aha Pure Foods

I first started working with aha Pure Foods in July 2019 as a marketing intern. I spent time creating content, familiarized myself with the brand, and learned a ton about the works of a start-up company. With this, I connected with customers through weekly samplings at Lucky’s Market, created promotional videos and graphics for use on social media, and collaborated with the rest of the team on various tasks.

One of my favorite projects was planning and shooting a branded video with a fellow intern. The concept we created revolved around showing consumers new ways to use the soup, SWEET CHI, while reinforcing the brand image in a fresh, vibrant way.

The company mission, spreading the philosophy “food is medicine” and promoting a healthy lifestyle, really resonated with my personal values. Evidently, my passion, willingness to learn, and strong work showed, as I was promoted to Media Manager and given the opportunity to continue working with aha during the fall 2019 semester.

As Media Manager, I took on more of a leadership role. I worked with other experienced interns to recruit and hire more new interns, as the company was in a rapid growth phase. I organized an application and flyer, we interviewed prospects, and we found two people who seemed to be a strong fit for the position. Once they were brought on board, I took on the responsibility of running their internship experience, mainly by assigning creative tasks, such as assisting with photo shoots, writing blog posts, creating a video, and more.

Aside from managing the new interns, I took initiative to complete creative projects on my own in order to advance the brand. These included editing the company’s slide deck for better design, organizing multiple photo shoots, and editing graphic assets. In order to ensure consistent brand communication across all creative content, I also created a brand style guide for the plant-based startup. Click below to check it out.

aha Pure Foods Brand Style Guide

In addition, I took over aha’s Instagram account, posting and captioning photos I took during photo shoots. Here are a few of my favorite pictures…

During Spring 2020, my role at aha Pure Foods expanded even further. I worked closely with the Creative Director on a regular basis to bring in ideas, make decisions, and help lead the team of interns. At the beginning of the year, we set specific marketing objectives relating to online sales and social media growth, and we worked together to create strategy and implement specific tactics to reach goals. As part of this, I re-invented aha’s email newsletter, helped organize social media strategy, and allocated various tasks to the team of interns. By the time the COVID19 pandemic hit and aha made the decision to pause online sales, online sales were up 255% from the previous quarter, which far surpassed our original goal!

My time at aha ended toward the end of my sophomore year, when I decided to hand over my position to focus on other priorities, specifically being the best student-athlete possible. However, I am so thankful for the valuable experience I gained. I learned a ton about startups and what it takes to grow a company. Implementing skills from my advertising studies, such as branding, copy writing, and social media management proved extremely useful as well.

Thanks to my internship, I dabbled in recruitment and team management, and I created the opportunity to be a leader among the aha team. I practiced creating marketing strategy, saw measurable success, and found out what it’s like to be part of a team with an incredible organizational culture. My favorite part of all, however, was bringing creative ideas to life and seeing my work pay off!