Diamond Crystal Salt

Rack of lamb on a wooden board beside an open Diamond Crystal salt cellar
CLIENT

Cargill

ROLE

Digital Marketing Specialist

Art Director

Content Director

YEAR

2021

SERVICES

Social Media Strategy

Art Direction

Content Production

Creator Partnerships

Brand Refresh

01

Context

02

Problem

03

Approach

04

The Work

05

Outcome

06

Reflection

/ Context

Context

01

Bringing a chef-favorite salt to home cooks through content, creators and community.

Bringing a chef-favorite salt to home cooks through content, creators and community.

/ Problem

Problem

02

Diamond Crystal had a loyal following among chefs and plenty of love from food media, but it was largely a wholesale brand. Home cooks didn't know it, or why kosher salt matters. As the business moved toward consumers, the brand needed a public face: a reason to follow, a reason to buy, and a simple explanation of what makes this salt different.

Diamond Crystal had a loyal following among chefs and plenty of love from food media, but it was largely a wholesale brand. Home cooks didn't know it, or why kosher salt matters. As the business moved toward consumers, the brand needed a public face: a reason to follow, a reason to buy, and a simple explanation of what makes this salt different.

/ Approach

Approach

03

Bring the people who already loved the salt into the brand, and make everyone else feel like they belong. I proposed building out our social channels and turning them into a living recipe library, made with chefs and creators who cook with Diamond Crystal every day. Every post had two jobs: help people picture themselves cooking, at whatever level, and teach them a little about kosher salt along the way.

Bring the people who already loved the salt into the brand, and make everyone else feel like they belong. I proposed building out our social channels and turning them into a living recipe library, made with chefs and creators who cook with Diamond Crystal every day. Every post had two jobs: help people picture themselves cooking, at whatever level, and teach them a little about kosher salt along the way.

/ The Work

The Work

04

SOCIAL STRATEGY

The goal was growth with purpose: a following ready for the new brand when it launched. Recipes became the backbone of the feed, showing the salt across every kind of cooking, from weeknight dinners to restaurant plates.

CREATORS & CHEFS

Chefs already swore by the salt, so I put them in front of the camera. A Cleveland chef and creator produced recipe videos every month, and a creator platform let us bring in more affiliates. We also supplied Chef Molly Baz's boxes for her cookbook launch.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Early shoots with Cleveland photographer Josh Dobay set the look: warm wood, dark stone and the salt cellar always in frame. Later I flew to Minneapolis for full studio productions with sets, models and some of the best creatives I've worked with.

EDUCATION

Most people don't know why kosher salt is different. We broke it down: how the grain's shape changes the way it sticks and dissolves, why it's easier to pinch and control, and how that changes the way you season. Teaching people made the brand useful, not just beautiful.

THE REBRAND

As the brand turned consumer-facing, I worked alongside the agency on the new identity and the conceptual build of the website, making sure the new brand matched the content and community we were already building online.

/ Outcome

Outcome

05

“Make everyone who cooks feel like part of the Diamond Crystal family.”

/ Reflection

Reflection

06

Diamond Crystal taught me that a brand with a cult following doesn't need to invent a personality. It needs to find the people who already love it and give them a stage. Inside a company the size of Cargill, I learned to move between strategy, creative direction and production, and to build systems that keep great content coming every month. My favorite part was making a chef's salt feel at home in every kitchen.

Diamond Crystal taught me that a brand with a cult following doesn't need to invent a personality. It needs to find the people who already love it and give them a stage. Inside a company the size of Cargill, I learned to move between strategy, creative direction and production, and to build systems that keep great content coming every month. My favorite part was making a chef's salt feel at home in every kitchen.

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