The Process
Fiona Micoleau · Creative Strategy
The
Process.

Some say the funnel has collapsed, replaced by a more fluid, flywheel-like journey. That said, briefs almost always ladder up to a few main objectives — See Us, Know Us, Love Us, Use Us. Sometimes it's all of them, sometimes the focus is on just one. My job is to take those objectives and translate them into strategies, stories, and touchpoints that move people with intention, turning first impressions into lasting impact.

01 See Us
Build
awareness.

Make the brand impossible to ignore. Cut through a saturated feed, a cluttered shelf, a distracted audience. The goal isn't reach — it's resonance. You want people to stop, notice, and remember.

OOH & Print
Paid Social
Brand Identity
PR & Earned Media
02 Know Us
Build
belief.

Share what sets the brand apart. Once someone's paying attention, give them a reason to stay. This is where product truth, category expertise, and a clear point of view do the work.

Content Strategy
Brand Messaging
Owned Channels
Thought Leadership
03 Love Us
Build
affinity.

Spark something emotional. The brands people are loyal to aren't just the ones they use — they're the ones they feel something for. This is where strategy becomes culture, and culture becomes community.

Experiential
Partnerships
Community
Brand World
04 Use Us
Drive
action.

Turn interest into behaviour. The best conversion work doesn't feel like conversion work — it removes friction, reframes the decision, and makes saying yes feel like the only sensible thing to do.

CRM & Email
Performance Creative
Landing Pages
Retail & D2C
The through-line

Every brief starts with a question: what do we actually need people to do? The objective shapes everything — the insight we look for, the idea we build, the channels we choose. Strategy isn't a document. It's a decision about what matters most.

Fiona Micoleau · Creative Strategy
Fiona Micoleau · Creative Strategy
Pretend
briefs.
Real process.

Fictional briefs. Real creative challenges. This is how I think — from cultural insight to campaign idea, showing the strategy behind the work.

Case Study 01 TV / Broadcast
Maison
Duval
The Brief
Reframe a heritage French wine brand for a British audience who finds it intimidating.

Maison Duval has 80 years of winemaking history and zero cultural relevance in the UK. Research showed consideration dropped the moment people saw French on the label. The brief: make Duval feel like it belongs in a British home, not a Parisian restaurant.

The Insight
The British relationship with wine is performative — people are scared of getting it wrong.

Wine culture in the UK is wrapped in class anxiety. People don't avoid French wine because they dislike it — they avoid it because they're afraid of mispronouncing it, ordering wrong, looking like they're trying too hard. The intimidation is the barrier, not the taste.

The Strategy
Make Maison Duval the brand that laughs at wine snobbery first.

Instead of leaning into prestige, Duval disarms the category. The brand becomes the insider that lets you in on the joke — sophisticated enough to know the rules, confident enough not to care about them.

The Idea
"Bon." — a 60-second TV spot. We open on a dinner party. Someone confidently mispronounces "Duval." The table goes quiet. Then the host — warm, unhurried — pours another glass and says simply: "Bon." Cut to various British homes, various mispronunciations, same response. The spot ends on a bottle and the line: Maison Duval. However you say it.
Class anxiety Brand reframing British culture Heritage brand TV
Case Study 02 OOH / Print
Jeep
Wrangler
The Brief
Reinvigorate the Wrangler with a campaign that justifies why people keep buying it.

Jeep's Wrangler is one of the best-selling vehicles in America. It is also, statistically, one of the least used for its intended purpose. The ask: make people feel good about owning one. Budget: national. Media: OOH-led.

The Insight
Almost nobody who buys a Jeep ever takes it off-road. And somewhere, quietly, they know that.

The Rubicon sits in Whole Foods parking lots. The mud flaps have never seen mud. The winch has never been used. But here's the thing — Jeep owners aren't delusional. They know. They bought it anyway. Because the fantasy of the person they could be was worth more than the reality of the roads they actually drive.

The Strategy
Stop pretending. Own the fantasy — and make it the most honest thing a car brand has ever said.

Every other automotive brand sells capability. Jeep is the only brand that can sell aspiration without apology — because the aspiration itself is the product. The Wrangler doesn't take you off-road. It takes you through your Tuesday feeling like someone who could. That's not a bug. That's the whole thing.

The Idea
"For Someday." — An OOH campaign that says the quiet part loud. Billboards in the most un-Jeep locations imaginable — bumper-to-bumper highway, airport drop-off, suburban strip mall — with a single line: "You'll take it off-road someday." No wink. No irony. Just warm, total sincerity. Because Jeep understands: someday is enough. Jeep Wrangler. For someday.
Honest advertising Aspirational identity Self-awareness Automotive OOH
Case Study 03 Digital / Social
Campari
Aperitivo
The Brief
Grow Campari's relevance with under-35s who admire it from a distance but never buy it.

Campari has the posters, the heritage, the Negroni cultural moment. But purchase intent among younger drinkers is low. They follow the aesthetic on Instagram. Campari signifies a lifestyle. It signifies taste.They don't own the bottle. The ask: close the gap. Budget: digital-first.

The Insight
Campari is the only drink people have to consciously decide to like — and that decision is the whole point.

Nobody likes their first Negroni. It's bitter, it's strange, it tastes like a dare. But people order a second one anyway — because something about pushing through and acquiring the taste feels like a small act of becoming. Campari isn't discovered. It's chosen. And choosing it means something about the kind of person you're deciding to be.

The Strategy
Make the acquired taste the badge. Bitterness isn't the problem to solve — it's the entire product.

Every other drinks brand tries to be immediately loveable. Campari is the only one that can credibly say: we're not for everyone, and that's precisely why we're for you. The brand leans into the moment of conversion — that second Negroni — as the most interesting thing that happens in any bar, anywhere. Not a drink. A threshold.

The Idea
"The Second One." — A social campaign built entirely around the moment after the first sip. Short films, shot in bars around the world, catching the exact face people make on their first Negroni — the wince, the pause, the reconsideration — and then the quiet nod when they order another. No voiceover. No copy except the line: The second one is the one that counts. A QR code on every execution sends you to a map of bars serving Campari's Negroni of the month. Campari. Acquire taste.
Acquired taste Identity drinking Honest insight Under-35s Social
Caudalie Case Study · Fiona Micoleau
Case Study 01 Beauty / Skincare
Caudalie
Vinothérapie
The Brief
Grow Caudalie's market share among premium skincare buyers who already have a full routine.

Caudalie has the brand story — born in the vineyards of Bordeaux, grape-seed polyphenols, a spa carved into the earth. But in a market flooded with clinical serums and dermatologist-backed actives, Caudalie is losing the consideration battle before it even starts. The ask: make Caudalie the obvious choice for a customer who already believes in skincare.

The Insight
Every skincare brand takes credit for your glow. Caudalie is the only one honest enough to admit where it actually comes from.

The wellness industry is built on a fiction: that your skin is a problem only a product can solve. But anyone who has ever come back from a week in the south of France — sun on their face, wine with lunch, eight hours of sleep — knows that their skin has never looked better, and they didn't change their routine once. Life makes you glow. The late nights, the good meals, the long walks, the love. Skincare doesn't create that. At its best, it just makes sure nothing gets in the way of it.

The Strategy
Cede the credit. Let life be the hero — and position Caudalie as the brand humble enough to know its place.

In a category where every brand overclaims, radical honesty is a creative superpower. Caudalie doesn't need to promise transformation — it needs to promise support. The vineyard DNA makes this credible: this is a brand that understands what it means to tend to something, to work with nature rather than against it. Caudalie isn't the source of your radiance. It's what keeps the conditions right for it to happen.

The Idea
"We just keep you moisturized." — A campaign that cheerfully refuses to overclaim. Print and OOH executions showing real moments of French living — a dinner that ran three hours too long, a morning swim before anyone else was awake, dancing badly at a wedding — with a single deadpan line underneath each one: Shot on film, warm and unhurried, in the visual language of Bordeaux in summer. The tone is knowing, never smug — Caudalie is in on the joke because it's a brand that embodies indulgance and life. Tagline: Caudalie. Life makes you glow.
Radical honesty Anti-overclaim French philosophy Heritage brand Premium skincare OOH · Print · Social
Let's work
on real ones.

These are exercises in thinking. If you're looking for a strategist who can move from cultural insight to creative idea — on briefs that actually ship — I'd love to talk.