About Me

  • Personal Profile

    Marketing strategist with broad skill set developed across corporate and agency environments. Skills include digital project management, marketing strategy, content strategy, email marketing, SEO and working knowledge of HTML/CSS as well as 10 years experience in creative team management, process development and implementation, supplier negotiation, proofreading, art direction, graphic design and prepress file preparation. Passionate about delivering projects that perform.

    Key Attributes

    • Technically proficient – Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and various content management systems. 5+ years of experience prepping projects for press and working with print suppliers. Working knowledge of HTML and CSS, competent in coding for EDM. Experience optimising on-page content for SEO and providing analysis and recommendations from Google Analytics data.
    • Professional communicator – Trained journalist and advertising professional. Excellent grammatical skills and keen attention to detail.
    • Process and workflow-oriented
    • Proactive
    • Bilingual Spanish & English speaker – Fluent spoken and written

    Employment History

    Marketing & Digital Communications Consultant
    January 2010 – November 2010

    • Strategic and user-experience consulting and digital project management for SMEs and agencies.
    • Content strategy, analytics and optimisation consultation.
    • User testing, editing and proofreading, including: websites, client communications, digital media content and corporate speaking points.
    • Consulting on creative approaches in a variety of media incl. print, EDM, mobile, social and web.
    • Graphic design and branding.
    • Contract clients have included Miles Media, Jasons Travel Media, Brunet-García Advertising, Panelfold, Mybuckett and Pay Today.

    I am available to discuss consultancy and freelance projects. Reach me via email.

    Marketing Manager
    Jasons Travel Media Ltd.
    November 2011 – March 2012

    Employees: 65, up to 9 direct reports

    • Responsible for the design and launch of the first nationwide booking-enabled iOS app by a New Zealand company, which ranked among the top NZ travel apps on iTunes and received over 2,000 downloads during the first 60 days in market.
    • Managed a team of up to 9 direct reports whose responsibilities included brand, content, social media, B2B and B2C marketing, SEM and SEO, EDM, print and digital new product development and online production.
    • Managed external agency relationships to refresh a classic Kiwi brand to position it in the consideration set of digitally-minded travellers.
    • Managed the phased rollout of the refreshed brand identity and positioning for Jasons across the various sectors of the business, including NZ, Australia and the South Pacific—online, print and distribution channels.
    • Upgraded EDM technology and project-managed the integration of internal systems with the new EDM contact database API.
    • Accomplished rapid growth through fan-acquisition programs, and maintained continued organic growth of Jasons’ social media presence.
    • Launched the Jasons E-cademy, a webinar series and educational microsite, to better support Jasons’ core advertisers through training and thought-leadership.
    • Successfully managed client communications during the largest technology-platform transition in Jasons’ 44-year history.
    • Wrote marketing plans, content plans and creative briefs, documented wireframes and functional specifications for various digital projects.

    Creative Services Director
    Brunet-García Advertising & PR
    August 2006 – January 2010

    Brunet-García is an independent full-service agency in Florida that focuses on brand strategy and through-the-line advertising with an emphasis on governmental, health care, educational, arts and cultural clients.

    Clients included: Florida Department of Health Bureau of Immunization, Vistakon® (Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.), Jacksonville Public Library, Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Mayo Clinic, WorkSource (Northeast Florida’s workforce development agency), Jacksonville Public Education Fund, World Affairs Council, Community Hospice of Northeast Florida
    Employees: 24, 5 direct reports
    Primary media: print, direct, email, web, out-of-home

    Responsible for understanding brand strategy, communicating relevant information to the creative team, and ensuring creative product was not only up to agency standards, but met clients’ objectives. Negotiated and contracted with external writers, designers and programmers, coordinated photo shoots, sourced vendors, attended press checks, supervised progress along timelines, scoped and managed web projects, and was responsible for keeping jobs on budget. Edited and proofread jobs leaving the agency. Functioned as the primary point of contact between the studio and account service team. Served as art director and interactive project manager on a segment of jobs as well.

    During my years at Brunet-García I led the development of the agency’s interactive department, designing and systematizing our user-centric approach to technology projects, sourcing and forming relationships with development partners, and supervising the architectural, creative and technical specification and development of our online projects, from banner ads and email campaigns to complex web applications. In the year after launch, our client WorkSource served 145,000 customers, 48,000 more clients than in 2008, relating that the new online content and applications took “an enormous amount of pressure off staff in the career centers.”

    Art Director
    Brunet-García Advertising & PR
    July 2004 – August 2006

    Clients included: Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, Housing Partnership of Northeast Florida, Cultural Council, Haskell (a design-build construction firm)
    Employees: 5-10, 2 direct reports

    Conceptualized, presented and produced marketing and advertising materials for the Brunet-García’s local, regional and national clients. As an art director, my work helped the agency win Florida SHOTS and Vistakon, geared to state and national audiences. Florida SHOTS continues to be the agency’s largest earner to this day, with the account having nearly tripled in billings since the initial contract, and awareness among its primary target group having gone from almost zero to 94% by 2009.

    Education

    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    B.A. – Journalism and Mass Communication – Visual Communication, GPA: 3.96

    Letters of Reference

    Jorge Brunet (.pdf) Tim Kinney (.pdf)

     

     I was born and raised in Coral Gables/Miami, Florida. I spent a lot of my childhood on boats and in the water, and now I freak out if I spend too much time away from it.

    I came to New Zealand mostly by sea, after a 9-month sail from Trinidad to Rarotonga, with stops in Grenada, Bonaire, Curaçao, Panama, Galapagos, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus and the Society Islands along the way. It’s all documented in my personal blog, Sail Into the Sun. There is no better way to see the world if you ask me.

    I love the outdoors, camping, mountains, snowboarding, horses, whatever. I race sailboats and, while sometimes painful, it’s my favorite pastime, especially when I’m with a regular crew. Teammates become like brothers, and over time, the boat work becomes so synched it’s like dancing, only with more partners all at once.

    TRAVEL. Travel is big. Europe, Southeast Asia, India, Africa, Rio, Cali, Costa, you name it I want to go there. I love eco-adventure travel, historic cities, crazy-fast bustling metropoli, and learning from the people in those places. It’s awesome to know that there are all those fascinating places out there, and if I want to be a part of them, all I need to do is get there.

    I’m Cuban-American and my Spanish is beginning to fail me as of late…living in gringo land isn’t serving me well in that respect. I miss my Vieja Habana…and my ropa vieja.

    Food is my favorite luxury, served up pretty, plated, and paired with a proper bottle of wine—and serve me all the courses. I can also go for a sloppy platter of Mexican on any given day, slathered in queso and washed down with some Coke or one of those giant mugs of Negro Modelo you get in the States.

    I love my cat, think animals get me, and can never stop paying attention to the design around me. I am also a passionate problem-solver, and I love breaking down projects, planning solutions and architecting steps to implement them.

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