Titles don’t tell the whole story. With a career that has been primarily spent in small agencies and startups, titles aren’t always indicative of the scope of work performed within those roles. Wearing many hats has been the status quo.
I’ve had the fortunate experience to have left a creative mark on some of the world’s top brands. Many of my clients were earned through my ability to pick up the phone, find a decision maker, present a solution and thus close a contract for their business.
Here’s a selection of work:
Project – xFit Builder
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Organization – Discount Coupons Corp
Date – 2013 to Present
Scope – With 7,000 CrossFit affiliated gyms and growing, we launched xFit Builder to help location owners grow and maintain a stable, loyal member base.
The Process –
Research:
- Consulted with numerous CrossFit gym owners to understand unmet needs
- Assessed growth potential and found opportunity to be growing
- Learned about the idiosyncrasies of the industry
- Researched and tested viable services, price points, and applicability
Design:
- Developed multiple concepts, executed a comprehensive website
- Wrote website copy
- Developed SEO protocols for URL optimization
- Launched site, 10/2013
- Recruited, hired and trained sales staff
- Developed and implemented wide-reaching social strategy
Project – Discount Coupons Corp.
Title: Chief Operating Officer
Organization – Discount Coupons Corp
Date – 2010 to Present
Scope – Inspired by the growth and popularity of companies like Groupon and LivingSocial, DiscountCoupons.com solved some of the problems of the pure daily deal format.
The Process –
Beginning with a legacy site that dated back to 1997, the first order of business was creating a new brand
- Developed brand concept, business model, and competitive advantage
- Crowdsourced logo design
- Interviewed and hired and led graphic design firm to design graphics, design and layout and user interfaces
- Wrote website copy
- Developed SEO protocols for URL optimization
- Launched site, 12/2010
- Recruited, hired and trained sales staff
- Launched SEM campaigns
- Secured branded social pages, including reclamation of squatted pages held by trademark violators
- Acquired marketing rights to 250k+ subscribers through partnerships and management agreements with deal sites exiting the industry
- Grew social followers to 13k+
- Created inventory with over 2000 offers
Project – Crabtree & Evelyn – Display Retargeting and Black Friday
Title: Sales Director
Organization – Prime Interactive
Date – 2009 -2010
Scope – Crabtree & Evelyn is a premium retailer of body care products with a strong presence, online and off. Crabtree & Evelyn expressed three goals; increase repeat business, encourage sales from abandoned carts, improve brand visibility during company reorganization.
Additionally, I had the opportunity to design and direct the execution of a Black Friday program, built around the strategic planting of limited time Black Friday deals with influential bloggers.
The Process –
- Leveraged retargeted display ads to encourage repeat visits
- Created concept for A/B creatives based on top online products
- Creative designed on our directive by Crabtree & Evelyn in-house designers
- Exceeded bottom line sales goals by over 20%, helping
Project – Skechers – Low Volume Wide Network Display Campaign
Title: Sales Director
Organization – Etology
Date – 2006 -2007
Scope – In 2006 a timely phone call allowed me to connect with the VP of eCommerce, to whom I had presented an idea to use low-cost, high-volume display and text ads to drive visitors back to Skechers.com. On that first call together we came to an agreement, to begin with $20k per month in inventory. It is important to point out that this was a maverick campaign for Skechers as it veered sharply from their general practices and procedures as they related to display advertising.
My concept for this campaign was the utilization of both tiny text ads consisting of a 25 character title line and a 40 character body line, along with a selection of relatively small display ads generally 250×300 in size to run across a wide network. The campaign had approximately a one year duration and achieved strong ROI throughout the time. Due in part to seasonal variances (back to school/holidays) we achieved as high as 16:1 ROI.
This was a new concept, both for Etology and for Skechers. Skechers while not new to display advertising, had not veered from popular, high volume sites on which to display their ads. They did see the benefit and opportunity of advertising in places that generally have a high concentration of 18 to 30-year-old users. Many of the sites on which the ads ran had a higher ratio of male visitors, which was also contrary to Skechers general modus operandi.
An additional challenge of promoting Skechers.com was walking the fine line of balancing direct-to-consumer sales and supporting their extensive network of retailers around the globe. Armed with only the benefit of free shipping, creating compelling was not a simple task. With just a total of 65 characters to work with for text ads, we created dozens of ad variants containing free shipping. Display ads provided more leeway but still focused on the value of free shipping.
The Process –
- Used low cost, remnant ad inventory to drive traffic to Skechers.com
- Worked with Skechers in-house design team to come up with small punchy display ads to maximize CTR
- Used CTR and conversion data to identify high performing publishers to secure permanent inventory
- Achieved strong ROI of approximately 8:1 throughout campaign with peaks of 16:1
- The unique strategy allowed for strategic inventory selection, without typical direct publisher premiums
Project – Ceviche
Title: Photographer
Organization – Independent
Date – 2012
Scope – In 2012 Ceviche began working on their social business strategy, which included regular use of Facebook to communicate with fans of their restaurants. I connected with Robin at Ceviche to express the importance of professional photography vs. cell phone photos when sharing images with the public.
Ceviche was about to launch a variety of new menu selections, so we coordinated with the kitchen staff and head chef to do a photo shoot over the course of a morning. Additionally, I had access to the restaurant prior to opening to capture a number of architectural photos that showcase the Gaudi ironwork found throughout the St. Pete location.
The Process –
- Developed creative vision and commercial use for photography
- Coordinated with chef and kitchen staff to schedule menu items so they could be shot hot and fresh
- Utilized a combination of natural light and strobe lighting for vibrant, natural appearing food
- Images shot in high resolution, appropriate for print or web
- Photos have been extensively utilized for web work
Project – Tire Kingdom International – Website Redesign Consultation, SEM and Online Appointment Scheduling
Title: Sales Director
Organization – Prime Interactive
Date – 2007-2009
Scope – Tire Kingdom International is comprised of several prominent brands including, Tire Kingdom, Merchant’s Tire, NTB and Big O tires. Headquartered in Juno Beach, FL. their in-house marketing team was primarily focused on traditional media channels to drive customers into their many locations across the US. Their website and online marketing activities were behind the times. Each brand had its own website, built from a common template. The sites were not engaging, or interactive and served primarily as a brochure.
We began with the low-hanging fruit, SEM. We created new campaigns and ad groups targeting customers within a radius consistent with the population density of each city. Each campaign focused on driving customers into locations. Copy included messaging that reflected specials, and brand-centric benefits. Throughout the course of these campaigns, they were optimized, honed and further targeted to maximize results.
Within a short period of time we identified a direct correlation between web traffic and appointments in each location. This was the first time that Tire Kingdom realized the benefit of online advertising. These early successes enabled the growth of our relationship to then consult on the improvement of the website user interface and user experience.
The Process –
- Redesigned SEM campaigns for direct response, vs. the previous branding
- Local SEO and location registration within Google
- Performed a UI/UE audit, recommended changes to reduce bounce rate
- Added display with congruent messaging, focused on main newspaper websites within major markets
- Produced reports illustrating direct correlation of digital ads to in-store appointments
Steven Winkler 