Petco Holiday Gift Guide
Concept Development & Copywriting
Overview
For Petco's 2020 holiday season, the goal was to create a gift guide that moved beyond promotion and into curation. Rather than presenting products as individual items, the lookbook was designed to function as an editorial experience, one that aligned with the existing holiday campaign while elevating the tone to feel intentional, considered, and gift-forward.
I partnered with the art director and Public Relations team to shape the narrative, structure, and copy strategy for the guide.
The Problem
Holiday campaigns often rely on volume, urgency, and visual density. In contrast, this project required restraint.
The challenge was to present a wide assortment of products in a way that felt cohesive, elevated, and emotionally grounded, without losing commercial clarity or brand consistency. The guide needed to support media outreach as much as consumer inspiration, which meant the copy had to do more than describe. It needed to frame.
Concept & Strategy
The guiding idea was to treat the lookbook like a collection, not a catalog.
Drawing inspiration from how luxury and jewelry brands approach gift guides, we focused on narrative grouping, pacing, and hierarchy. Products were organized around moments and intentions of gifting rather than categories alone, allowing each section to tell a distinct story.
Copy was intentionally minimal, editorial in tone, and structured to support the visual experience. Language was used to create context, mood, and clarity, giving the products room to breathe while still anchoring them within the Petco brand.
Key strategic principles included:
Story-led curation over product density
Editorial restraint to elevate perceived value
Media-aware messaging that translated easily beyond the guide itself
Execution
My role extended beyond writing individual lines of copy. I worked closely with the art director to shape the overall flow and narrative of the guide, ensuring alignment between concept, language, and visual execution. I also collaborated with the PR team to ensure the guide supported outreach goals, with copy structured in a way that made products easy to feature without feeling overly commercial. This was a cross-functional process rooted in shared judgment rather than handoffs.
With the structure and narrative in place, copy was refined to support rhythm, hierarchy, and readability across the guide. New photography was produced specifically for this project, allowing copy and imagery to be developed in parallel rather than retrofitted.
The result was a cohesive, editorial presentation that felt intentional at every touchpoint. The holiday gift guide was highly successful in gaining media attention, resulting in multiple external features and product placements. More importantly, it demonstrated how a considered copy strategy can elevate product storytelling and support broader brand perception.
