The Brief: Chewy saw a major opportunity in a highly specialized, high-value category: Equine. The goal was to grow customer acquisition by convincing horse owners—both competitive riders and casual owners—that buying feed, tack, supplements, medications, and essentials online was a smarter choice.

The challenge: Horse owners are deeply loyal to their local feed stores and supply retailers. Trust drives everything. And in Equine, trust isn’t transactional—it’s personal. Horses aren’t just pets. They’re family, lifestyle, identity, and long-term investment.

As a newer player in the space, Chewy had to earn credibility immediately. The work needed to drive awareness, consideration, conversion…and turn first-time buyers into high-LTV recurring customers.

Insight: Horse owners weren’t opposed to switching. They were opposed to risk. Research showed:

• 94% of equestrian customers were more loyal to brands that demonstrated transparency, safety, and trust

• Buyers researched multiple sources before making significant purchases

• Expertise, service, and personalization mattered as much as price

• High-quality, reputable products consistently beat lower-cost alternatives—especially in health categories

Meaning: Convenience alone wouldn’t win. Chewy had to feel like more than a retailer. It had to feel like a trusted partner. That became the creative challenge.

Strategy: Build story-led RTB video campaigns around the three strongest reasons to switch: Price. Trust. Convenience. But instead of relying on transactional messaging, we created emotionally grounded stories designed to feel authentic to horse owners across all riding disciplines and commitment levels.

The work needed to answer: Why trust Chewy? Why buy from Chewy?…and make the answer feel lived, not advertised. Positioning: Everything your horse needs—delivered right to your barn.

Not e-commerce, but a more connected buying experience.  

Creative Approach: We built a repeatable narrative system that balanced lifestyle storytelling and Chewy RTBs. The visual world was captured from the rider and caretaker’s POV—immersive, physical, and emotionally familiar. To maximize authenticity, we shot the campaign entirely on iPhone 17s rigged to hands-free body harnesses, creating a true-to-life, social-first perspective that felt immediate and personal. The creative system prioritized:

• Platform-Native Storytelling: Built for how horse owners actually consume content

• Emotion + Utility: Showing how Chewy fit into real barn life

• Mobile App Integration: Highlighting relevance and convenience for busy customers

• Relatability + Trust: Stories that felt believable, familiar, and earned

• Modularity: A flexible framework built for scale and iteration

Not campaign creative. A repeatable trust-building engine.

Creative Direction: I helped define the campaign system from the ground up. The goal was simple: Earn trust by pulling the audience into a shared, immediate experience. My role included:

• Overseeing creative development

• Defining the visual language and emotional tone of the work

• Leading camera testing and production strategy

• Guiding pre-production and live-action execution

• Ensuring every asset felt like direct engagement—not advertising

Execution: Built for upper- and mid-funnel performance across awareness, consideration, and conversion. Campaign delivery included:

• :30 Hero Awareness spots

• Dozens of high-frequency paid social cuts

• Product-focused storytelling across multiple seasonal launches

• Delivered across four aspect ratios: 16:9, 1:1, 2:3, 9:16

Impact: I helped launch trust in a category where trust is everything—turning Chewy Equine from a new option into a credible destination through social-first storytelling built to feel lived, not sold.

Creative Outcome: We didn’t ask horse owners to trust a new retailer. We showed them they already could. Instead of: “Why would I leave my local feed store?” We moved customers towards: “Why wouldn’t I buy from Chewy?”

That shift created stronger acquisition, deeper trust, and a meaningful foothold in one of pet care’s most loyalty-driven categories.