Brand identity. Copywriting. Web UX and content design.
Toast
In 2023, Marrisa McNeelands and April Hicke approached me and the Division 17 team with a concept: part DEI-focused recruiting platform, part community, wholly committed to reshaping the tech industry in favour of women.
We had been tasked with developing a brand identity—Div17 was in charge of the look (visual branding, logo, web design) and I was in charge of feel (positioning, brand architecture, voice, and copywriting.)
What’s in a name?
When the Toast team first connected with us, they had a different name in mind for the bold brand. Complex and hard to pronounce, with a convoluted backstory, we were concerned it would detract from the simplicity and impact of what Marissa and April were building. So we suggested that we start our work there instead.
Through a series of workshops I designed and led, we landed on Toast—a catchy and fresh brand name with a two-fold meaning:
Celebrating (or toasting) the women who are taking control of their lives by building flexible careers 🥂
Empowering women to “get that bread”, earning competitive wages and closing the existing wage gap 💸
Bringing a vision to life
With a strong, clear, and memorable brand name, we were in a good place to move into brand identity development. As Div17 shared moodboards of bold colours (pinks, oranges, and greens) and imagery of women living their lives on their own terms—free from the patriarchy and sexism traditionally rooted in tech jobs—I began developing a message matrix that would bring this concept to life.
Here’s where we landed:
Tagline: Toast your 9–5 goodbye 🥂
Elevator pitch: At our core, we’re a talent platform, connecting women to roles we believe in at companies we trust. But we also help women learn how to do it themselves, with resources, training, and the most supportive peer group a girl could ask for.
Feature 1: Community
Job hunt but make it fun
Meet cool women, do cool $h*t 💖
We’re more than a job board. We offer advocacy, education, white-glove placements, and a peer community that set women up for success and control over their careers. We connect women with perfect fit opportunities.
Feature 2: Vetted tech jobs
Get that bread 🤑
Raise your standards, and your income 💰
We’re picky. We take pride in working only with clients whose values align with our own, so that our members can trust every single Toast role. This includes prioritizing pay transparency to shrink the pay gap, one role at a time.
Feature 3: Only the fun part
Your 9–5 is toast ✌🏽
Everything you love about your job, none of the BS 🚩
We handle all of the backend details, including negotiating, contracting, and payment, so that our members can focus their time on their craft. We make it easier to take back control of your career and your life.
Haley is your favourite copywriter’s favourite copywriter. She is the unicorn you need to become a unicorn.
Haley took my brain dump and turned it into the perfect brand voice and positioning in just one meeting. At Toast, we live and die by the writing guidelines, value props and on-brand marketing copy variations she provided.
Hire Haley. You won’t be disappointed.
— Marissa McNeedlands, CEO and Co-founder, Toast
A sassy website to suit
Our final focus was to bring this exciting new brand to life in a website that spoke both to prospective corporate partners (tech companies committed to investing in diversity and inclusivity) as well as their main target audience of women in tech who were either looking for new roles (via their job postings) and/or connection (via their Slack community).
The Toast team took our guidelines to build out this fun new presence across social channels and email marketing, as well as into their product.
Making waves
Within their first two years in business, Toast’s talent pool has grown to over 10,000 women in tech, and they’ve partnered with more than 125 tech companies to help place more diverse talent, equating to 2,400% growth.
Toast has been recognized by Forbes, the Globe & Mail, BetaKit, and more.