Ariyana Hernandez
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“I started NORA after spending three years running all external-facing activity at a fashion startup- a womenswear startup. ”
One of the biggest learnings that I had while there was just how hard it is to launch and grow an emerging brand, specifically in the fashion space, but just a lifestyle brand overall. A few of our challenges had to do a lot with bandwidth. As one person, even if they're skilled in many different marketing channels, it was very challenging for me to be able to do each thing as perfectly as I wanted to. Many times we resorted to looking for specifics and because larger agencies were so expensive, I ended up having to source freelancers quite a bit and one of the biggest challenges there was communicating with them and connecting the dots for them. Sometimes we'd hire someone who was really specific, they'd be working in the social media space, and I found that they weren't asking enough questions about other aspects of the business that maybe at the time didn’t feel as relevant for social media but could have impacted their decision making on social - like knowing who we’re gifting, what influencers and celebrities we’re gifting to, having a better understanding of our experiential strategies, understanding a bit more about the founders, some of her goals and engaging with specific accounts to help reach those goals. A variety of questions just were never asked and never discussed.
Coming out of that experience, what I really wanted to do was start a company that at the end of the day was concerned with holistic 360° strategy and management and also an agency that was really focused on being inquisitive and investigative- just looking into why things are the way they are for business as it relates to the brand. What Nora really offers is holistic marketing support, both on the strategy end and execution and also we assist with partnerships, social media and media relations.
Some of our pillars are being informed, being inquisitive, being imaginative and intentional. We really try to be as informed as we can, not just as an industry, but about all aspects of our clients’ businesses so we make the best recommendations regarding their marketing activity. We pride ourselves on asking questions. We love to think of really creative and unique solutions because that is the core of our business. We work with pre-launch brands to help bring them to market and then we work with emerging brands as they're growing, and we do work on specific projects with much larger national accounts and companies but my personal passion is emerging brands.
We've worked in mostly fashion and beauty and also touch consumer products as well. One example is we work with USUAL Wines and they're a really awesome brand because so many of their partners are fashion and beauty brands. They’re a very aesthetically-driven wine brand. We also have done projects with COOLHAUS. We worked with another alcohol brand called Straightaway Cocktails.
WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE TO GET TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW?
In order to manage marketing campaigns in the full-service capacity that we do at NORA, I needed to really deeply learn and understand each marketing channel, but ultimately become a generalist. I worked in a variety of marketing capacities - from affiliate marketing to paid advertising to email marketing - before flexing my muscles in a CMO-level role.
But the real key to getting where I am now has been talking to people - truly asking questions and getting to know a diverse group of talented and creative individuals across the country. That network has been integral in us acquiring clients and growing our agency.
How do you stand out in your field?
Our pillars make us unique and we’re one of the few agencies that are very aesthetically-driven, thinking about how all of the pieces fit together. When someone's working with us on media relations and we also have access to their people and analytics, we want to know what is converting. We want to know which article being placed is contributing to sales. When someone is working with us on digital marketing - whether or not we're handling the creative development - we're very active in making recommendations and talking to them about what they could be improving from a visual point of view. We like to be extremely involved in our clients’ businesses. It's extremely different because a lot of agencies will work on one particular project and they're very proud to say ‘this is what we did in this channel or for this project, but they may or may not really be concerned with other aspects of the business that matter. We feel it all impacts the outcome of whatever we're working on.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
We're working on launching two brands - one is RDB Shoes. It’s a luxury shoe brand that was founded by a renowned car customizer and an LA native. He has worked on so many amazing celebrity cars in terms of customizing the interior, the exterior and he also has a passion for footwear. They came to us when all they had was the products themselves and the brand name so we worked with them on the branding strategy and everything related to getting them up and running for launch. That's been a very exciting project. In Q3 of this year, we are launching StrapQuest, an Apple watch band company. Their goal is to create that vibrant Apple watch strap that really speaks to your personality but are also extremely high quality. I kind of think about them as the Allbirds of Apple watch bands. It’s super modern, really cute and a great price point. We’ve also been working with the founder now for about a year and a half on bringing this concept to life.
We’ve been working with Downtown Women’s Center since early on when the coronavirus lockdown started. MADE by DWC is our actual client, which is the social enterprise arm of the center. Their goal is to help women transition from homelessness through helping them learn skills and work experience. They have a cafe downtown, they have a retail boutique, and then they have home goods products. The in-person aspect of their business was really huge prior to coronavirus. Individuals would come into the resale boutiques and shop, they also had a lot of the product at the cafe. It was primarily based on in-person contact and the physical spaces they own.
When coronavirus hit, they had to quickly think about how to do digital and how to tell their story that way. When you're limited in your audience online, that can be quite challenging. You only have so many people you can market to. We were actually introduced to Downtown Women's Center through ilovecreatives at the Founders Roundtable. I was a co-host and Puno put us all in breakout rooms. The idea was for us to be able to talk about what's going on in our world, how are we dealing with this (March, coronavirus lockdowns), and what are some problems that we're encountering to then allow our small groups to be able to help us. It was also like a venting session because we were all dealing with the shock.
In my breakout room, we learned about their challenge of getting individuals to purchase online, the fact that without their retail boutique and without their cafe, they couldn’t sell their products and asked for ideas. We all started offering our ideas, and one of mine was for him to really leverage the community to partner specifically with influencers, tastemakers, local entrepreneurs... and use them to connect with people that are pretty brands digitally. We also came up with some fun, curated sales on Instagram Stories and selling gently-worn clothing and other items directly through Instagram.
About two days later, I got a call from him and he said, ‘Everything you said on the call with you was great. I think some of the things that you suggested are things that we already wanted to do, we just don't know where to start. We decided to work with them and we're so, so happy and proud about that. It obviously takes some time before you're able to connect with the right individuals, get them aboard and then for that content to go live, but we already had some influencers in the area share MADE by DWC- the candles, the bath salts, soaps.... They also have great content that is coming out. We have Instagram Live that we can introduce some of the participants in the DWC program to kind of the public and have them tell their story and talk about how DWC has really changed their life. We're going to be doing that in collaboration with a few actresses. One of which had to deal with homelessness. She and her mom lived in a women's shelter for some time. We were able to identify individuals in the community who want to be involved and have a real vested interest in seeing MADE by DWC succeed. That's been awesome to just dive in and come up with strategies to grow their business.
Do you have any other initiatives with the DWC?
We actually have some curated closet sales. Jess Hannah, the founder of J.Hannah Jewelry, Puno (ilovecreatives founder) and Jordan Santos (a local tastemaker) have already donated some amazing, covetable pieces from their closets and they’ve been promoting the sale together. The goal is to really expand their audience. There are so many individuals in the local area who love a great bargain or thrifting or shop sustainably and DWC allows you to do that while also giving back. We just need more individuals in the area to know what they do and one of the ways we're going to be doing that is by leveraging the audiences of some pretty influential local entrepreneurs.
WHAT'S YOUR STYLE/PERSPECTIVE/TASTE? DO YOU HAVE A PROJECT THAT REPRESENTS THIS?
I would describe my personal taste as artistic, elevated, minimalist and bold. However, from a creative standpoint as it applies to my work projects, I find that I'm drawn to and inspired by a variety of styles - tied together in my desire to take physical constructs and explore how they can be mimicked through digital design & presentation. Things like furniture design, sculptures, and architecture, very much inspire my style. This is exemplified when comparing the aesthetic of our client LoQ, who favors artistic and worldly visuals, to soon-to-launch brand Strapquest, who leans into a colorful and playful aesthetic.
WE ARE ALL SLASHIES WITH MULTIPLE SKILLS, WHICH ONE DO YOU WISH YOU COULD DO MORE OFTEN?
I would improve my copywriting skills and focus more on my media relations skills. I get really excited to pivot and come up with creative to tell a story. I find that in the PR space, it's easy to pitch a story and if it doesn't get picked up just kind of say ‘that wasn’t it’ and move on. One of the things I really enjoy is figuring out, ‘okay, well that wasn't interesting to this publication or to our target audience’, but how can we spin it in a way that is- and I just don't have the time to do that.
It's not one of our core offerings, but something that I really enjoy. I think that if PR professionals were a bit more flexible in their approach and problem solving, it would be really effective. And I think it would move the industry forward.
WHAT IS FRUSTRATING YOU RIGHT NOW?
Performative diversity and inclusion or allyship.
IF YOU COULD HIRE SOMEONE FOR $20/HR, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE THEM DO TO MAKE YOUR DAY EASIER?
Someone to work on research - finding new trends, sharing with me the most relevant news articles, discovering new creatives and content creators, etc. It's important I consistently stay up to date with happenings and industry trends, but I'm strapped on time.
LET'S BRING OUT THE TIME MACHINE. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD HAVE TOLD YOURSELF, WHEN, AND WHY?
When I was in college, because I'm a first generation college graduate, I felt a lot of pressure to have things figured out. I realized that I spent a lot of time being anxious and putting a lot of pressure on myself that while it's important to obviously have goals and to push yourself to do better, I think I had an unrealistic expectation of the career journey and why it's so important to have internships and take informational interviews, and job shadow and just spend as much time as you can learning.
IF YOU COULD TALK TO AN EXPERT TO GAIN MORE INSIGHT ON SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?
I would love to talk to an expert on consumer behavior. I'm constantly intrigued by it. I think it's changing over time, especially with the growth of e-commerce and Gen Z is so different from any other generation in terms of what they value. I spent a lot of time trying to understand consumer behavior and looking at the data, but I'm also really curious about what someone says about something more qualitative versus quantitative. I’d also like to learn more trends, on a macro level- what's going on in India, in the U.S. as a whole, and also around the world and in different markets.
WHAT KIND OF OPPORTUNITIES/PROJECTS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
We have really grown in our digital marketing practice. It's always been the largest part of our business, but we did also spend time dedicated to in-person, experiential opportunities and experiential partnerships. Right now we focus solely on digital marketing and ways for brands to capitalize on that community. That's really what I feel like brands need right now. They need a partner who understands the digital landscape especially if they’re focused on retail and wholesale. There are so many amazing companies I don’t want to disappear because of what’s happening with this pandemic. I want them to find a way to thrive in the e-commerce space.
DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL JOB/CLIENT/COLLABORATION.
Our ideal client is someone who is open-minded creatively, and someone who accepts what they don’t know and are open to learning because that's the type of mindset that we take when we're going into projects. We really appreciate it when we have a client who wants to learn, wants to understand the data, and they’re willing to listen to what their customers are saying, etc. You can’t continue to do the same thing and expect different results. If the client isn’t responding very well or giving you insight into what they love, it might be time to pivot away from them. Or if the client really loves and believes in it but the customer doesn’t, we have to listen to them so we really value partners that have that in mind. We love working in the emerging space. An ideal client is a brand that has proven their product market fit and they’re looking to grow and open to learn- especially in the fashion space which is our passion.
HOW SHOULD SOMEONE APPROACH YOU ABOUT WORKING TOGETHER?
Send me an email: hello@nora.agency
We do get a lot of inbound inquiries, both from clients and potential employees or collaborators. If it’s a collaborator, they should identify exactly how we would want to work with them and what falls within their skillset. That’s typically the best way to get our attention. They could also be as specific as possible about the types of projects that they have worked on and what they want to work on.
HOW DO YOU STAY CREATIVE?
I have to constantly surround myself with people and experiences that are inspiring to me. I love to go to museums, I love to sit in on artists’ talks. I really enjoy online classes, different MasterClasses. I love knowing what's going on with my go-to squad and their clients to expose myself to new brands and individuals. There's so much to learn from other industries so I try to not limit myself to just what I know. I spend a lot of time just exploring or doing things that involve art.
Secondly, I need to get away, often to a more quiet place. I’ll go to Palm Springs, Joshua Tree or Malibu. I get away from my computer and really let my mind wander. I come up with my best ideas when I'm not in front of the computer.
This member profile was originally published in August 2020.