ESQUIRE X WOODFORD RESERVE
My role
Design Lead - I led the creative direction and UX for the experience, working with editorial, product, and development teams.
Key decisions
-Shifted from static editorial to an interactive parallax experience to increase dwell time
-Structured content around cinematic storytelling + recipes to balance inspiration with utility
-Prioritised mobile-first performance, simplifying visual effects to avoid load-time drop-off
-Aligned stakeholders on engagement metrics over purely visual impact
Client: Woodford Reserve
Worked at Hearst UK
Team: Editor - Jamie Carson, Project Manager - Dominique Marchi
Deliverable: A parallax article - live article link here
Context
At Hearst UK, we partnered with Woodford Reserve to create a premium editorial experience aligned with Old Fashioned Week, aiming to increase brand engagement and drive consideration.
Problem
Traditional branded content was underperforming in engagement, with users dropping off early in long-form editorial experiences.
Impact
Dwell time 3min9sec
Delivered a repeatable format adopted for future campaigns
THE PROCESS
This article was supported by a dedicated in-house shoot delivered in close collaboration with the client. I developed the parallax product-appearing effect as the core interactive feature, designing the experience so that key elements would reveal themselves seamlessly as the user scrolled. Knowing this would be central to the execution, I attended and helped direct the shoot to ensure we captured exactly what was needed to achieve the effect, including clean background plates both with and without props to enable smooth transitions. I also planned and shot GIFs for the recipe cards to enhance the sense of craft and movement within the piece. Working closely with the art editor, photographer and project manager, we carefully aligned creative and technical requirements on set. The result was a very happy client and strong engagement metrics, with high dwell time demonstrating that readers were scrolling through and actively interacting with the experience from start to finish.