Case 03 · Consumer · Brand experience

A car into acultural moment.

Tesla — Customer Experience Specialist, Brand and Partnerships
2017 – 2018 · Bay Area & Northern California · Model 3 launch era

The Model 3's first public showing had to reach the mainstream, an audience that buys on meaning. I led Tesla's presence at the LA Auto Show, where the Model 3 met the public for the first time.

Results — Model 3 first public showing, LA Auto Show
~$50M
Pipeline
generated
20K+
Leads
captured
120+
Staff
led
~$25M
Press
value

The situation

By 2017, Tesla had won the early adopters: the technologists, the environmentalists, the people who'd wait years for a car. The Model 3 was the company's bid for everyone else, and everyone else wasn't going to be persuaded by battery chemistry.

The brand challenge was translation, not awareness: taking a product the faithful already understood and making it feel obvious (and desirable) to an audience that had never considered an electric car, at the exact moment the company needed to reach a much wider market.

The work

My role centered on brand experience and partnerships for the Northern California region. Two projects stand out: leading Tesla's presence at the LA Auto Show — the Model 3's first public showing — and authoring the retail showroom experience playbook that rolled out across the US.

First public showing
Led Tesla's presence at the LA Auto Show — the Model 3's first public showing — directing a team of 120+, which generated 20K+ leads, ~$50M in pipeline, and ~$25M in press value across automotive, tech, and lifestyle media.
Cultural framing
Framed the show presence around meaning over specs: using experiential design to help broaden the Model 3's appeal beyond early adopters.
Retail showroom rollout
Authored the showroom and delivery experience playbook that rolled out across all U.S. retail locations: codifying how the brand behaves at its most important touchpoint, handing someone their car.
Delivery hub
Served as spokesperson for Tesla's first delivery hub, the public face of a new retail model built for Model 3 volume.
Onboarding at scale
Delivered 250+ live sessions onboarding ~20K customers: turning the ownership handoff into a brand experience at Model 3 volume.
Partnerships
Built a partnership strategy connecting Tesla to luxury, design, and cultural institutions: establishing brand adjacencies beyond the automotive category, where the mainstream buyer's aspirations actually live.

What this demonstrates

Category-defining products still need cultural permission. The LA Auto Show was demand creation at the largest scale I've operated, but the mechanics were the same ones I use with early-stage companies: find the frame the audience already cares about, design the experience that proves it, and make the brand mean something beyond its spec sheet.

It's also where I learned that experience is narrative: a delivery, a debut, a showroom walk-through can carry positioning more convincingly than any campaign.

Selected artifacts — the LA Auto Show
Model 3 on the stand at the LA Auto Show, 2017
Model 3, first public showing — LA Auto Show, 2017
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FAQ
Did you lead the entire Model 3 launch?+
No, I led Tesla's presence at the LA Auto Show, the Model 3's first public showing, plus authored the retail showroom experience playbook that rolled out across US locations. These were defined projects within the broader launch, alongside many other workstreams across the company.
What was your title at Tesla?+
Customer Experience Specialist, Brand and Partnerships: covering the Bay Area and Northern California during 2017–2018.
What did the LA Auto Show event achieve?+
Led a team of 120+ staff; the event generated 20K+ leads, roughly $50M in pipeline, and roughly $25M in press value across automotive, tech, and lifestyle media.
Do you take on brand experience work near Walnut Creek?+
I'm based in Walnut Creek, CA, and brand narrative and experience work like the Tesla engagement above reflects the branding and narrative architecture projects I take on for companies in the Bay Area and nationally.