Bow Valley College had an incredible story to tell with the launch of their new brand but they needed someone to help bring that story to life. Thats where I came in.
I was brought in as the brand project manager to first help get the brand across the finish line and then to launch the brand.
With my experience working with with creative, production and strategy, I was able to provide the team with everything they needed to get the new brand ready for the launch including working with First Nations Elders to get their perspective on the brand.
With the success of the brand revitalization I was also tasked with providing leadership within the social media team. I worked to bring out the strengths of the team as we established the look and feel for social as well as strategies for the launch and post launch. I developed process and procedures, established best practises, created influencer packages and proposed new platforms and creative for the College to consider that engage with students in meaningful and impactful ways.
The work that the team and I produced together was highlighted throughout the College, with the strategy decks that I spearhead being used by Professors at the College as a case study for branding and social best practices.
The brand revitalization was an internal success so the College made the decision to provide the six schools within the College with their own sub-identities stemming from the core brand. I was a key player in interviews with the College’s stakeholders, development and execution of strategy, sub-identities guidelines (built for each school which included defining their look and feel and how each school would use their sub-identities). To ensure the success of the sub-identities, guidelines were workshopped with the various stakeholders from Executive, College stakeholders and Marcom.
Let’s just say the overall reaction to the brand revitalization and subsequent brand awareness campaign was very positive.
This client has a special space in my heart. I’m proud of the work we did together (and the seemingly endless number of strategy, brand guidelines and approvals decks I left in my wake).
Client: Bow Valley College Creative Agency: Daughter Creative
On this project I took on the role of Field Producer managing a team of photographers, a video crew, talent and support staff. I was in direct contact with the client as well for the duration of the shoot. I ensured the clients’ needs were met and that they were getting what they needed from the shoot.
This project’s goal was to showcase Brook’s 2019 collection in a variety of outdoor and urban settings. This work was used for social media & digital executions as well as Brooks’ website / other marketing efforts.
The photography from this shoot have been viewed over a million times on various social platforms to date.
Client: Brooks Running
Production: Wilder Studio
Going back to my roots (of establishing the photography studio for Mark’s e-commerce, flyers and other marketing efforts), I produced 14 photoshoots inside of 2 weeks for Mark’s to use in their Winter’s Best Book.
As the producer in charge of the unit shooting lifestyle shots for the book, I oversaw everything ranging from location scouting (all of the locations used for the photoshoots were locations I personally scouted), prop procurement, troubleshooting on set, arranging flights and accommodation for the talent and team, talent booking and contracts as well as catering and billing.
For this contract I put in over 140 hours inside of 2 weeks to meet the objectives outlined by the client.
The Winter’s Best Book was circulated across Canada and the creative was also used for various digital tactics.
Client: Mark’s
Agency: Direct Focus
Building off the momentum of Bow Valley College’s Brand Revitalization launch, the Brand Campaign “Your future says thanks” was created with the goal of changing perceptions of what the College is in 2021.
For this project I worked with the College’s internal Marcom team and Directors, Daughter Creative and media partner Vovia as the College’s Brand Project Manager.
I was the primary point of contact for the various stakeholders and worked hard to keep the teams communicating and working together on the campaign.
By streamlining the processes and procedures between the stakeholders we were able to execute the deliverables as defined by the marketing plan before the deadline. We produced a large number of assets that the College could use to maximize reach and engagement via an integrated marketing plan which involved digital, social and traditional executions.
All of this taking place during COVID added an extra layer of complexity to the execution of the campaign strategy.
The Brand Campaign was the largest campaign the College had executed to date with the strategies and templates used for this campaign to be adapted by the College for subsequent campaign deliverables.
Client: Bow Valley College Creative Agency: Daughter Creative Media Agency: Vovia Photography: Roth and Ramberg Video: Meta Productions
Working at AdFarm opened my eyes to a unique market segment: Agriculture Advertising. This work helped to expand my interest in Agriculture and learn more about where our food comes from.
I was the “go to” project manager for all internal projects at AdFarm during my time there. These internal projects provided me with the opportunity to expand my skill set and allowed me to challenge my team to think differently while being involved with the development of internal strategies.
From traditional to digital, each project gave me the opportunity to push my teams to create strategic and engaging work.
Agency: AdFarm
In addition to my duties as a Project Manager for AdFarm, I was the Client Manager and primary point of contact for the prestigious “Best of CAMA” awards.
Working directly with the client I helped established the direction / look & feel for the awards. I oversaw budgets, briefs, creative, production, timelines and reporting as well as event production.
I worked closely with AdFarm’s creative team to create work we were truly proud of.
Client: Canadian Agri-Marketing Association (CAMA) - Best of CAMA
Agency: AdFarm
The strategy for this campaign was to focus on the farmer and what they represent. Working in tandem with the “It’s a Proven Fact” campaign, this work focused on the farmer as hero and their relationship to the products that Proven Seed offered. The overall premise is that the farmers - our experts - have proven year after year that Proven Seed is a reliable choice to get the best yield from their crops.
Our hero couldn’t be just “any” farmer. It had to be the right farmer.
When reviewing the concepts with the client, the client kept on returning to one specific image of a farmer that they thought represented everything that they were looking for in our hero.
To bring the clients’ vision to life I came up with the idea to find the photographer who shot and owned the rights to the image in the comps that the client related to. After a few days of negotiation, we couldn’t get the rights to that particular image so I proposed to the team and client that we shoot fresh images with the farmer featured in the comps with the photographer who originally shot them.
Over three days I worked with the photographer (who had kept in contact with the farmer) and we scheduled a shoot over a long weekend. Working around a country fair the farmer was involved with, we only had one hour with the talent to make our shot list. The art director and myself worked remotely with the photographer (who was in a small local church hall with the farmer in rural America). The end result was a client that was really happy with the creative and the agency for executing our joint vision for the campaign.
The creative is simple and engaging and highlights what is important - the farmer and their expertise.
The “Proven By Experts” portion of the campaign created an emotional connection with the agricultural community while the second part of the campaign, “It’s a Proven Fact”, highlights all of the technical information that the client needed to communicate to their audience.
Each creative was executed for numerous platforms defined by the strategy.
Client: Proven Seed a division of Nutrien Ag Solutions (formerly Crop Production Services)
Agency: AdFarm
The strategy for this campaign was to place focus on the relationship the farmer has with Proven Seed and to highlight that Proven Seed is with the farmer every step of the way.
The campaign was executed as both print and digital media. I oversaw the project from concept to launch, including producing the photoshoot and all campaign related deliverables.
The photographer for this campaign was Bryce Meyer.
Client: Proven Seed a division of Nutrien Ag Solutions (formerly Crop Production Services)
Agency: AdFarm
For the Seed Campaign the strategy was to make the seeds the hero of the campaign.
How do you make the seed the hero?
The seed images were illustrated by the talented Sheldon McLean, enlarged versions of each of individual seed - Canola, Durum, Wheat, Soybean and Corn.
I feel that I made a strong contribution to the success of this campaign and am very proud of all of my work with AdFarm. The client loved these illustrations and they were VERY successful in market.
These illustrations saw continued use for many years as the hero for many additional campaign work.
Client: Proven Seed a division of Nutrien Ag Solutions (formerly Crop Production Services)
Agency: AdFarm
I was referred to McGarry Bowen for this contract due to my track record of successfully producing photoshoots over the course of my career through a contact in LA.
For this project I produced a number of photoshoots in conjunction with the TV production team in both Vancouver and Toronto. The project involved executing my tasks in a very compressed timeline with the added complexity of shooting in two cities separated by almost 4400km.
Working with renowned LA based photographer Jon Johnson, I arranged for him and his team to travel to Canada from LA, dealt with immigration, arranged for insurance for the team (in both BC and Ontario) and saw to their day to day requirements including accommodation and transportation.
Working directly with the team from McGarry Bowen I was accountable for ensuring the team met all of their objectives and could work seamlessly with the production companies on set. I was involved in the technical location scouting, pre-production, prop procurement as well as arranging local makeup artists to work with the team.
I acted as my own self-contained production and was the stakeholder in charge of the budget for my part of the project.
Client: Audible Agency: Dentsu McGarry Bowen (formerly McGarry Bowen)
At Venture I was the primary project manager in the planning and execution of Prairie Toyota Dealers integrated marketing campaigns.
From concept to execution I was involved in producing the creative each month for various platforms from traditional to digital to experiential.
Executing the marketing communications plan for this Doodle Campaign included the development and execution on all marketing tactics in 26 cities across five provinces.
The strategy and concept centred around the message of “The way you imagine it.” I streamlined the processes and procedures that allowed the creative team to adapt the doodles each month to highlight what key safety features and offers that the client wanted featured each month.
The production team (as per my production strategy) developed templates to allow for high quantities of work to be produced each month.
This is just one example of the campaign creative projects I was responsible for managing. The work I produced for Venture spanned paid media, digital marketing, social media, experimental, TV commercials, out of home and radio.
As a multi-disciplinary producer / project manager this client gave me the opportunity to flex my muscles (just like the Tundra).
The stats: 259.9M online display 60M online display (Toyota Camry) 18.75M online display (Toyota Sienna) 9.8M print impressions
Client: Toyota (Prairie Toyota Dealers) Agency: Venture Play (formerly Venture Communications)
As the project manager for the Toyota account I was involved in the planning and execution of Prairie Toyota Dealers integrated marketing campaigns.
From concept to execution I was involved in producing the creative for the Mike Holmes Tundra campaign.
The concept behind the campaign was that Mike Holmes would drive a series of people around in the Prairies and highlight the features of the vehicle in a conversational manner.
The second part of this campaign involved an integrated retail campaign including a direct mail piece, an email, landing page, radio spot and digital campaign.
This campaign was a great puzzle to solve.
I was involved in the entire process from pre-production, production, post production of all campaign deliverables as well as trafficking of the final assets.
The efficiencies I implemented allowed the team to produce the largest amount of deliverables for the client (at that time).
The campaign drove home what makes Mike Holmes so special capturing those authentic moments and his integrity as a craftsman.
The creative developed for the Toyota Mike Holmes campaigns had the largest number of impressions of the entire series to date.
The Stats: 3x30 second TV/Cinema spots 6x15 second pre-roll spots over 2M views to date
Client: Toyota (Prairie Toyota Dealers) Agency: Venture Play (formerly Venture Communications)
Johnny Reid was the first of two Toyota Freeride campaigns that I would work on for Venture.
Pre-production had started before I was brought on so I had the pleasure of taking this campaign into post production and trafficking.
The Johnny Reid campaign would give me the opportunity to streamline the process and procedures that would influence subsequent campaigns. The integrated campaign had it all from a digital ads, TV spots to a direct mail piece.
Did I mention I love stats?
4x30 second TV/Cinema spots 3x15 second pre-roll spots 5.2M TV impressions
22.4M online display impressions 3.7M pre-roll impressions 1.9M pre-roll views
59,900 direct mail
64,885 email deliveries 40.4% open rate 14.5M impressions
Client: Toyota (Prairie Toyota Dealers) Agency: Venture Play (formerly Venture Communications)
How do you represent what is essentially sunscreen for plants?
A sunburnt, weather worn farmer!
I had the pleasure of producing the photoshoot with my longtime collaborator Gerard Yunker whose incredible eye, attention to detail and lighting sensibilities created an amazing image for the campaign.
Client: Loveland a division of Nutrien Ag Solutions (formerly Crop Production Services)
Agency: AdFarm
I was brought in to produce and manage all studio photography for Mark’s advertising campaigns, e-commerce, flyer and point of purchase assets.
In less than two years we built it into one of Canada largest e-commerce photography studios.
Along with the art director I mentored the team, set up every aspect of the studio and developed / streamlined processes and procedures to support high volume shot counts, photographic workflow (let’s just say I am all about efficiencies), sample management, asset management / archiving system, client management and established the brands visual identity for their photography.
Digital content asset management – we managed approximately 6,500 images per year. Which included approval decks, image review / approvals, photo production (retouching) and asset uploading to the Mark’s website.
I personally managed day-to-day production – managing project scope, creating / updating schedules for cross-functional teams, writing / maintaining documentation, leading internal / client meetings, routing key deliverables for review, proofing / approvals with the client and QA of project deliverables.
I also identified, analyzed, prioritized, mitigated and communicated project risks to the client. Evaluated and resolved client requests (responding to problems as they arose and integrated changes into the project). Worked closely with account services to establish, source / maintain all estimates, budgets, PO’s / invoices.
We hired and managed a cross-functional team of 10 individuals. Facilitated / managed all bookings, talent agreements / cross-functional team contracts, rate negotiations, travel, accommodations & international work permits for the talent.
I was also in charge of all casting for the photoshoots and have a very deep and well developed network of agents and photographers I still draw upon to this day.
DH3 was Mark’s “young & hip” men’s line.
The agency strategy was to create a very specific look and feel that would encompass the essence of the brand while remaining true to the core Mark’s customer.
The idea was to showcase the product in a way that was different from all other Mark’s products to engage a younger audience yet maintain the core essence of Mark’s and what made Mark’s so iconic in Canadian markets.
Working with accounts and creative we created a very specific look & feel for the photography which required us to shoot both in Calgary and California.
What did I do to bring this to life?
I scouted locations, arranged location and work permits, oversaw casting / fittings and arranged travel for the entire team. I was the team member responsible for all communications between all stakeholders from concept to final execution and trafficking.
I feel this series really captured the youthful energy of the men the line is inspired by and created for.
Client: Mark’s
Agency: Watermark Advertising Design
Produced creative for all Mark’s traditional advertising including but not limited to: advertising campaigns, magazine, flyer, point of purchase assets and billboards - which were featured across Canada.
Managed and produced all aspects of photography in both Canada and the United States: model castings, talent agreements / contracts, vendor negotiations, location scouting, schedules, coordinated travel and accommodation for team members, international work permits, international carnets, on-site production coordination.
Sample Management – received, processed and managed all samples, streamlined the processes and procedures for samples, pro-actively prepared the samples for wardrobing sessions, acted as the point person for questions, provided briefs outlining information provided by the client, ensured in-house tracking systems properly reflected the status of samples and reconciled any discrepancies, coordinated samples between multiple simultaneous photo shoots across Canada and the United States.
Client: Mark’s
Agency: Watermark Advertising
