I joined Discord in 2020 as CMO. Discord is a communication service. It was started in 2016 to serve gamers by providing them a platform to talk and hang out with friends via text, voice or video chat. The company began to grow during the COVID pandemic as people searched for ways to stay connected. Today, Discord has more than 150M monthly active users made up of gamers, students, creators and people that want to be with their friends and talk about common interests.

One of the key strategic priorities for Discord was to increase brand recognition and marketing levers. To do this, we needed to grow brand awareness and expand our audience beyond gamers. I believe that the first step to create a brand strategy and marketing plan is to start with consumer insights. We did a deep dive in research to better understand who we serve. Who was using Discord? What motivated them? Was there a different way of looking at their world and how Discord could fit in it? For this work, we partnered with B+A, a trusted Consumer Insights partner.

Coming out of this work, we had a better understanding of the very global consumer base of Discord - largely Gen Z, with 80% of current users living outside of North America. We learned more about their demographics and mindsets. And most importantly, we spent time getting to know our community members and listening to how they talked about Discord. With these rich consumer insights, we built our 3 year strategic brand plan, developed our brand narrative and first major brand campaign. For this work, we partnered with AKQA. This new strategy included a new mission and vision for the company.

Mission: Create space for everyone to find belonging.
Vision: An inclusive world where no one feels like an outsider.

We launched a brand refresh and brand campaign called: Imagine a place. This campaign was not only inspired by our consumer conversations, we collaborated with our community on creating a short film to explain Discord. From concept to casting to headlines and visual direction, we launched with our community Discord - The Movie. The short film and campaign starred: Danny DeVito, Awkwafina, J. Balvin, Grimes, Marques Brownlee, Mr. Beast and Bretman Rock. The script describes what Discord is through a series of creative vignettes using live action, claymation, sock puppets and animation. At the end of the film, all of the consumers that contributed to the project are featured in the credits. The campaign was launched with Discord’s first virtual press event.

We teased the campaign first with a Movie Trailer to generate interest and excitement. The full campaign ran in high impact media units on Hulu, SnapChat, TikTok and YouTube as well as programmatic and out-of-home in key markets. It also ran during key moments like the 2021 Summer Olympics, the MTV Video Music Awards and other key moments to celebrate the inclusivity of the Brand: International Women’s Day, Black History Month, Pride, AAPI Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month.

In addition to our brand work, we launched key product features including: Mobile Screen Share, Stages (social audio), Stickers and more. Listening to our community members helped us to create features to enhance how they could interact and engage with their friends.

Our Talent Partnership works with key influencers in the gaming industry but has expanded our roster to include: Travis Scott, Portugal The Man, Liam Payne, Snoop Dog, The Jonas Brothers, Grimes, J. Balvin and many others in the creator space.

The Comms and PR work from 2020-2021 established Discord as a mainstream brand among press and thought leaders. More than 10k stories were published from January - September yielding 27B+ earned media impressions. Alongside of the corporate Comms efforts, we strengthened our product and brand storytelling through moments that helped to position Discord as a mainstream communications service. These moments included the launch of Stage Channels, Threads, the Hero Film for Imagine a Place and Discord’s 6th birthday.

We had a goal to shift our brand perception from “a place for gamers to a place for everyone”. For our launch, 80% of the press coverage included at least one key message from our strategic Brand Plan. We were able to break through to new verticals and broaden our audience of consumers with 20% of proactive coverage in 2021 being seen in consumer/lifestyle media (versus just tech). And for the brand campaign for Imagine A Place, 32% of all proactive coverage in 2021 mentioned talent, including Danny DeVito, Awkwafina, Grimes, Lil’ Yachty and others.

Key Results:
- Brand Awareness increased 150% YOY
- Brand Consideration increased 140% YOY
- From 2020-2021: Revenue tripled and MAU doubled