dzherelna
A small mineral water in a market owned by two giants, with a fraction of their budget. We turned the category's tired promise of youth into a legend: the Rejuvenating Carpathian Water, and a grandad who looks remarkably good.
Ukrainian Marketing Forum · BBDO Ukraine · 2018
Mold
Kotler's Marketing in mall lightboxes, slowly growing mold. Knowledge goes stale: come get fresh. One lightbox, 40+ media publications, a sold-out forum.
BBDO Ukraine · 2015
Stella Artois Film Festival Edition
A four-part Cannes film told across four cans. ADC*UA Grand Prix, Epica Bronze.
BBDO Ukraine · 2017
Lexus: Admit it, you want Lexus
People disliked Lexus as a defense: if I can't own it, I'd rather not like it. So we showed no cars at all. KIAF Gold.
McDonald's Happy MealRead with Happy Meal · Be It Agency, 2019
Barni (Mondelēz)Kids as the real experts · Be It Agency, 2019
TEVA DecatylenThe bacteria talk show · BBDO Ukraine, 2017
Marketing to marketersTwo sold-out events · ADC*UA Bronze
Samsung GalaxyThe $200 viral · Cheil
Freken BokCare is in your hands · Fedoriv, 2019