Five reasons you should hire Chavy Helfgott as your Sr. Manager of Copy and Brand Storytelling.

  1. I’m seriously unserious.

    I love having fun with words and periodically spin up marketing poems and parodies (like this one of Sound of Silence). My email archive holds more evidence, along with some questionable puns. But I take the work itself seriously. I won’t hand something over until I’m confident it’s really, really good.

  2. I know more about brand voice than is healthy.

    Justin Blackman’s Brand Voice Visionary Live taught me to build a voice down to the tiniest details, like sentence length and how many commas it tolerates. I’ve built voice guides for multiple brands, then written in those voices across emails, websites, packaging and catalogs. The guides are detailed enough that other writers can stay on brand without me hovering over them shouting, “No, no, not like that!”

  3. I’ve built brands from scratch.

    I’ve named brands, products and collections, developed positioning, and turned it into launch campaigns, scripts and creative briefs, as well as copy for packaging, retail signage, product pages and email, so I know how a voice survives the trip from shelf to inbox. I even built my own holiday shopping brand, mascot family included. See below.

  4. I’ve managed writers in fast-paced environments.

    As Editorial and Brand Director of a weekly print magazine, I managed a team of 20+ writers, editors, designers and proofreaders and got a 86-page issue to print every week. I’ve also spent a decade collaborating with agencies, designers and founders: taking feedback and revising accordingly, defending lines that I felt were too important to lose, and giving designers clear direction on how a page or video should come together.

  5. I marry the best of creative brand work and direct response principles.

    Memorable creative that doesn’t sell is an expensive art project. Copy that sells but sounds like everyone else doesn’t build anything. I’ve trained in brand voice and naming, and in direct response with Joanna Wiebe, John Bejakovic, and Daniel Throssell - so I write for both.

    (Plus, I wrote and self-published a historical fiction children’s novel with some seriously good dialogue and scene setting.)

Now, here’s the evidence:

Best linesFour pieces of workMore workWhat people sayAlso, AI

A shortlist of my best lines

  • Making mountains into molehills.Expediting Plus — demolition expediting company
  • Move here. Function everywhere.Ascend Pilates — women’s yoga & Pilates studio
  • The hour that powers your week.Ascend Pilates — women’s yoga & Pilates studio
  • Meals with love and gurgles.MelO Revel — baby furniture brand
  • #SmellNothingFish ’n Dish — fresh and frozen fish brand
  • Not every escape sets you free.Everland — musical
  • They will be what they watch.KE Media — educational nonprofit

Now for more details:

The portfolio

Four pieces of work

1

Ascend Pilates

Tagline and launch ad concepts + copy for a Pilates studio

Busy women, mostly working moms, saw exercise as one more demand on their time. I reframed that hour as the thing that powers the rest of the week, like a Newton’s cradle: one hour at Ascend sets everything else in motion.

Move here. Function everywhere.

When your body works, everything gets easier.

The hour that powers your week.

The client ran the tagline and some of my ad lines but took the visuals elsewhere. I produced these spec versions myself from my scripts and direction, using AI tools for the animation and design.

Stiff.
Tight.
Out of breath.

DIRECTION: Each word appears cleanly, center screen. No bounce, no easing. Accompanied by line drawing silhouettes demonstrating stiff, tight, out of breath. Short hold between each.

MOVE HERE.
FUNCTION EVERYWHERE.

Animation 1: recognition. “But normal isn’t functional.”
Animation 2: time. “Fifty minutes. In, worked, out.”
Animation 3: payoff. “When your body works, everything gets easier.”
Ascend ad with a Newton's cradle: a green ball marked with the Ascend logo is pulled back, about to strike three balls marked with a shopping cart, a washing machine, and a person. Headline: When your body works, everything gets easier.
Second ad in the series: the green Ascend ball strikes the row. Headline: The hour that powers your week.
Third ad in the series: the last ball swings out from the impact. Headline: For a body that keeps up with your days.

2

MelO Juvenile

Product naming, taglines and packaging copy

High-end baby furniture that had to feel elevated enough for style-conscious parents and mushy enough for moms head over heels in love with their baby. I named the Revel high chair and the Caress portable crib, and wrote the tagline “Gracefully nurtured.”

Meals with love and gurgles.

On the packaging:

Looks good. Feels good. Wheels good.

Simple for mom. Comfy for baby. Eye-candy for kitchen.

Feed baby, live life.

Flat packaging layout for the Revel high chair box, with line drawings of the chair and the copy on each panel.
Box layout for the Revel high chair.

And on the tray insert, a poem:

For jam-tipped noses and smeared-up smiles
On morning sun-kissed kitchen tiles
For pudgy fingers and tiny spoons
On crumb-filled, giggly afternoons
For sticky cheeks and sippy cups
On nights before the snuggle-ups.

Printed high chair tray insert for Revel by MelO: a bowl of baby cereal on a magenta background, with the poem set on either side.
Tray insert for the Revel high chair.

Like Grüns Kids, this was written to the parent buying for the child. I’ve bought (and I’m still buying) baby and childhood products for my own five kids. I know this woman well.

3

Fish ’n Dish

Every fish brand says fresh. I wanted people to feel it in their bones.

#SmellNothing

If truly fresh fish doesn’t smell like fish, then put the bag somewhere a fish smell would be a social disaster.

  • In a job interview.
  • At the perfume counter.
  • Inside a house while potential buyers are touring it.

This series transforms "doesn't smell fishy" from "just another product claim" to something visceral consumers will remember whenever they see the Fish ’n Dish logo.

4

It’s Yom Tov

I gave a shopping site a family.

ItsYomTov.com is my own holiday shopping and content site for Jewish families, built from scratch: name, positioning, voice, site, emails and content. It’s run by a fictional family: scatterbrained Ima, who can’t make a point without four side comments; Abba and his dad jokes; Mordy, 12, the know-it-all; Mindy, 9, dramatic and adorably obnoxious; and a baby whose contribution is mostly strategic chaos. They show up everywhere, so the brand has recurring characters, not just a tone.

Chanukah gift guide page. Headline: Eight nights. Seventeen guides. Zero sponsored junk. An illustrated boy sits on a stack of boxes checking a list while his sister says, Mordy, that's the seventeenth box.
Gift guide section: Kids, by age. An illustrated girl says, Ahem. Tween girls is right there. Just saying.
Gift guide section: Grown-ups, for the ones who say don't get me anything. An illustrated dad says, I did NOT say nothing. I said surprise me.
Gift guide section: Under $10. An illustrated boy with a notebook says, I ran the numbers. Twice. It checks out.

Here’s Ima introducing the Chanukah gift guide:

Subject: So I spent way too long on this for you

You know what drove me absolutely bonkers for years? Those ridiculous “gift guides” where you KNOW someone paid a fortune to shove their product in there.

The blog writer is gushing over some $87 “artisanal” dish sponge holder or a “revolutionary” water bottle that’s literally just... a water bottle with a motivational quote on it.

Come on already!

That’s why for years now, I’ve been collecting ideas for the most fabulous, absolutely perfect gifts for literally everyone. And you can rest assured that I don’t do that “sponsored items” nonsense.

No no no no no.

Have fun browsing,
Ima Chagim

More work

A few more lines from a few more brands

Fuller Brush

Heritage cleaning brand · brand voice, About page, category pages

I wrote the company history page in the voice of an old-time Fuller Brush salesman, then carried that voice into the category headings.

  • Bathroom cleaning the way mom did it.
  • Gone-in-seconds countertop cleaning supplies.
  • Cleaning sponges with superpowers.
  • Blast through germs with potent disinfectants.
  • Eat-off-the-floor cleaning gear.

Arow9

Towels and bathrobes · dozens of collection names and slogans

Collections: Wrapture (bathrobes) and Piles of Plush.

  • Meet your after-shower pleasures.
  • Here’s to your burrow of downy cotton.
  • Embrace the call of comfort.
  • Soak up moisture. Soak in warmth.
  • Bathtime snuggles.

Mon Trésor

Premium baby fashion · product and collection names & product copy

  • Blowin’ Love
  • Field of Wishes
  • All Knit Up
  • Bows & Kisses
  • Tidy Toggles
  • Alpine Breath

Healthy Packers

Bento lunch box · tagline and packaging copy

  • Less fussing, more lunching.
  • Box it. Crave it. Eat it.
  • Lunch your belly full.
Light blue box lid printed with: Box it. Crave it. Eat it.

Lil Tracker

GPS tracking devices · slogan for caregivers of people with dementia or Alzheimer’s

  • Know where they are. Even when they don’t.

GSI Kitchens

Commercial kitchen design · website copy

  • Give us the space. We’ll give you a profit-generating kitchen.
  • Roast assured, we won’t keep you simmering.

Peddlers & Parchment

Historical escape room · brand name

I named it.

Client love

What people say about me

Her writing is creative and sharp and she is not afraid of telling you the truth when she thinks different.
Or Lakritz
Co-founder, StructShare. Acquired by Trimble.
Chavy is one of the easiest people I’ve worked with… someone who gets it with very little back and forth.
Yossi Chriqui
Director of Operations, Toveedo
I was amazed by Chavy’s process, the thoroughness of the research and the deep understanding of the market.
Itzy Holczler
Purple Exhibits
Wow!!! You’re talented. I’m blown away. Really awesome material.
Shiffy Kish
Sky Media
I have to say I loved this subject line and it got a real chuckle out of me.
John Bejakovic
On my email “$100 billion worth of rats and grime”
Your content is really entertaining. I’m reading this in a waiting room and it’s making my wait less annoying, so thanks!
Carrie S.
Email subscriber

I am choosing to regard “better than a waiting room” as a serious professional endorsement.

I’m blown away by this magnum opus. Your brand guide and research is, well, intimidating. And impressive.
C.T.
Brand voice client

Also, AI

I usually start with pen and paper. Here’s my evidence:

Handwritten notebook page drafting a brand manifesto that begins: In this place, you will be protected from mediocrity. Two lines are circled.
The Go Name Yourself naming card deck beside a notebook page of handwritten name ideas in columns.

I use ChatGPT and Claude for research — I make it link to sources for everything, and then I double-check every source — brainstorming, and pressure-testing ideas, including checking whether another brand has already used a similar concept.

AI is very good at giving me twenty directions in ten seconds. I’m good at throwing out 97.1% of them and developing the other 2.9% with my very human brain.

I also use AI to do things I can’t do myself, thereby making myself look far more multi-talented than I really am.

Case in point: this portfolio page.

I wrote the copy. Then I stuck it into Claude and told it to make me look impressively good to the Grüns team.

So, um, hopefully that worked. You're gonna give me a chance at an interview, right? Right? C'mon, don't deny you're flattered that I built a whole web page just to get this job. Let's talk,

Chavy

chavy@chavyhelfgott.com 347-452-8867 chavyhelfgott.com LinkedIn