Strategic Storyteller / Brand Strategist (Branded Content Creator, UX Writer)
Connecting Brand >< Audience
Some see problems; others see solves. I’m an award-winning Executive Creative Director, who didn’t get into advertising just to make ads; I’ve shaped my career by pursuing opportunities that also extend my creative thinking to problem solving, data synthesizing and strategy. This right/left brain approach has helped me transform and build companies, products and services as a result. I’m especially drawn to projects where inclusive marketing acumen and entrepreneurial experience are required to solve problems for brands looking to connect with and grow their audience.
My interest in a brand’s relationship with the consumer started at Wieden & Kennedy where I started winning awards for insight-grounded work on Nike. I moved to London to explore this further - first by moving into copywriting as a Creative Director, then as Partizan’s first Writer/Director for branded content. This led to unique opportunities for iconic brands (Ikea, Nivea, Google, Mortal Kombat, Coca Cola, RSA Films, Nike, DoorDash.)
My combined creative and strategic experience helped launch brands in challenging markets with often adventurous, yet highly intentional branded content. Most briefs sought to find that often elusive connection with younger or opaque audiences. This is where my interest in UX took hold.
20 years of global experience helps.
Curiosity, and a healthy tolerance for steep learning curves, took me from the US to the UK, China and Australia to work on some of the world’s biggest brands. There I explored how to best cultivate more relevant brand/consumer connections and identify the stickiest connection point shared by both.
I’ve helped over 150 brands better understand and connect with their consumer by,
On making stuff that resonates.
My interest in UX and the consumer experience stems from a deep-seated desire to uncover a better way of doing things. Providing new audiences with something that actually delivers. Content or product that’s either highly useful or massively entertaining to many different audiences. Something that finds its way into people’s lives and hearts by satisfying a real and deep fundamental need.
Most recently:
My interest in a brand’s relationship with the consumer started at Wieden & Kennedy where I started winning awards for insight-grounded work on Nike. I moved to London to explore this further - first by moving into copywriting as a Creative Director, then as Partizan’s first Writer/Director for branded content. This led to unique opportunities for iconic brands (Ikea, Nivea, Google, Mortal Kombat, Coca Cola, RSA Films, Nike, DoorDash.)
My combined creative and strategic experience helped launch brands in challenging markets with often adventurous, yet highly intentional branded content. Most briefs sought to find that often elusive connection with younger or opaque audiences. This is where my interest in UX took hold.
20 years of global experience helps.
Curiosity, and a healthy tolerance for steep learning curves, took me from the US to the UK, China and Australia to work on some of the world’s biggest brands. There I explored how to best cultivate more relevant brand/consumer connections and identify the stickiest connection point shared by both.
I’ve helped over 150 brands better understand and connect with their consumer by,
- Launching disruptor brands in new markets
- Pushing Creative, Experiential and UX teams to redefine consumer content and product experiences
- Delivering meaningful, sticky and galvanizing work
- Helping Fortune 500 brands translate data into actionable more inclusive insights
- Reinventing or repositioning legacy brands facing potential pivots
- Developing UX/UI-friendly protoypes and apps
- Inspiring management teams to activate DEIB values org-wide for the health of the business
- Piloting, designing and building a resource sharing app by hacking Twillio and Slack
- Getting UX certified
On making stuff that resonates.
My interest in UX and the consumer experience stems from a deep-seated desire to uncover a better way of doing things. Providing new audiences with something that actually delivers. Content or product that’s either highly useful or massively entertaining to many different audiences. Something that finds its way into people’s lives and hearts by satisfying a real and deep fundamental need.
Most recently:
- Bolstered my hands-on UX experience with formal training (UX Design and Research certificate / focus in User Experience, Nielson Norman Group, June 2022)
- Launched a creative strategy platform - CVLRY - that helps companies connect more authentically with value-led Gen Z audiences and position themselves to turn new consumers into fans.
- More press on new documentary film inspired by The Sperminator (2022)
- Helped develop and produce a bi partisan anti-gun violence content campaign for Everytown to launch on Nov 7, post midterms.
- Shortlisted for the TED Residency program for an idea based on creating a currency and an online marketplace that helps close the wage gap.
- Hired by Kantar, an insights company, as a Creative to provide their Fortune 500 clients with creative content data anaylsis on the most viewed Superbowl XX ads (kick-off to a thought leadership series on stronger content optimization.)
ECD / CEO Founder / CW / Director / Content Creator / UX Writer and Content Strategist
:15 Resume I’ve blended my storytelling with strategy skills by first learning the art direction and copywriting craft at a bunch of great places in Portand, SF, NY, London and Sydney (working with friends at Nike, BET, RSA Films, Noom, DoorDash, Wieden&Kennedy, 72&Sunny, BBH NY, Google Creative Labs and Mother.) Then I filled my gaps of knowledge by running a start up while managing two global accounts at JWT NY. On a mission to better serve both consumers and clients through CVLRY (my own thing) I called on some of the best coms planners, designers and strategists I knew to join me. We exist to translate data into useful, galvanizing UX and CX-led insights. I hope to apply this to wherever I go next. (The longer version lives on Linkedin)
:15 Resume I’ve blended my storytelling with strategy skills by first learning the art direction and copywriting craft at a bunch of great places in Portand, SF, NY, London and Sydney (working with friends at Nike, BET, RSA Films, Noom, DoorDash, Wieden&Kennedy, 72&Sunny, BBH NY, Google Creative Labs and Mother.) Then I filled my gaps of knowledge by running a start up while managing two global accounts at JWT NY. On a mission to better serve both consumers and clients through CVLRY (my own thing) I called on some of the best coms planners, designers and strategists I knew to join me. We exist to translate data into useful, galvanizing UX and CX-led insights. I hope to apply this to wherever I go next. (The longer version lives on Linkedin)