The Challenge

ButcherBox, a D2C meat and seafood subscriptoin service, relied heavily on email marketing to acquire and retain subscribers and constantly changing promotions - everything from “Free Steak Tips for Life” to “6 Free Filets When You Join Today.” They sent literally thousands of emails a month with various testing offers.

These offers drove strong acquisition, but they also created a major churn problem.

We were initially hired because the marketing team needed a steady pipeline of compelling creative to support the thousands of promotional emails they sent every month. But a newly hired CMO quickly identified an additional major issue:

Their photography wasn’t working.

The imagery felt stale, inconsistent, and often unappetizing. There was no clear guidance for when to show raw product, raw product in packaging, and fully cooked, drool-worthy dishes.

The Strategy

Rather than simply jumping to a studio to produce new photography, we developed a visual identity system for how ButcherBox food should appear across marketing channels.

We began by auditing photography across 40+ proteins and mapping how imagery was used across the email ecosystem.

From there, we developed a structured framework defining three visual states:

Raw Product
Clear, high-quality product shots that reinforce trust and sourcing quality.

Mid-Preparation
Ingredients being seasoned, sliced, or plated—highlighting ease and approachability for busy families.

Fully Cooked
Finished dishes designed to maximize appetite appeal and inspire meal ideas.

This system created a clear visual language that could support acquisition, promotional offers, and retention messaging across thousands of marketing emails.

At the same time, the broader Full Contact team developed a new brand platform for ButcherBox,

“Unbox Better”, which helped the brand to stand out more clearly in an increasingly saturated market.

The Execution

While my creative friends were busy fleshing out Unbox Better and wrapping their arms around how we were going to write, design, and program 1,000+ emails a month, I moved quickly to assemble a Boston food shoot dream team (see Credits in bottom right) and and set up a cadence of monthly, multi-day shoots at Butcher Box’s Peabody-based kitchen studio.

Leveraging my producer chops and my love for cooking, I led the entire process end-to-end, including:

• Working with the client to identify which proteins and promotions needed coverage

• Developing shot lists across raw, prep, and cooked states

• Designing menus that showcased each protein in an appealing, achievable dish

• Collaborating with the food stylist on ingredient sourcing and prep

• Collaborating with the prop stylist on set dressing and prop sourcing

• Managing production logistics for multi-day shoots

The Results

Each shoot generated roughly 30 net new assets to support email communications and other marketing materials.

Though I left Full Contact almost two years ago, the same team and process remain in place to create a steady stream of new, mouth watering assets to support marketing efforts (though I hear the my successor’s craft services game can’t compare 😉)