EXPERIENCE
Critical Mass, Chicago IL
Group Creative Director, Dec 2015 - Present
Zócalo Group was acquired by Critical Mass to help bring the power of social media to their experience design and digital offerings. I lead the social and marketing creative team across several accounts including Asics, Johnson & Johnson, DePaul University.
ROOH Chicago, Chicago, IL
Owner, Executive Creative Director, May 2019 - Present
Launched a Progressive Indian Restaurant as a co-owner in West Loop’s coveted restaurant row. Responsible for marketing, PR, interior design, menu design, social media, email marketing, and the website. Also responsible for setting up all of the operational systems and processes for success. Received a Michelin Guide designation in 4 months. One of 4 restaurants nominated for the Restaurant of the Year at the Eater Awards and on the Eater 38 Best list. Received a 3 star review by Phil Vettel of the Chicago Tribune and named in the Top 50 Restaurants in Chicago.
Zócalo Group, A division of Critical Mass, Chicago IL
SVP, Group Creative Director, May 2012 - December 2015
Transformed Zócalo Group from a PR/Word of mouth company into a best in class social and digital agency by building their creative practice from the ground up. Grew the team from 4 when I started to 20+ creatives. Worked on over 20+ brands across various industries including Johnson & Johnson, Nissan, Coffee-mate, Hormel Chili, ExxonMobil, Marriott, Sunglass Hut, Robert Mondavi and many more. I played a heavy role in new business development and served on the executive team leading the office profitability, operations, and culture..
Euro RSCG (HAVAS), Chicago IL
Interactive Creative Director, March 2009 - April 2012
Creative lead for the Sprint digital and mobile business. This consisted of emails, microsites, and landing pages for everything from phone launches, sweepstakes, and personalized account communications to NFL, Nascar, and the NBA sponsorships. I was brought in to build a digital practice for Sprint when Euro won the business in 2009 and I trained and managed 30 DM creatives to work on digital. I led a re-branding effort with the Sprint branding team and 6 other agencies. I created the online guidelines and helped redesign all of their existing communications to ensure brand consistency across various channels and provided a strategic creative vision for all of their digital communications. In 2010, I helped pitch and win the mobile business and helped create a full communication strategy for their SMS and mobile content.
Critical Mass, Chicago IL
Associate Creative Director, May 2008 - February 2009
Led the Hyatt creative team and was responsible for various hotel site redesigns, banner campaigns and emails. I led the redeisgn of the Park Hyatt website during their re-branding effort in collaboration with BBDO New York. I helped launch Andaz.com when they were launching the new brand and properties in Hollywood and London. I redesigned the Hyatt resorts site. I also created the first rich media homepage takeover banner campaign for Hyatt using 3D assets. The campaign generated $1.3million in revenue for Hyatt in 3 weeks which was one of the most successful campaigns that they had ever run.
CGAM Conference, Hollywood CA
Producer/ Creative Director, March 2008
A first-ever global conference for marketing & advertising professionals focusing on the value of CGI assets. I co-produced the conference with my husband when I was working on Lincoln at Wunderman in Detroit. CGI was changing the automotive industry and opening up creative possibilities that we never had before. I wanted to share this passion and learnings with the ad industry as a whole. The conference was attended by 350 people from major global corporations including GM, Ford, Chrysler, Nike, Boeing, Oakley, Sony Pictures, Rhythm & Hues and many advertising & visual effects professionals.
Wunderman, Dearborn MI
Associate Creative Director, May 2007- May 2008
Senior Art Director, April 2005 - May 2007
Creative lead for all Lincoln brand efforts including the redesign of Lincoln.com, a complete rebranding effort and redesign of all of their models, various vehicle launch sites, photo shoots that generated hundreds of assets for Lincoln.com, and a whole new configurator experience for all Ford brands.
Lincoln.com: Led the redesign and UX strategy for Lincoln and that was carried forward for Mercury and Ford.com. Lincoln.com surged up from #34 to #2 in the J.D. Power study that year. The overall site interaction increased from 4-7 minutes and lead generation increased by 12%. Managed multiple photoshoots to create 360º spins and photography for the website shopping experience.
Lincoln Reach Higher: The site was created to launch the new Lincoln brand campaign and 4 completely redesigned vehicles. The site used cutting edge CGI technology to create hundreds of assets and virtual demos to allow users to touch and feel the cars like never before. The site won an FWA award.
Ford, Lincoln, Mercury Build & Price Tool: Led the effort to re-imagine the design and usability of the build & price experience for all of the Ford brands into a much richer and interactive experience that allowed customers to visually see all of their options during the process. Led the effort to create thousands of assets for every make and model in the portfolio to bring this experience to life.
LogicaCMG, Southfield, MI
Senior Designer, Feb 2003 - April 2005
Designed the 21st Century point of sales portal for Chrysler Financial, Mercedes-Benz and DC Truck Finance. The redesign was UX and design for hundreds of pages and applications used by dealerships. I led several workshops with 12+ clients to help document the features and functionality that they desired and then worked closely with the UX team to implement those features.
I also helped design the first electronic signature contract system for Chrylser dealerships.
Organic, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Designer, May 2000 - Feb 2003
In 2002 I helped redesign Jeep.com and it went on to be the #1 award winning website in the J.D. Power study.
For the Wrangler Rubicon launch in 2002, I sold a concept to create a 4x4game and website to promote it. 14% of Wrangler Rubicon sales came directly from the game registrants within the first month of the website release.
I worked on promotions for several events including Camp Jeep, Jeep Jamborees, and auto shows. I also worked on several projects for Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge including Build & price and several incentives and launch promotions.