Sarah Sherman

SARAH SHERMAN

About

Unfortunately, I’m not Sarah Sherman, the SNL cast member. I’m a multidisciplinary creative director and strategist working across the full storytelling spectrum — from foundational brand positioning through creative campaigns and content. I come from film, journalism, advertising, emerging tech, and New York City.

Right now, I run strategy at SpecialGuest, a maker-minded creative agency, where I’ve led work on major accounts, including Meta, OpenAI, Bumble, Lyft, and Zocdoc.

Before SpecialGuest, I helped build The Atlantic’s brand studio into an award-winning creative group recognised by Fast Company, AdAge Creativity, and Vimeo Staff Picks. I’ve also worked on long-form documentary projects in different capacities over the past 15 years, including Emmy-nominated and Peabody-winning films.

A few quick hits: I’ve remotely directed Jeffrey Wright recording VO from his home studio in Hawaii, pitched 360 campaigns to Sam Altman across a giant conference table, and creative directed 100-person shoots. And my agency was just nominated for our first Grammy.

When I’m not working, I’m reading about farm animal welfare, breakdancing with my toddler, or giving my pitbulls manicures.

Films & Shows

Fault Lines (Big Sky Film Festival Official Selection, Apple TV, Amazon Prime), American Pathogen (narrated by Jeffrey Wright), Chicagoland (CNN), Freeway (Al Jazeera America), Letters From Baghdad (Amazon Prime), (Dis)honesty (Amazon Prime, PBS), Gainesville (CMT)

Clients

Zocdoc, Ray-Ban, Meta, Google, OpenAI, Lyft, Google, Oatly, Bumble, Jaguar, Porsche, Playboy, The New York Times, TikTok, IBM, Foundation, Instagram, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, CNN, Dyson, Kohler, Boeing, AT&T, VMware, Cove, Marriott, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Vurvey, Sunbit

Some Awards

Cannes Lion Silver Lion (2025), NY Addy's Silver 2025 (x3), NY Addy's Social Silver 2025, Cannes Social Shortlisted 2025 (x2), Indie Agency Top 40 Independent Agency 2024 (SpecialGuest), Webby Nominee 2025, Shorty Finalist 2024,Small Agency of the Year (SpecialGuest), AdAge Silver Addy (Shortlisted), Shorty Awards, Vimeo Staff Pick (Moral Code), Folio Class of Top Women in Media in the Up & Comers, 100 Significant Women in Native Advertising, OMMA finalist, Emmy nomination: Investigative Journalism, Webby nomination: Best Branded, OMMA Finalist, Folio Awards

Coaching

“Coaching” is a silly word, but I sometimes do work that a lot of people would describe as coaching.

What I offer: (1) Counseling through work challenges and transitional moments, e.g., managing tough relationships with colleagues, navigating negotiations, advocating for role growth or change. (2) Developing and refining the story you tell about your work experience and aspirations.

Who I support: I am field-agnostic, but I have a particular edge with people coming from media, creative industries, advertising, etc. I have the most experience with early and mid-career women.

Select Work

Bumble, Finally
HPE, Eighteen Zeros
Zocdoc, Ready to be Seen
Vurvey Labs, Rebrand
Lyft, Check Lyft
Ray-Ban Meta, Live All In
Foundation
Cove
Lizzo x Meta
Dogchurch
Bumble, Voices

Substack

BUMBLE, FINALLY

After an IPO and a year of Covid isolation, Bumble wanted to position itself as the app to unlock users’ summer of love. To do that, we focused on the little things single people missed the most—holding hands, making out, dancing close—and built a visceral brand campaign around an original remix of CeCe Peniston's iconic track “Finally.” We built the campaign to stretch globally across OOH, CTV, social, and events, localizing the creative in five languages and tailoring the message for each region (encouraging vaccination).

I led creative strategy for the original Bumble AOR pitch and developed the “Finally” campaign concept. I then CD-ed the campaign through delivery, including acting as the lead agency creative across a major on-location NYC shoot with a 100pp crew.

Agency: SpecialGuest

HPE, LONGFORM

HPE asked The Atlantic’s brand studio to help them tell the story of their most transformative innovations. My team created a 7-minute mixed-media film about exascale computing and its potential impact on society and humanity. The film, “Eighteen Zeros,” was so well received that HPE asked us to do a follow-up focusing on the key ethical questions to grapple with in developing AI (this was back in 2019). The second film, “Moral Code,” featured Tim Urban of Wait But Why and was selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick.

I CD-ed both films, leading research, story development, and casting, and worked closely with the directors to develop the visual approach, run the shoots in New York and the Bay Area, and oversee the edit.

Agency: Atlantic Re:think

ZOCDOC, READY TO BE SEEN

To state the depressingly obvious: Americans really struggle to get good healthcare. On average, people wait 31 days to be seen by a primary care physician, but when they find a doctor they connect with, 84% of patients return again and again. Fixing the problem is as much about getting seen as it is about feeling seen.

Building from this insight, my team developed Ready to Be Seen, a brand platform and creative campaign that spanned video, OOH, audio, and paid social. The new plain language search UI became our central character, acting as a functional representation of patients’ inner monologues and demonstrating how Zocdoc sees patients as their whole selves.

Agency: SpecialGuest

VURVEY LABS, REBRAND

Vurvey started as a video survey tool that analyzed behavioral patterns for customers research. As the technology evolved to model consumer personas, simulate feedback, and power agentic workflows, the brand needed to evolve with it.

My team positioned Vurvey’s AI as a category of its own. Not a machine that sounds like us. An intelligence that starts with us. Unlike LLMs trained on information scraped from the internet, Vurvey’s People Models™ are built from millions of interviews with real people, delivering insights with far deeper human nuance.

Our brand identity and web design set Vurvey apart from competitors by communicating not just the features of the platform, but Vurvey’s vision for frontier intelligence.

Agency: SpecialGuest

LYFT, CHECK LYFT

Lyft was losing market share among young adults in Brooklyn and San Francisco, a cohort known for comparison-shopping between apps based on price and promos. Rather than fight this toggling behavior (or out-discount the competition), we leaned into it with confidence in a copy-driven campaign that let Lyft’s value prop across features and partnerships do the real talking.

The campaign ran across 13 digital channels and 132+ OOH placements across both cities. The campaign also featured creator-led creative from Taryn Delanie Smith and Kareem Rahma from Subway Takes.

I oversaw the strategy and creative teams from insight through execution, working closely with Lyft’s CMO along the way. This was a fun Fast Co headline: Lyft’s clever new campaign is a billboard-sized push notification

Agency: SpecialGuest

RAY-BAN META, LIVE ALL IN

In 2023, SpecialGuest partnered with Meta and Ray-Ban to launch the world’s first AI glasses category, turning a new kind of product into a lifestyle object people actually wanted to wear. The result: over 7M+ units sold.

I developed the strategic and conceptual foundation for what became a vibrant brand platform spanning OOH, OLV, and celebrity partnerships, with translations in multiple languages across global markets.

Creator content also made up a huge component of the campaign. We worked with 59 creators across sports, fashion, tech, and art, who posted nearly 100 pieces of content that earned 157M+ views. The full case study for that can be found here.

Agency: SpecialGuest

FOUNDATION, NFT MARKETPLACE

Foundation, an a16z-backed start-up, defined the crypto-creator economy as the premier NFT marketplace, attracting artists, collectors, and blockchain enthusiasts alike. They were behind several major sales, including Nyan Cat, and Kevin Roose’s New York Times column.

I worked closely with the founder to develop the foundational brand narrative, key messaging, editorial content, investor materials, and more. This meant going deep on blockchain, crypto, Ethereum, smart wallets, and other hyper-technical concepts, translating them for different audiences and broader resonance in culture.

COVE BRAND IDENTITY

Cove was the world’s first biodegradable water bottle, made of PHA, a plastic alternative that can be found in almost all life on earth—plants, soil, and our own bodies.

I worked closely with the CEO and a small team on the foundational brand identity and all things creative marketing for Cove. While the brand evolved after my time, it stayed true to the core tenets of the voice, visuals, and brand narrative I developed. Cove launched on December 1st, 2022 in Erewhon markets in LA.

Bloomberg
Fast Company
LA Times

LIZZO X META

Beat Saber is a popular VR game where players slash through blocks that represent the beats of their favorite songs. Our job was to get the attention of Lizzo’s fanbase for her music pack launch, so we made something that Lizzo herself would love and be proud to share: a playful TikTok-style dance with an inclusive group of joyful performers.

We worked with Tanu Muino (VMA-winning music video director for Lil Nas X, Harry Styles, Cardi B) and choreographer Sean Bankhead. Lizzo posted organically about the film (with the fire emoji) and got her fans hyped to play the game.

Agency: SpecialGuest

DOGCHURCH, BRAND

Before membership-based dog parks and community spaces went mainstream, I developed the concept and brand for Dogchurch. It was designed to cater to hybrid/remote workers, parents, and members of the East Bay creative class.

Because of shifts in the Bay Area real estate landscape, I put the project on hold, but I am excited to come back to an evolved concept when the timing and location are right.

BUMBLE, VOICES

People aren’t typically energized by product and feature demos—but, we love juicy tidbits from a friend’s dating life. So, we used real people’s experiences to create 20+ product marketing videos that were as cheeky and relatable as they were informative. We sifted through hundreds of submissions from real Bumble users and identified the ones that balanced entertainment and charisma with clear feature communication. Then, we came up with smart ways to drive the story with the UI itself.

I led creative strategy for the original Bumble AOR pitch, which we won that January. For this campaign, I shaped the concept and led strategy and copy throughout.

Agency: SpecialGuest