Good brands follow culture; great ones give culture somewhere new to go.
I’m a creative executive, advisor and producer working with brands ready to move beyond the expected.
New markets. New audiences. New platforms. New ways of earning attention.
ABOUT ME
I’ve never been particularly interested in staying in one lane.
I started in publishing where attention had to be earned every issue, I moved into entertainment where audiences could change the channel and then PR, where ideas had to travel without media dollars pushing them. When I shifted to advertising, I learned how to build global brands. And now, agency ownership has taught me to spot opportunities where business objectives, creativity and culture intersect. 20 years on and I use all of it.
Editorial instinct. Cultural intelligence. Brand strategy. Earned thinking. Entertainment value. Design aesthetic. Business judgment.
Not because brands need more disciplines, but because interesting problems rarely fit neatly inside one box.
CATEGORY EXPERIENCE
I’ve worked with some amazing brands. Relevance was the goal. Partnership was how we got there.
The interesting part wasn’t what the brand wanted to become; it was how trusted collaboration unlocked new opportunities accelerating how we got there. Whether helping turn convicts into storytellers for 19 Crimes by leveraging augmented reality to disrupt the wine category at shelf or making “Let’s get a spritz!” mean Aperol to Americans. I have worked across brand reinvention and innovation driving effective & measurable business impact with creative solutions are built to scale.
NOTE: Context matters and so does knowing which work is relevant to the challenge you're facing. When we connect, I’ll walk you through the experience that matters.-
19 Crimes / Aperol / Grand Marnier / Wild Turkey / Kirin / Luxardo
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Converse / Levi’s / Archer / House Foods / lululemon / F’Real Foods
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Hertz / Mazda / Cadillac / Air China / Singer Vehicle Design / BMW
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MegaFood / Bayer / AbbVie / Swisse Wellness / MyFitnessPal / U.S. Olympic Committee
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AT&T / EA / Visa / Nvidia / Microsoft / Volta / Better Than Cash Alliance
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PIER39 / Destination Tiburon / SPIN / Bi-Rite / Caviar Co. / Mixt
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Goldman Environmental Prize / Cool Effect / Salesforce / U.N. Women
MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS EXPERTISE
Thankfully my path was never in a straight line.
I have also been recognized by Adweek Creative 100 and have won over 90 industry awards including the Effie, Clios, One Show, Webby, SABRE, REGGIE, PRSA and Telly Awards.
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Publishing taught me that people owe you nothing, not even the next page. I helped to build custom content, experiences, platforms and leveraged new technologies to expand brand reach and revenue streams.
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Entertainment taught me the difference between an audience and a target. I helped to launch new networks, digital communities and ways to engage viewers.
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PR taught me that good ideas should travel without being forced. I helped to build their creative and content capabilities to support, retain and attract international and U.S. based clients with a global footprint.
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Advertising taught me how to create brand moments that operate at scale. I helped them to disrupt categories, action internal resources across offices and align integrated teams across agencies and countries.
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Ownership has taught me there is no useful wall between creativity and business. The integrated thinking and outcomes focused point of view that I bring to the table today is informed by my experience in having been across the entire communications landscape.
STAYING CURIOUS + MOVING FORWARD
Advertising is one answer,
but it isn’t always
the most interesting one.
I’ve become increasingly interested in ideas that can exist outside the traditional campaign cycle and expected formats. Developing films and series instead of shooting :30’s, creating gathering spaces instead of activations and building brand platforms instead of taglines. I am excited by creating brand worlds people want to enter, engage with and share because I helped to develop a solution that is the audience destination rather than a message asking them to pay attention.
That thinking led to Stem & Barrel: Napa Valley, a brand-funded documentary following three Napa Valley wineries through a single harvest season, distributed through Warner Bros. Discovery across linear TV on Cooking Channel, Discovery and streaming on Discovery+ (available in app across Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video & Roku) in the U.S. as well as HBO MAX in Australia and New Zealand.
The larger implication and interesting area to explore for me and for brands is:
What happens when brands start thinking about becoming the destination instead of optimizing a distraction?
ADVISORY
When the playbook stops working, it’s time to flip the script.
Most of the conversations I’m interested in start with some version of:
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That’s a good place to start the conversation.
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I help businesses move beyond yesterday’s story through positioning, narrative, creative platforms and clearer ways to communicate innovation.
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I help brands understand where a brand can credibly participate & where they should stay out of the way.
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I help brands create worlds people want to enter through films, series, experiences, partnerships and original IP.
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I help international brands build American relevance without sanding away the character that made them interesting in the first place.
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I provide fractional or project-based creative leadership when the stakes are high, the organization is changing or a trusted partner is needed to clarify what comes next.
Have an interesting challenge?
GET IN TOUCH
I’m interested in brands staring new chapters, international businesses entering or expanding in the U.S. market, creative organizations in transition and companies looking beyond the traditional campaign model. If that sounds like what you’re working through, we should probably talk.