Media Portfolio Intro:
A few of the brands I worked on…
The purpose of this media section is to share some of the diversity, expertise, and a few highlights of my career as a media executive. Having worked for multiple parent companies and several media brands one thing was constant, media was in a perpetual state of disruption. This meant being nimble and adapting was crucial! I challenged myself to stay curious, find innovative solutions, operate with transparency, and be fearless because charting our own path and experimentation was necessary.
I bring over 15 years experience in media holding executive roles leading diverse teams in partnerships, marketing, creative/design, content, social media, event operations, and finance.
Monetization of Media Brands
During my tenure in media I have been directly responsible for revenue and profitability with oversight of multiple revenue channels. Including channels like: advertising (digital, social, print), consumer (tickets, commerce, subscriptions), content (social and video), video production, creative services, licensing, and sponsorship.
Armed with expertise in diversified revenue channels, I am particularly proud of the work we did to authentically connect brands with some of the most elusive audiences, creating value for our partners and entertainment for our fans. My role in each program below was oversight, budgeting, concept development, client pitch, and delivery.
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Toyota X Dew Tour
Multi-year marketing program that included: custom award-winning content series, event sponsorship, broadcast, social media integration, and digital advertising.
Multi-brand integration: Dew Tour, GrindTV, Transworld Snowboarding, Powder, Snowboarder, Newschoolers, and NBC.
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Ford Explorer x Grind Media
This program included: video production, branded content series, digital campaign, articles/stories, and social media.
Multi-brand integration across 17 different owned and operated vertical media brands.
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Boost Mobile x Dew Tour
Multi-year marketing program that included: creation of the Switch Jam contest skateboarding contest and live broadcast, athlete sponsorship, event integration, custom video production, social media, and digital campaign.
Multi-brand integration: Dew Tour, Transworld Skateboarding, GrindTV, and NBC.
Strategic Partnerships
Identifying strategic partnerships that create long-term value for both parties is an area I’ve had success and genuinely enjoy. The partnerships below are a few highlights where I played a major role in sourcing, negotiating, closing, and implementing complex deals.
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Olympic Sanctioning: World Skate
One of three Olympic sanctioning partnerships I led - this multi-year partnership granted exclusive rights for Dew Tour to become the first and last global qualifying skateboard event on US soil before the 2020 Tokyo games and skateboarding’s Olympic debut. Creating tremendous value for the property, our partners, and supporting the athletes looking to make their mark on skateboarding history.
For World Skate the value was brought to life by partnering with a world-class skateboarding event, exclusive NBC broadcast rights, and the massive offset of expense by leveraging an existing competition series.
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PepsiCo x Dew Tour
In 2015, PepsiCo was quietly exploring new partners to operate their Dew Tour property. Specifically a partner who could develop and execute an entirely new long-term vision for the property.
Over the course of 6-months I led the development process and subsequent PepsiCo pitch creating a bold new direction for the property - rooted in Competition, Culture, and Creators. Our strategy work included: comprehensive brand re-launch, event programming, content, media distribution, and a 12-month operating plan.
Our work and partnership with PepsiCo led to a multi-year $40M agreement and incredible ROI for both PepsiCo and TEN.
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Vimeo
Vimeo was seeking partners to launch their transactional VOD network. As the Head of Marketing for TEN I was responsible for all brand extensions. TEN’s existing portfolio of feature films and a desirable young demographic made us attractive to Vimeo and aligned with our desire for brand extensions and monetizing our content library.
The partnership granted Vimeo access to our catalog of films and co-marketing benefit. For TEN we negotiated a financial guarantee, minimum advertising spend, and became a launch partner alongside The Atlantic and CBS.
Audience Growth & Development
Successful leadership of content and broadcast teams delivering exponential growth in fanbase, engagement, and viewership.
Strategic Planning
As a student of the media business I understood the need to stay curious, adapt, and identify business extensions that compliment our core. Over the course of several years I’ve had the opportunity to lead and participate in strategic planning processes for individual media and event brands or entire company portfolio’s.
I’ve developed expertise in areas like monetization, consolidation and expansion, brand development and repositioning, content distribution, video, and developing new ventures to fuel growth. Below is a sample of some of the work I’ve done in the planning and exploration of new ventures.
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There had been a trend with media companies acquiring or starting agency businesses to add capability and compliment their existing revenue streams.
Earlier in my career (2012) I had co-founded an internal creative agency while with Transworld Media. It was a bootstrapped venture but we saw potential and momentum. Fast forward a few years later with TEN, while in the midst of our 5-year planning I embarked on developing a much more robust strategy for a JV or acquisition of a digital creative agency.
I led a small cohort where we identified and interviewed multiple agency targets which confirmed our thesis then assembled a pitch deck that was accompanied by a traditional business plan.
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We knew there were some success stories of media companies launching e-commerce extensions (eg. Hypebeast). In late 2016 we had a strong desire to explore ways to better monetize our existing audience outside of simply setting up paywall’s like the news media. Thus I decided to explore an e-comm venture for our group.
In the past we had some success with affiliate linking and I knew our fans trusted our product testing and recommendations. We also believed there was a white space to create a highly curated adventure sports e-commerce brand powered by the 25M followers of our owned and operated vertical media brands.
With our company expertise being grounded in content, gear, and brand relations I knew there would be a few blind spots for us. Seeking ways to fill those gaps, I forged a partnership with a best in class digital commerce agency that complimented our skillset perfectly. Together we built the framework, launch strategy, and budget for a standalone e-comm website.