andy cleary

Background: What began as a request to design a new brand identity, and solve production problems, evolved into an invitation to join the Board; an overhaul of communication tools, and an integrated brand strategy.

Process
- Brand & Communication Audit
- Stakeholder Interviews
- Visits to parks projects in various stages
- Accompanied landscape architect to neighborhood parks visioning exercise, follow-ups

Deliverables
- Brand Audit > Brand Guidelines
- Design and print production of cohesive new brand identity
- Workshop: Identify Target Audiences and Message Map
- Integrated brand strategy and activation plan
- Data Visualization, tier levels and gifts, operational tools, like releases
- List of new touchpoints to facilitate next-steps in the Parks improvements process

Client: T-Mobile Apps

Wunderman is T-Mobile’s CRM agency of record. While I was there, both apps were in the process of being redesigned, for Android and iOS.

My T-MO: I quickly saw that the biggest news for this app was going to be the ability to get help, across-platforms/devices—so I focused on new Help and Support features. Having been through a few hundred global website launches at IHG, I proposed we prepare for a pre > launch > post-launch comms strategy, and any necessary training for internal teams.

In addition to focus groups, we conducted IDIs with customers, clients to augment their user research studies, and I proposed additional research to inform the Onboarding process for new customers, as this is the critical period when customers need the most assistance.

Deliverables
- Interviews, Segmentation, Competitive Analyses
- Positioning, nomenclature for new features, especially Help/Support, and AI/Bot
- Brand Voice & Tone Guidelines
- Go-to-market launch plans, with a pre > launch > and post-launch comms plan

T-Mobile Tuesdays: This is a really tactical piece of business—think lots of free pizza and movie tickets. Lots of ongoing partner relationships and sequenced emails to govern quantities. November 2018 marked one year of the new program, your “Thankiversary’ —and we needed to promote a trip to Europe. The reveal would come through a character named ‘Thankenstein.’

What I proposed was an integrated concept—character activations. Bringing to life, experientially—the digital character—to seed the reveal and generate new content where the giveaways were happening.

For annual planning, I proposed new ‘Un-Holidays’—with alternative partner alliances. Which could work nationally, or for the smaller B2B @ work side of T-Mobile Tuesdays.

Client: Pull-ups

Role: Lead Strategic Planner. Authored digital strategy behind the redesign of Pull-Ups.com. 

Project Description: Redesign of Pull-ups.com.

Research:
- Audited website, community forums, social channels, competitive brands; combed through KC’s existing qualitative research, intranet, Biggs' secondary sources, while UX mapped UI and content
- Conducted ad hoc research with Moms wherever they were - i.e, Facebook, in-store shopper intercepts, short survey, lunch & learn, phone interviews
- Sensing frustration, and differing ideas Moms and the brand team had about the role of child involvement, I recommended doing user research prior to UX testing, which typically wasn’t done

Actionable insights: Setbacks were an ongoing issue that weren't being addressed and valuable content and tools were buried under an irrelevant, geographic lens—existing site architecture was labeled 'At Home, At Daycare, On the Road.'  With this nomenclature, our website continued the frustrating mindset that potty training should be an overnight milestone. But it’s just not a neat, clean process. There are many stops, starts, and oops along the way.

Strategy: The digital strategy supports the brand strategy: that Pull-Ups is Mom's partner in the potty training journey. Our goal was to shift parents' attitudes around potty training from it being a chore—to help Moms see potty training as a journey—taken together with her child. Hence, new architecture now reflects this shift: 'Getting Started, Keeping It Going, The Big Finish.' 

Results & Kudos:
- insights helped us win a 2012 Webby for Outstanding Website
- my focus on our client helped repair a previously damaged relationship, and helped the agency to receive maximum bonus it was eligible for
- Moved Pull-Ups from -50th to 17th place in organic search ranking for 'potty training'

Client: Southeastern Toyota. Agency: 22 Squared

Background: We'd been winning piece after piece of SET's Direct business, and now the assignment from our client: Transform the Toyota buying and service experience. Develop a comprehensive, integrated Owners Communications program to support the brand experience. What would we love to do? Something integrated, fun.

Process: I mapped the customer experience, designed an integrated CRM program for new Toyota Owners. Starved for content—I knew that ‘IRL” experiential activities would spur content creation and increase owner engagement, so we created Owner events at the dealerships. I presented my concepts using agency's Friendship Model.

Results: This was the biggest push in about 3-4 large streams of CRM wins. Previous work:
- All lead-gen pieces performed better than historical norms; newly-designed DM drew highest response rates on record
- Lifted aided awareness and bookings for Parts & Service
- Created studio workflow efficiencies, by developing standards, curating bank of core assets, enabling semi-automation
- Substantially increased agency billings, resulting in an offer for a fulltime job

Creative Strategy: My strategy—“Handle Anything.”  The idea that your Toyota not only gets you from Point A to point B— but in, out, through and around just about anything in between.  We’re showing that wear & tear can come in any form. How life and living tests your car. How sometimes everyday life can feel a little bit like an obstacle course. This program shows how Toyotas can handle anything—a trip to the grocery store… all kinds of 'precipitation'. Not just the usual hazards of driving, but unexpected and fantastic. Whatever life throws your way, we can handle it. And, while each car brand was beginning to carve out it’s own personality—so too, would Parts and Service.

Role Art Director (design, concepts), Strategist. Key player in winning Southeastern Toyota’s 1:1 business from incumbent agencies, in both print. Note on Art Direction: My sketches were to be commissioned by illustrator, with rights negotiated for print, digital, broadcast, experiential usage. Partner, copywriter on previous work: Andre Arriaga. 

Agency/Client: BBDO for Bayer Crop Sciences launch of Natria

Research Need: Bayer Advanced was launching a line of non-synthetic products for the home, lawn and garden lawn and garden in 2010. (Both 'kill' and grow' categories). To gain insights into how to position Natria, we set out to learn more about gardener’s mindsets and practices.

Research Techniques: In addition to focus groups, we conducted field research (ethnography, shopper intercepts, elicitation)

Research Objective: Learn about gardeners’ attitudes and approaches to natural gardening; other environmentally friendly gardening products on the market

Ask me for a readout. To commission exploratory work like this for your brand, email with a description of your project.

Background: In fall 2014, IHG was in the early stages of building their content infrastructure. As part of the newly founded ‘Content Lab,' (Enterprise Content Strategy team, in Digital & Voice)—our team solved for the ‘where to put,’ ‘how to find’ and ‘who will make’ of global brand content. My focus evolved from helping understand the general traveler journey—to formalizing the global photography function, to focusing on the ‘what to say?’ of brand content strategy.

Process: Starting with Crowne Plaza, I mapped out an accelerated discovery process. Already familiar with brand standards and business goals, I began with a site audit, reviewed content through the lens of our two main personas—Striver and Meeting Planner. Meanwhile, I was gathering data from each business unit (email, mobile, social, VOC, etc). With introductions from my Director, I met with:

- Brand team leads
- Social
- Email
- CRM/Loyalty (IHG Rewards Club)
- Mobile
- Analytics
- Paid & Organic Search
- Voice of Customer (guest reviews, call centers, chat, etc)
- Hotel Content Curators
- Online advertising (programmatic)**
- Research 

CrownePlaza.com had already had a light redesign 6 mos prior, so I was able to compare before and afters on several fronts. Armed with data and content analyses, I was able to present a comprehensive picture of where content was impacting the guest experience. 

< Shown here is an excerpt of a visual CX Map, (customer experience map) I created, aka, a 'traveler journey'—showing what content we already had, and gaps that were impacting reviews and bookings.

Results & Implications: I identified basic, critical content gaps as well as UX enhancements. This oversized visual was widely shared, accompanied by a written content readout. My findings were socialized with brand team, UX, and regional leads for hotel owners. And, since I’d created a replicable approach, I coached my colleagues to continue the process with remaining brands. 

Nutro Brands: Nutro Natural Choice and Ultra Dog Foods

Agency: Think Interactive

Assignment/Role: Contracted for Nutro’s 2011 Digital, Inter-agency Brand Planning. 

Deliverables: Creative Brief, Brand Planning inputs for 2011 Interagency Planning for social and brand website. Sample creative below:

Background: Nutro is an 80-yr old dog food brand, yet in 2010, didn’t have much brand presence beyond in-store literature and a corporate website. An abundance of internal documents showed which brands showed growth potential and revealed which communications were lacking...

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Product 1: Nutro Natural Choice
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Situation: Nutro’s proprietary research showed 86% of pet parents would feed Nutro to their adult dogs if they were fed Nutro as puppies. Research also showed people were unaware of the entire line of life-stage products; and went elsewhere —i.e., to competitive sites for tips, tools, troubleshooting, research—and for dog food. 

Solution: Having a pet cohort website is table stakes for any major dog food brand, as is a fleshed out CRM program. Nutro lacked both. 

Insights: Realizing that (1) the competition got a head start with extensive sampling and (2) it's difficult to change people's habits, we knew we needed to create a connection with pet owners early on.

Strategy: Get Nutro involved from the start. Creating a Puppy Center would encourage loyalty by providing valuable content early-on. Address pet owners as 'pet parents' beginning a journey with their pets. The way the site would work – the more info Pet Parents shared, the more useful the site would be. (and, create opportunities for data capture to inform their CRM program). The long term goal of this digital property would drive brand engagement, open lines of communication with Pet Parents; and do it via fun tools modeled after the best of pet and parenting sites. 

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Product 2: Nutro Simple Seven
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Situation: Ultra Simple Seven is a premium holistic dog food. Sales data showed enormous growth potential in the holistic dog food category; however, research revealed confusion around ‘holistic.’

Insights: Research showed that while people generally make positive associations with ‘holistic,’ no one really understood what is was, how it related —or why it was important to their pet’s health. For most of us, it’s an aspirational state of mind—let alone a lifestyle.

Strategy: Demonstrate holistic with a show, don’t tell strategy. Make a ‘holistic’ lifestyle visible, tangible, accessible and relatable. Share an influencer’s real-life experiences as he/she learns about what it means to live holistically. 

Results: Nutro loved the idea. With this property, Nutro would now have content to help pet parents understand why a holistic dog food matters; and Pet Parents have tangible ideas for how to incorporate holistic living into their everyday lives.

*p.s. If we meet, ask about my original/overarching strategy, the one related to product recalls.

Client DV8 Sports

Assignment & Objectives We’ve all seen Shark Tank...well, this is that world of entrepreneurs who need funding. I was hired to help market a set of collapsible golf clubs, produce marketing materials and help generate the buzz that would spur the next round of investor funding. 

At the outset, the job entailed integrating the work of Drum Worldwide advertising, BrandwarePR, and overseeing a social media community manager. But...

The clubs still needed tweaks, the bag wasn't finished; there was no packaging, hence no product photography, a no website/ e-commerce. Our ambitious CEO wanted to do just about everything himself, and that DIY-mindset was slowing everything down. So I needed to help him let go on a number of fronts—from basics like hiring the right kind of photographer, to hiring an experiential agency for a national launch.  

Process Cultivate relationships with CEO, teams. Understand product benefits, and limitations. Work backward from planned launch date.

Results
- Persuaded CEO** that accessibility* was stronger benefit/business opportunity than portability (fits in backpack)
- Insights into product, and process of learning golf resulted in changes to bag design and selling partial sets of clubs with tiered pricing

- Prepped team for successful Kickstarter campaign, becoming the highest grossing golf kickstarter campaign in their history. Raised $85K+ $TBD in earned media
- Shifted team’s focus from Boomer/GenX men on Harleys to include Millennials, other growing markets—away from rich men on Harley’s. Need proof? Richard Stamper, the CEO took a new job, overseeing another startup for clubs marketed to kids and youth in China 

Background  YMCA  of the USA needed marketing collateral for year-round fundraising as well as a press event on Capitol Hill.

Deliverables Press kit, bellyband, brochure, press release

Results Everything looked terrific while produced on a shoestring budget. The YMCA got the continued funding they needed, and we won a Bronze PRSA Award.

Client Comments  ‘Messages that were totally on target across a range of audiences... materials that were powerful, beautifully designed, actionable and message-driven’ ...coupled with client service that made us feel like they we were the only client [ they ] had!’

Role Designer // Writer (heads, tagline)

Background 

Neighbor in Need is a nonprofit partner of the East Atlanta Community Association that raises funds to help longtime residents  (60+) with limited incomes to make emergency repairs to their homes. In the last six years, we’ve made 110 repairs for over 40 residents. Past fundraising has been through poker tourneys, street festivals, and yard sales. These small events were a lot of work; and didn’t bring in much money… it was time for a bigger moneymaker.

Process & Preparations

It was a first for everyone, including our gracious hosts at the Zuber-Jarrell House. By the time I was asked to step in as Marketing Chair, we had less than seven weeks until our event! First, I created a Facebook Save the Date, then drafted job descriptions, an event creative brief to help mobilize volunteers, then a workshopping session to identify target audiences and messaging. I relied heavily on Facebook to solicit donations, market the event, place ads, thank sponsors; track progress and share collateral with Google Docs. 

Deliverables:
Operational tools, such as—
- Volunteer Chair/Job Descriptions, messaging bullets, -Sponsor/In-Kind Tracking log, Partner logo submission guides
- Designed event identity, signage, collateral—sponsorship packet, tickets, Silent Auction template
- Content to market the event venue & show past renovations projects (Before/Afters)

Results  Past events had never raised more than $3-5,000. In one night, for the first time, we raised over $16,000 in cash with over $12,000 in in-kind donations to offset the cost of the event. I secured placements in local radio, print, and a 5 minute segment on local TV news. Photos and comments are trickling in... by all accounts, we hit it out of the park!

Roles  Marketing Chair, 2016 (also, designer). Responsible for landing a professional event photographer and intro’s to the caterer (both, pro-bono). Project Manager repairs, 2017.

Background

The owners of the Graveyard Tavern needed help developing a new identity, launch and promote a new restaurant in East Atlanta. Our goal was to incorporate the building’s rich history as a provisions store, soda bottling plant and motorcycle graveyard. 

Deliverables 

Logo, tagline(s), stationery, menus, restuarant materials, interior and exterior signage, advertising, website. Coordinate print production and merchandising of premium materials such as tshirts, mugs, tattoos, matchbooks, dinnerware, etc.

Results 

An identity that fit the building, the owners and the neighborhood. East Atlanta Village embraced the new restaurant, and contiunies to thrive.

Role

Designer // Strategist // Producer

Client: InComm's Vanilla Visa

Role Designer and Strategist. Responsible for design, positioning and messaging. Assisted Visa Product Owner; key project that sparked my interest in strategy and brand management. 

Background:  Accepted in the UK as a means of ‘topping up’ your phone, Virgin Mobile’s Vanilla Vouchers was purchased by InComm in 2005. Vanilla Visa in the US needed a brand identity of it’s own. 

Objectives: Launch a new product; define positioning & messaging, design brand identity, secure packaging, supporting marketing materials and in-store collateral.

Creative Strategy: We needed to introduce US consumers to the concept of Europe's ‘Vanilla,’ and co-brand the product with Visa’s approval. But we were stuck with the name ‘vanilla’, and all it’s pejorative connotations. No one knew it here in the US—we had to redefine what 'vanilla' could mean.

Vanilla Visa is a gift card that enables the gift-giver the satisfaction of knowing the recipient has the freedom to get whatever he or she wants. Our brand platform stands for ubiquity and choice. Accepted everywhere Visa is, Vanilla Visa is “One card, a million options.’ 

Status Vanilla Visa can still be purchased at major retailers like CVS, Target, Publix and retailers worldwide. We started with only 3 SKUS and now, there are hundreds. Core brand assets and messaging are still being utilized in print, POP and online as of 2015 - see vanillavisa.com. 

Update—I’ve followed the brand into 2018… Need to ‘top-up’ (add more money?’) You ‘Get another scoop.’ This could work, if the ice-cream ideas were being used.