Twenty years building awareness, culture and commercial impact for challenger brands across financial services, consumer tech, lifestyle and FMCG. Agency and client side. Startup and global. I find the true thing and say it in a way nobody expected.
BaByliss were launching the i-trim and i-clip for men into a market they had never spoken to. No male audience, no male voice, no budget for traditional advertising.
Before influencers were a job title and before branded entertainment was a category, we created Ugly Billy a fake social media personality whose 32-part comic video series followed an everyman's transformation from zero to hero using BaByliss products. Built on YouTube partnerships, OOH, digital PR and community seeding, Billy's journey became a genuine online phenomenon. The character mirrored real male insecurities about style and dating in a way no traditional ad could. It was creator strategy before the playbook existed.
Compete against Samsung, LG and Sony with a fraction of their budget and near-zero US brand recognition. The category was full of tech jargon nobody trusted. Negative sentiment toward the big players created an opening but only if we were brave enough to take it.
Launched the "Let's Get Real" platform positioning Hisense as the straight-talking challenger in a category full of BS. Conceived and pitched the "Tech BS" creator activation with Chris Klemens a creator the brand initially rejected delivering 1M organic views on a sub-15K budget. Backed by the wider Trust campaign with Joel McHale, FIFA World Cup partnerships, Amazon Fire, USL and Costco. Introduced ROMI discipline to ensure every spend was justified against the big three. Grew brand equity index from 61 to 103 in two years.
OANDA was late to the US crypto market. Low consumer awareness, little credibility versus established crypto platforms, and a crowded category where trust is everything. The brief was to launch their crypto trading platform in partnership with Paxos and make OANDA feel like an authority not a latecomer.
Built the entire US brand, OOH, partnerships and PR strategy from scratch. Created "The State of Crypto" original commissioned consumer data that gave journalists a story worth writing. Built embargoed media relationships with Yahoo Finance, CoinTelegraph, The Block and Bitcoin Insider. Secured a partnership with the New York Red Bulls to anchor the brand in culture. Delivered live "watch" networking events with analysts and key publishers to build credibility in room.
Build brand awareness and consideration for a trading platform in the most compliance-heavy, conservative and competitive category in financial services dominated by legacy players with budgets ten times larger. Make options trading feel like something real people could do.
Led brand strategy across TV, digital, PR, partnerships and sponsorships including Chicago Cubs, CME, CBOE and Nasdaq. Delivered $19.7M equivalent commercial value from Wrigley Field mound signage alone. Won a Financial Communications Society award for the WSJ ticker partnership, replicated across Bloomberg and Yahoo Finance. Built a 25-course education programme with 60,000+ customers activated. Users who completed courses traded 3x more and funded their accounts twice as fast as non-enrolled customers. Conceived #BallsToWallStreet for Testicular Cancer Awareness Month, hanging giant cherry-shaped testicles from the Charging Bull in New York's Financial District. Covered by Entrepreneur, backed by a $10,000 donation to the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation. Held awareness flat through $1.5M in forced budget cuts while competitors kept spending, consideration declined just 3 points.
Amnesty International needed to mark their 50th anniversary with something that cut through apathy about human rights particularly among younger audiences. No precedent for an owned broadcast channel. No playbook for making serious content shareable.
Created Amnesty TV a fortnightly online magazine show blending satire and human rights storytelling, produced by the teams behind The Inbetweeners and Newswipe. Featured Aung San Suu Kyi and Jimmy Wales. Launched on YouTube, seeded through political and comedy bloggers, and secured media partnerships with The Guardian, MTV and The NME. The satirical hook "Everything is Ruined Except It's Not" broke through where earnest human rights content couldn't.
V Energy dominated Australia and New Zealand but had zero UK presence, no fan base and no cultural credibility in a market already crowded with Red Bull, Monster and Relentless. The brief was to make noise fast with young, socially active consumers.
Secured OOH placements across high-traffic UK city hubs for instant visibility. Activated immersive festival experiences at GuilFest and Air Festival to drive sampling and buzz. Partnered with Maxim, FHM and The NME for competition hosting. Seeded product to handpicked influencers across music and entertainment. Built the UK Facebook community from zero to 5K in three months through bespoke competitions and always-on content. Integrated physical and digital touchpoints into a single coherent launch moment.
I started in music PR. My line was "I make idiots famous." I helped break the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history. Then I built agencies, launched brands, founded a consultancy during a pandemic, and eventually found myself in financial services which is where I learned that the hardest brief in marketing is making complex, intimidating products feel human.
I've led brand strategy across financial services, consumer tech, lifestyle and FMCG agency and client side, startup and global. I'm currently Brand Director at tastytrade, part of IG Group North America.
I care about brands that stand for something real. The ones that are a bit weird. The ones that would rather be honest than polished.
Also the voice behind The Friday Brief a weekly(ish) take on marketing worth reading.
Based in Chicago, IL
Open to travel
Available for senior brand roles
Also: The Friday Brief on Substack