Brands

Approach

I start by immersing myself in the business to establish KPIs, and then I assemble brand-building elements purposefully crafted through my proven methodology, which includes creating content ranging from feature documentaries, YouTube series, to clips for TikTok and Instagram.

My proven approach ignites remarkable growth for brands: I deliver consumer-centric brand strategies, emotionally-driven creative concepts across touchpoints, performance-focused campaigns, soup-to-nuts e-commerce solutions, and impact-oriented paid media leveraging robust analytics. Each element, including the creation of diverse content, is uniquely tailored to your goals.

Fanatics

Overview
Fanatics, the global leader for licensed sports merchandise, is a new breed of retailer – part tech company, part logistics expert, part e-commerce company and part manufacturer – that combines exclusive deals with leagues and teams with on-demand production and an agile supply chain to increase speed-to-market of high-quality fan merchandise distributed globally across all retail channels.

In March, as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the globe, founder Michael Rubin launched the All In Challenge to raise money to combat food insecurity. The AIC aims to be the world’s largest digital fundraiser in history by raising more than $60 million dollars to feed those in need.

Rubin came up with the idea, and then immediately brought in one of his closest friends, entrepreneur Alan Tisch. Shortly thereafter, communications strategist Gary Vaynerchuk joined the team to help launch the movement. Through conversations with his friends in sports and entertainment, Michael knew there would be immediate interest in helping raise money for this important cause.
Through the AIC the world’s preeminent sports, music and entertainment figures donated their most prized possessions and created once-in-a-lifetime experiences for online auction and giveaways. The AIC and Fanatics sit at the unique crossroads of working with nearly every league, team and athlete in this country (as well as many internationally), while having many connections to entertainers and celebrities who are friends, but also sports fans.

Role

I collaborated with the Conductor Productions team to craft a series of campaigns to document the once in a lifetime experiences where fans live out their sports and entertainment dreams.

La Quercia

Overview

La Quercia (pronounced La Kwair-cha ) means the Oak in Italian.

In 1985 founders Herb and Kathy Eckhouse relocated their family to Italy for three and a half delicious years in the city of Parma, in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna and home to prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, as well as hand crafted pasta, wine, balsamic vinegar and other delicacies.

During their years in Parma, the family embraced a lifestyle of enjoying bountiful regional food in season with an appreciation for the art and craft of creating excellence from agricultural abundance.

In 2003, after years of experimentation, they purchased land in Norwalk, Iowa, a few miles southwest of Des Moines as the home of their prosciuttificio and set out to produce the finest cured meats in America.

Over the nearly two decades they have set the benchmark with artisanal cured meats that would make an Italian weep with its award-winning balance of salty, creamy, sweet and rich according to Bon Appétit.

Role & Results

I collaborated with their team to craft a refreshed brand framework, consumer personas and define and measure core metrics like Net Promoter Score. I consolidated their fragmented CRM and email databases into Klaviyo to build a unified view their audience to segment and target with campaigns designed to increase sales along with brand equity. Conducted research to develop new products, expand categories and create opportunities for new partnerships.

Oversaw development and launched a new Shopify 2.0 store as the centerpiece of a strategic shift to build direct to consumer revenue as the primary growth opportunity for the business. From the launch in mid-October 2021 through the end of the year revenue doubled year over, AOV increased 10% and organic traffic increased 63%.

The company was acquired in 2023 providing a great outcome for the family run business.

Invaio Sciences

Overview

Invaio Sciences is a multi-platform technology company that unlocks the potential of the planet’s interdependent systems to address pressing agricultural, nutritional, and environmental challenges. Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2018, Invaio leverages discoveries from diverse fields including human therapeutics, agriculture, environmental science, and advanced manufacturing. The company’s deep understanding of the physiology of insects, plants and trees, together with its novel integrated solutions approach, promises to refine agricultural practices and reduce the need for pesticides globally. Invaio Sciences is dedicated to developing solutions that are mindful of beneficial insects, bad for pests, and safer for us all.

Role

I collaborated with the Invaio Sciences team to craft a launch campaign around their mission to build a "blueprint for a better future". The project encompassed creating and scripting three video versions that were sourced using entirely stock video assets due to production restrictions caused by the pandemic.

Volpi Foods

Overview

St. Louis based Volpi Foods has been crafting artisan cured meats since 1902. They were largely sold under other brands like Boars Head or private label for retailers like Costco. In 2015 I crafted a strategy to launch their consumer brand.

Over the next 4 years, I worked with their executive and marketing teams to lead brand strategy, media planning/buying, sponsorship and partnerships. We produced over 250 assets encompassing shorts films, animations, recipe videos, TV spots.

Role & Results

I worked on a comprehensive brand launch that included producing hundreds of pieces of video and editorial content.

Over four years the brand increased points of distribution under the Volpi brand to over 100,000 retail locations nationally becoming the #2 fastest growing brand in specialty meats (IRI/Nielsen Ranking). This resulted in a 10X valuation in the privately held company in four years.

Volpi Foods x U.S. Soccer Federation

In the summer of 2016, Volpi was launching their line of snack products and sought to reposition cured meats as a healthful snack with simple ingredients and good source of protein for active folks on-the-go. I crafted a 4-year sponsorship deal with the US Soccer Federation through Soccer United Marketing to position Volpi as the “Official Protein of US Soccer” for both the US Men’s and Women’s National Teams.

Role & Results

The first phase of the partnership was launched during the Copa America Centenario Pregame on Fox Sports 1 - the biggest tournament for North American and South American soccer outside of the World Cup. The spot and experiential campaign ran through 2018 men’s World Cup qualifying.

The campaign continued through the 2019 Women's World Cup victory in France.

The partnership was the deciding factor in 7-Eleven adding the brand to their almost 8,000 US locations.

Yeti x MeatEater

Overview

Collaborated with Yeti to craft a partnership to position Steven Rinella as one of their premier brand ambassadors. The partnership included integration onto the MeatEater TV show, use of related IP for marketing touch points across in-store, social media, etc.

A four short film series was produced for YETI Presents for a Father's Day campaign.

Results

Rinella was featured on the cover of their Spring 2017 catalog with over 2 million copies printed and distributed to their customer base via mail and in-store at retail partners across the US and Canada.

With sales of over $900M annually, the brand is currently valued at over $3B.

Sonos & Spotify x The Mind of a Chef

Overview

Research conducted by Sonos revealed that their best in class speakers were most often used in the kitchen. Around this insight I created the Playlist Potluck campaign anchored by the award winning series The Mind of a Chef.

Featuring a soundtrack with Van Halen, Willie Nelson, Al Martino, The Cure and Kate Bush.

The extensive project comprised of 14 video assets produced by ZPZ, an event program, and Spotify partnership. ZPZ secured distribution for the special on Netflix and amplified the reach via Mind of a Chef and Food Republic websites, YouTube, and the chefs’ social channels.

Results

This groundbreaking project generated in excess of 1.5 million organic video views, 316K social engagements and 5K consumer generated playlists prior to its release to 100M+ Netflix global households.

2017 Daytime Emmy Nominee: Outstanding Directing, Special Class

2017 Webby Award Nominee: Film & Video - Branded Entertainment Long Form

2017 Webby Award Honoree: Film & Video - Branded Entertainment

Breville X Christina Tosi and Milk Bar

In 2011 Momofuku Milk Bar creator and owner Christina Tosi shared all of her crazy good recipes like Crack Pie, Cereal Milk and Bagel Bombs using Breville kitchen gear.

This was her first cooking video series.

Weston x MeatEater

Overview

Weston designs and markets cooking tools targeting the 45 million hunting and angling enthusiasts in the United States. They sought to showcase a variety of their products including meat grinders and smokers in a hands on way to demonstrate their versatility and durability.

Results

Crafted a video driven recipe series featuring Steven Rinella using Weston tools around a Twelve Days of Gifts holiday theme that were promoted across the MeatEater social platforms, website and podcast to an audience of over 1M loyal enthusiasts.

The videos were then edited into the Netflix Original series as a cooking special available for streaming in over 180 million homes globally.

Breville x Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead

The film debuted in July 2011 on Netflix to around 20M US subscribers for their streaming service at the time. We estimated that 6 million Americans had watched the film by 2013.

Results

Search queries for the film were directly correlated to searches for Breville juicers. The brand was completely sold out of juicers by September.

By the end of 2013 annual sales of juicers had quadrupled with Breville owning 70% market share delivering an incremental $75M in revenue.

Stream the film on Tubi

Breville x Chad Robertson and Tartine Bakery

"There definitely is a story to every kind of bread we're making," says Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery in San Francisco.

He was right.

Hennessy x The Mind of a Chef

Overview

The French luxury cognac Hennessy X.O approached me about opportunities to integrate their brand into The Mind of a Chef. The perfect opportunity arose when French born and trained, now Los Angeles based Chef Ludo Lefebvre came on board for the feature chef on season five who was a fan of their cognac.

Results

In the episode titled “La Joie de Vivre”, two old friends, both brilliant chefs, get together to make a traditional French pastry. Millefeuille, which translates as “a thousand leaves,” is a delicate dish that combines a rich filling layered with lightly charred puff pastry.

Breville Make It Vegan

Overview

While at Breville, that I launched in the North American market in 2004, our best in class juice extractors became the #1 selling appliance in dollar share in 2012 after being featured in the documentary film Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. The film touts the health benefits of a plant based diet and Breville sought to piggyback on the momentum by partnering with Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a best-selling cookbook author, whose vegan recipes are so good that they're likely to convert quite a few meat eaters.

The video series included a downloadable recipe ebook and all backed by an exclusive theme song, "Salt," by the band R. Ring, led by Kelley Deal of the Breeders.

Results

Over 2 million organic video views helped grow North American sales to $250 million with EBITDA of $44 million in 2015.

Breville The Reviews Are In

:30 second spot from the campaign to launch the Smart Oven which became the #1 selling toaster oven in dollar volume around the world.

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