off the clock:
CASE STUDY
about the client
Heartland is a payments and invoicing provider. The campaign targeted home‑service businesses (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc.) with a simple promise: getting paid shouldn’t slow you down.
I led the creative direction and turned the day‑to‑day chaos of invoicing into clear, human visuals that showed the calm Heartland brings to busy teams.
Campaign goals:
Capture attention in a crowded home‑services feed.
Drive qualified traffic to the campaign site.
Increase engagement and click‑through versus prior efforts.
Build a visual system that could scale across the broader, omnichannel campaign.
The challenge
Home‑service teams move quickly. Their invoicing and payment tools often don’t. Slow payments, manual errors, and scattered workflows pull owners away from the work itself.
Visually, the category lacked distinction. Competitors blended together with predictable stock imagery and generic claims (see competitor research.) Heartland had the right tools; the creative task was to communicate the benefit instantly and memorably.
insight
These professionals do physically demanding work. Long days. Heavy lifting. Constant motion. Downtime is rare, and when it arrives, it’s earned. If we flipped that reality—grounded, relatable, and slightly surreal—we could show the value of “time back in your day” without spelling it out.
The concept centered on lifelike role‑reversal moments: hardworking tradespeople placed in calm, indulgent environments they don’t often get to enjoy—but absolutely deserve. A construction worker relaxing in a spa. A gardener drifting across a pool on a bright float, drink in hand, dirt still on her face. A burly contractor cross‑legged in a yoga class. A field tech sipping a piña colada on the beach.
The concept centered on lifelike role‑reversal moments: hardworking tradespeople placed in calm, indulgent environments they don’t often get to enjoy—but absolutely deserve. A construction worker relaxing in a spa. A gardener drifting across a pool on a bright float, drink in hand, dirt still on her face. A burly contractor cross‑legged in a yoga class. A field tech sipping a piña colada on the beach.
execution
I led the creative concept and visual direction, designed the paid social system, built and optimized the Midjourney workflow, partnered with copywriting on tone and message, and carried the visual system across the website, emails, webinar materials, and downloads.
The visual approach favored photoreal scenes with a light, human twist. The system was modular, so we could tailor by trade, benefit, and placement. The same strategy became the backbone for the broader campaign, providing continuity across channels without feeling repetitive.
Each ad delivered a quick, scroll‑stopping beat: a familiar work reality reversed into its opposite, followed by a simple, legible product truth—getting paid shouldn’t require a chase.
By the metrics
4%+ click‑through rate
30% engagement rate
43× increase in marketing‑qualified leads in the first 30 days
14× increase in sales‑qualified leads in the first 30 days
5× increase in deal size
144% increase in product installs
The campaign delivered meaningful lift across both paid social and the broader omnichannel effort.
These results reflect the stopping power of the visual direction and the momentum it created across the full campaign ecosystem.
why it worked
A functional benefit became a human story. Role‑reversal scenes made the payoff instantly clear, while a consistent visual system created an identifiable look that traveled well across channels.
Heartland helps busy teams get paid faster—with less chaos. This campaign made that truth easy to see and even easier to feel.
I shaped a cohesive visual system that turned a complex product story into something simple, human, and scalable—elevating the work across the full campaign and driving measurable engagement.