Integrated Digital / Experiential Activation

CMS MARKETING

August 1st, 2023

BRAND PLANNING & STRATEGY:

BRAND: AVALONKING

As Head of Marketing at AvalonKing I was responsible for the marketing strategy and execution from Nov 20 - Feb 23. While my job description was marketing focussed - my actual day-to-day was rooted in brand building, product production timelines, supply and forecasting, and overarching strategy for the business.

To do this efficiently I had to familiarize myself with everything from supply, to packaging, to production, to the cost of goods delivered, and all the associated timelines.

I married this information with hyper-detailed audience insights rooted in behavioral and sales data. Everything from tone, language, packaging, brand guidelines, colour themes and palettes were derived from the audience info we took as we built the brand from revenue of 1.2m to 4.4m in my time there.

While we had an overall brand strategy to make AvalonKing a trusted “garage buddy” to our consumers and prosumers alike, our mission was to make ceramic coating, a typically scary product to non-professionals, an accessible DIY product for the everyday DIY enthusiast. We did this through smart influencer partnerships, great content, and by constantly refining the UX - giving each component its own individual test-and-refine project.

The outputs from this were:

  • A brand new brand guidelines, logos, themes, palette, and language doc so that anyone could understand the brand creative and personality

  • A project management template that allowed us to focus on bigger picture strategy whilst testing and refining our user experience/journey and advertising

  • A full year-long calendar of key milestones, deadlines, and campaign dates ensured we could plan ahead effectively while remaining agile and innovative

  • A sales activation roadmap and process to ensure we could tick off the vitally important checklist of activities, builds, and deadlines for each key sales window (ie Black Friday, 4th of July, Memorial Day, Flash Sales)

  • A financial planning doc and system so that we could understand the exact amount we could spend on each marketing campaign in terms of content/creative, advertising, support, tech stack, and miscellaneous unseen costs which would enable us to jump on opportunities quickly. This doc also tracked our profitability and any supply/producton anomalies, and the amount of products we had at each distribution center.

  • An internal values doc to make sure the wider team never lost focus on what we were trying to achieve, and a set of pillars that we would constantly refer to when tackling new campaigns

CAMPAIGN DELIVERY:

As a senior director, I have been lucky to work on a number of the biggest national and international brands around. Each client/brand faces its own set of individual challenges and opportunities. Over the years I have avoided, at all costs, the one-size-fits-all template for marketing and activation, instead looking at analyzing data and info to educate myself and my team/agencies, to out the best solution for the brand/client.

BRAND: Fulfil Nutrition

As Global Digital Director at BecauseXM, I was a senior lead in the launch of Fulfil’s chocolate hazelnut whip bar. Here I directed the initial idea, 3D renders, creative, event production, digital strategy and advertising to ensure it was Fulfil’s most successful launch to date.

From a messaging perspective, I led the complete creative design of all branding, video, animation, photography and graphic elements for both on-site and digital execution, right down to copywriting every social post and ad that was published. We won two APMCs for the activation

BRAND: AIG Ireland - #DublinOurTeam

On completing deep audience insights and research I came up with the DublinOurTeam video campaign that allowed fans to get a more insightful picture of the key characters and athletes that made Dublin GAA great. From initial story selection, video direction, scripting, and creative direction - the video series became a huge viral success and led to two sponsorship awards.

BRAND: Life Style Sports - Euros Campaign #FootbAllorNothing

Another of my most successful campaign was with Life Style Sports. We were tasked with creating a 6 month campaign that would sell Ireland jerseys in the build up to Euro 2016. We created a multi-platform integrated campaign that had guerilla video stunts, events, influencers, competitions, media partners, OOH advertising, all underpinned with an always-on and reactive digital marketing campaign. We managed to sell-out the jerseys in over 20 stores and had an online order backlog of 4 weeks. The campaign was nominated for four sponsorship awards, only to be beaten by our Vodafone IRFU launch campaign.

EVENTS AND EXPERIENTIAL:

I spent my inital years in Thinkhouse as PR exec which entailed a number of key events and experiential campaigns. While at Teneo I managed the rollout of a number of brand launches and experiences, utilising key experiential agencies where necessary, and at BecauseXm/honey+Buzz I was responsible for the creation, production, and amplification of brand activations across Ireland and other markets including Dubai, Singapore, New York, Melbourne and London.

BRAND: Thinkhouse

As senior communications executive at Thinkhouse I was responsible for the planning, logistics, staffing and execution of the Ben&Jerry’s Ireland Core Tour. Everything from communications with Co Councils and Private land owners, press releases, media relations, photography, timelines and budgets.

I also worked on a multitude of events across Sports and Music - from Heineken Cup, to Champions League, to Heineken Music’s Green Spheres live shows. As well as Coors Light’s Weekender and Free Gaff activations.

BRAND: BecauseXM / Honey+Buzz

As noted above, I was responsible for the success of the #BankOfFulfil to launch the latest bar. I was also a senior lead on the creative, promotion, and execution of the 53Degrees North Adventure Festival in Blessington

BRAND: TENEO

The ideation, promotion, media planning and execution of the Vodafone #TeamOfUs giant jersey launch was all run through myself at Teneo. I worked closely with Imagine on the physical production element, with Videos On The Net on the livestreams and live footage capture on the day to ensure streamlined and seamless activation. I was also responsible for Franciscan Well’s launch of new cans across its range, AIG Ireland’s cross-code skills tests with Dublin GAA and the All Blacks, HBs relaunch of the Freaky Foot, and Teeling Whiskey’s launch of it’s visitor experience.

NEW BUSINESS PITCHES:

I pride myself on my presentation and idea delivery skills which I have gained on countless new business pitches throughout my career. As a senior member of the leadership team, I have been central to almost every new business pitch that my previous agencies have worked on. I have a problem-solving mindset, I am both creative and analytical, and I consider myself a strong project manager.

BRAND: TENEO

As Director of Digital & Sponsorship Activation at Teneo, I was part of nearly every new business pitch from a Digital and/or Sports & Sponsorship perspective.

The one I’m most proud of winning at Teneo is the Vodafone account, which ahead of it’s sponsorship of Irish Rugby, was one of the biggest accounts in Ireland. Through my own personal network I managed to get an initial chemistry meeting between Teneo (then PSG) and Vodafone which allowed us to pitch for the business. It was one of my three initial launch ideas which was selected for the activation (fan controlled reveal of a giant jersey on the pitch at the Aviva) which went on to win a number of PR, Digital and Sponsorship awards.

After Vodafone we went of a roll of winning back-to-back pitches in everything from Life Style Sports to Franciscan Well to HB to Standard Life Pensions.

A sample of new business pitches I was a senior lead in:

Vodafone, AIG, Berocca, Durex Ireland, Fyffes, Topaz Energy, Life Style Sports, Misubishi Motors Ireland, Milanos, One4all, PWC, Teeling Whiskey

AGENCY INTERACTION:

My career path over the years moved from traditional PR, to digital marketing, to sponsorship, to experiential, to eCommerce, giving me in-depth, hands-on experience in all aspects of the marketing puzzle.

BRAND: Thinkhouse

As senior communications executive at Thinkhouse I gained great experience working with agencies and contractors across a number of campaigns and activations. Within the Heineken Brand alone I worked closely with Starcom on advertising and Modern Green on Events and Experiential. Key activations were there Heineken Cup Final 3D social tracker build at D4 hotels. We had an English projections company build the 2 story statue and projector mapping system, then staffed it with Modern Green brand ambassadors which I personally briefed. We also partnered with Starcom on the media partners which we selected using our own audience insights and PR network (Joe.ie, Balls.ie, Irish Times etc)

BRAND: BecauseXM / Honey+Buzz

At BecauseXm, as our main IP was events, staffing and experiential - we would work closely with a number of brands and agencies to create bespoke activations - here I worked with a number of contractors for productions supply and content (Notions, Cubemedia, Taller Stories) where we had gaps in our own skillset.

BRAND: TENEO

In my 4+ years at Teneo, while we built towards a one-stop-shop for our client’s needs, I worked closely with Fuel, Verve and Imagine, as well as CMS for Vodafone and a number of suppliers/contractors such as Wilson Creative, Cubemedia, Taller Stories, Subset, to create content and large scale campaigns.