Making Ultra Mobile's seasonal promos impossible to miss

Ultra Mobile lives or dies on the retail shelf. It's sold inside cell phone stores where every carrier, every plan, and every sticker is fighting for the same two seconds of attention. The brief was a pair of seasonal promos for Tax Season and Summer time. Each with a short window to drive new sales. Both had to be immediately recognizable as Ultra, but fresh enough that retailers and customers wouldn't mistake them for the last flash sale.

THE DIRECTION

Every promo had to pull its weight as its own seasonal moment while staying anchored to the Ultra system.

Tax Season leaned into the insight that Ultra's target customer wasn't chasing the lowest price, they wanted the best use of the extra money in their pocket. I built the visual around falling cash and dimensional 3D elements that made the offer the hero. Ultra's primary purple carried the brand, a silver finish on the offer figures added a premium note, and UV spot coating on the 3D elements gave the print pieces physical presence on a retail shelf — something to catch the light, not just the eye.

The Summer promo turned the palette the other direction. The design pulled Ultra's secondary yellow forward, staging the offer against a sunset over a purple horizon. Palm trees and a low sun carried the seasonal cue without overselling it.

Both systems had to scale across offers, languages and channels. I art directed and mentored the junior designers through the extensions, holding the system while giving them room to build.

THE REACH

Both campaigns moved sales in window, and more importantly, they gave Ultra a look the competition couldn't flatten. In a category where every carrier crowds the same colors, the same CTAs, and the same "limited time" language, the system carved out shelf space that felt like Ultra and nothing else. For a brand fighting for attention in a visual arms race, the win was as much about recognition as conversion.