In Feature 036 of ‘Conversations Behind The Campaign,’ we sat down with Kira Jackson, the Chief Brand Officer behind SET Active, a Los Angeles based activewear brand known for its perfectly curated collection drops and social media channels. Since its founding in 2018 the brand has been worn by the likes of Kaia Gerber, Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner, with founder Lindsey Carter sharing their recent collection saw over $1 million in sales in the first hour.
Before stepping into her role at SET, Kira built a diverse career across brand strategy, partnerships and private equity, holding senior roles at RX3 Growth Partners, Power Digital Marketing and Covet Public Relations. She’s worked with some of the world’s most recognisable brands – Sweetgreen, Disney, Barbie, Orgain and Therabody – now lending that experience to emerging and growth brands as an angel investor and advisor.
In our conversation, Kira unpacks the key to building brand longevity over short-term virality, why creative inspiration often comes from outside your own category, and how bringing a different background or perspective to the table can be one of your greatest strengths.
1. Could you share how you got into marketing? Was this always a dream industry, and how has your journey evolved to becoming the Chief Brand Officer?
I’ve always loved brands and been super curious about customer behavior – certain companies pique my interest and hold my affinity more so than others. This has always fascinated me. What about those brands made me reach for them? And more importantly, what made me feel comfortable spending more for their product versus a competitor’s? My undergrad degree was pre-law and I had every intention of going to law school, but got swept into a PR internship working with brands like Suja, Kopari, and Beyond Meat… the rest is history. I grew quickly in that industry and was promoted to VP at a 150 person firm following our first acquisition, and in telling my clients’ stories, I came to deeply understand the consumer mindset – why these brands over others commanded a higher price point, prime retail positioning, and monster valuations… so, needless to say, my curiosity expanded. I got the customer, but what about scale? What makes a brand big? What makes it investable? What makes it appealing from an acquisition perspective?
When it came time to sell the business again, I was one of 10 leading the firm’s roadshow (a series of meetings with potential financial sponsors and strategics interested in investing in the next stage of the business); during that process, I met dozens of men who all asked the same exact questions. They’d inquire as to our margins, our profitability per employee, our runway, but none asked about our retention, our curated clientele, our relationships, the strength of our brand in a hyper-competitive space. This was when I identified a serious white space in the private equity landscape.
Once that sale went through (we exited to PE), I knew my next step had to be in private equity, and when I was presented with the opportunity to join Aaron Rodgers’ growth equity firm, RX3 Growth Partners, I stepped in to run the firm’s value add and celebrity strategy, partnering closely with our portfolio companies like Therabody and Orgain, to create the right brand and celebrity alignments, introduce them into new industries (ie Therabody in Sephora), and contribute to product innovation in line with their growth goals. I was also serving as the firm’s de facto female perspective as we evaluated brands in the femtech, beauty, and commerce enablement spheres. If I had a dollar for every time a male investor said he’d run this by his wife…
During this time, I built a platform for myself on TikTok and with it, a community of like-minded women who were interested in financial literacy, business strategy, and career expansion. Through this community, I realized that the gap in my career story was really in-house operating experience. It’s what I wished, so long ago, that those investors had had when evaluating our agency. So after a couple of years, I pivoted once again and joined SET as our Chief Brand Officer where I now oversee all things brand, marketing, and business strategy.
2. Was there a moment – a campaign, a mentor, a mistake – that completely shifted the way you think about marketing or brand building?
Early on in my career, I was working with a well-known water brand, and – as you did at the time – we brought on a celebrity face under contract for 3 years with exclusivity, deliverables, media elements, the whole shebang. Days before we announced that collaboration, our celebrity partner was admitted to rehab. Not quite the health and wellness queen we were excited to hitch our wagon to, you know? A masterclass in why putting all your eggs in one basket could bring serious repercussions, and why a celebrity face can’t always solve all of your problems.
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“It’s a huge monetary investment and brand gamble, with minimal long-term impact. Of course, you capture that flash-in-a-pan buzz immediately, but it’s really about how you milk the opportunity to foster longevity.”
Now, more than a decade into my career, I’ve seen countless brands over-invest in talent alignment – whether it’s a huge upfront cost, or a sizable chunk of equity; it’s rare that plugging a celebrity into a brand (especially those that launched without one) brings meaningful authentic, long-term impact.
3. From your experience in brand strategy, what truly separates a brand that people love in the moment from one that actually lasts?
This is a bit of a dichotomy, but I think it comes down to the balance between two things: consistency and innovation. Let me explain, because I totally get how those two could seem to be at odds with each other.
When a customer knows what to expect from you, they feel confident making purchase after purchase. That could be for your quality, your morals and values, your propensity for predicting what’s new and next ahead of the trends, etc. Innovation refers to your ability to be nimble; to maintain your core brand ethos, but stay malleable and responsive to the customer and their needs/wants/desires.
4. What does a typical day look like for you at SET? Are there parts of the brand you’re especially hands-on with, or does it change depending on what phase the business is in?
The format of my days is actually fairly consistent, but the contents vary depending on what stage the business is in, where we are in our drop cadence, and what requires immediate attention. That said, I’m in the office by 8:45am, and meetings kick off promptly at 9am. I try to start my day with a quick TB with our marketing manager where we recap top priorities, outstanding initiatives from the prior day/weekend, and any fire drills. From there, I’m equally split across creative, marketing, partnerships, production, and big picture strategic planning. I try to leave the office at 5pm so I can make it home in time to my daughter before my nanny leaves at 6pm – I’m with her until she goes down at 7:30pm then it’s back to work for me! I typically have a full inbox of emails since I’m in meetings for most of the day, so I power through anything outstanding for a couple of hours while I eat dinner (don’t worry, my husband’s a lawyer so this is our together time lol), and I try to get into bed by 9:30pm. I’m addicted to the feeling of waking up to a clean inbox / slack / asana, so the extra push is worth it to me.
5. The Bloopers campaign felt like such a refreshing break from the usual polished content we see online and became a viral moment. Can you take us behind the scenes – how did it come to life, and what made you commit to it as a brand moment?
The Bloopers campaign was born from… a blooper. A major blooper. Our Sportbody product for nearly all of Q1 came in with sizing completely off spec – some pieces ran nearly a full size too small – and we knew immediately we had two choices: pretend it didn’t happen or own it. Because community and transparency are core to SET’s DNA, there was never really a debate. We led with honesty, offered a discount, and instead of issuing a sterile apology, we leaned into the moment with humor.
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“We built a creative world around everyday mishaps – those ‘bloopers’ that everyone relates to – and it became less about the product issue and more about the storytelling, which is what really set the campaign apart.”
We didn’t over-apologize, but we made it right. We poked fun at ourselves in the process, and our community responded with so much grace because they could tell we were showing up authentically. It was one of those moments where brand values and business challenges collided – and we used it to deepen connection instead of deflecting.
6. SET’s campaign launches are so well teased and executed. What goes into building that kind of hype? How do you craft a world people want to step into?
One of the things that makes our storytelling work so well, is that we design into line plans with creative in mind. We have an idea of the campaign creative before ever designing into specific styles or selecting colors. So essentially, we start with the world, then design into it. When it comes time to bringing that world to life before a drop, we lead with emotional intuition – what do we want someone to feel when they consume our content? I’m also hyper-vigilant about the manner in which we use our various channels – they should never feel repetitive; the experience a customer has on Instagram should be entirely different from the experience they have in our loyalty program, on our TikTok, or through our emails and sms communication.
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“Each channel is like another layer of the onion that our most engaged customers can peel back to discover more and more about the world. And because we treat our channels this way, we can’t settle for a shallow brand world – each collection we drop needs to be supported by a campaign world with depth.”
There should be easter eggs throughout and the creative needs to be executed with all formats in mind. Our campaigns aren’t crafted to drive transactions, they’re meticulously curated to invite our community into a cultural moment – and a major factor in building that world pre-launch is teasing strategy. Leading up to a drop, not only are we leveraging our owned channels to start to introduce that world, but we’re inviting our community of creators and customers to preview the product (and create UGC in the process) – they’re essentially co-creators in the world we’re building, which makes it so much more collaborative and really emphasizes our community-led positioning.
7. What has been your favourite brand moment or campaign at SET, and why?
I loved our Airluxe campaign. It was one of the first initiatives I got to tackle when I joined the brand, and the stakes were high – I love it when the stakes are high! Introducing a new fabric family gives us the opportunity to create a beloved new bestseller, and I’m proud to say, this is exactly what we accomplished. For the introduction of our latest innovation, we took inspiration from the technical components differentiating the fabric itself – it’s UPF 50, antimicrobial, and virtually weightless – the campaign was centered around our classified fabric development process, which had taken nearly two years. We leaned into that dedication to excellence (and secrecy, which for SET, is quite an anomaly) with a campaign that felt highly scientific and secretive. Not only was the content and creative elevated, premium, and consistent, but we leaned into new and emerging channels to further build the product world. For instance, broadcast channels were new at the time – we created SET’s for this drop specifically (and continue to use it across our strategies to this day). We also tapped our most engaged customers through our loyalty program to trial the new fabric before it was available to the public for purchase. In exchange, we asked for their testimonials, and a series of content, which we leveraged on social, and wove throughout our comms.
8. SET’s content always feels fun, fresh, and refined. Where do you get your inspiration from?
Our Founder, Lindsey, does a great job of deriving inspiration from the everyday – sneakers she’s loving, fits she spies at Erewhon, nostalgic vintage pieces on ebay, etc. For me, it’s more about what moves the bottom line – I spend most of my free time listening to earnings calls, reading industry substacks and newsletters and tracking consumer behavior. I also love discovering emerging brands, especially international ones, and getting inspiration from an entirely different subset of brands and consumers.
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“It’s so easy to get caught up in the zeitgeist of the incredible brands existing in and around our space, but it can be such an echo chamber.”
It takes real effort to explore and engage with new niche communities and break away from the content that’s readily fed to you by your algorithm; I force myself to do exactly that.
9. What marketing trends are you excited to continue seeing (or leaving) in 2025?
I’ve always been an early adopter and I think we’re just scratching the surface on opportunities for AI across all aspects of the business. Less so creatively for us (our consumer values authenticity too much for AI-generated content to resonate with them at this time), but more so enhancing the consumer experience across brand touchpoints, and better understanding customer data and behavior. For example, on Revolve’s last earnings call, they mentioned they’d seen a 7 digit lift from developing their own AI-driven internal search algorithm.
I’m looking into ways we can use AI to further reduce return rates, drive efficiency in performance marketing and reporting, and further customize and personalize the customer experience… I think there’s a world where we could see a real impact on revenue and contribution margin as a result.
I’m also loving having more fun with our customer UGC! Our community is next level and has been so gracious about letting us use their content, and my favorite application thus far has been on our PDPs. Having community UGC as a third party validator onsite (just before checkout) is such a game changer – customers can see how the product fits and feels in creative that is all theirs – video and static imagery alike.
10. What has been the biggest challenge in your career and what advice would you share with someone going through something similar?
Recognizing my value. I hate that that’s been the case, but it’s the truth – I’ve spent a lot of my career pivoting and with that comes an inherent insecurity. You’re not always classically trained in a role like your peers, but what I’ve come to understand is that my alternative perspective brings equal or greater value in most instances.
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My advice? Your perspective is your power. Speak with clarity, stay curious, and don’t dilute your point of view to keep the peace. The right people will respect your conviction.
11. Are there any marketers or brands you look up to for both creative and career inspiration?
I’m constantly inspired by what brands like Rhode, Merit, and Jacquemus do from a world-building standpoint, and track performance from the likes of LVMH, Hermès, On, Gap, Starbucks, Revolve, MyTheresa, e.l.f., PVH, Adidas, Disney and more on a quarterly basis. On a personal level, I admire women like Ana Andjelic, Katie Welch, Emma Grede, Lauren Ratner, Mellody Hobson, etc. – some of whom I’ve had the honor of connecting with. Each has built what I like to call a portfolio career, reflecting a holistic understanding of the consumer and the business. They’re never just creative, or just marketing, or just finance, they understand how each and every cog sits together to contribute to larger business growth and scale.
12. Where can our audience follow and engage with you and SET on social media?
You can find me on TikTok @kiramackenz and Instagram @kiramackenzie (I mainly share career advice and brand strategy insights, with some lifestyle things mixed in). And definitely follow @SETActive for all the things!! I’m so proud that we’re on the moodboards of so many of the brands I personally admire, and once you see our socials, honestly it makes sense.
