University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Highdive Advertising

Account Director

MERGE

Oversaw campaign development and production for Advocate Health Care, the largest health system in Illinois.

- Managed multiple service line-specific efforts at both DMA-level and across 12 local market hospital and medical group teams, gaining market-leading brand awareness and helping drive growth in unique patients (+4%) and medical group visits (+9%)

- Developed first brand work for launch of new channel of distribution, Advocate Clinic at Walgreens, supporting the grand opening of 56 clinics operating within Walgreens locations

MERGE | Chicago

VP, Management Supervisor

Led campaign development and daily social media efforts for Reynolds and Hefty brands across six individual business units.

- Oversaw flighting strategy and creative development for award-winning “Endless Table” social media campaign; Shorty Award, One Show, AICP, Webby

- Launched first-ever Instagram cookbook and developed framework for content generation and promotion among network of 21 food influencers; campaign drove 277K Instagram engagements, more than 263 million impressions, and grew @reynoldskitchens Instagram following more than 1300%, from 750 followers to more than 10K

Havas Worldwide

Led Account Management team in development and execution of national advertising, point-of-sale and experiential activation for Knob Creek Bourbon.

- Helped negotiate 2014 SOW for both Knob Creek and Basil Hayden’s Bourbon.

- Outlined project responsibilities for Account Management team, identifying growth opportunities for Sr. AE and AAE.

- Launched Knob Creek’s first-ever TV campaign, driving message strategy and overseeing creative development, concept research, and production.

- Developed activation materials and events for Brand and local Field teams, including national cocktail strategy campaign and activation guide, bartender engagement events and brand advocacy programming.

Walton Isaacson

Led consumer and trade advertising for Skinnygirl Cocktails and Basil Hayden’s Bourbon, while also providing broadcast and online video production support for AXE Hair.

- Oversaw development of Basil Hayden’s 2013 and 2014 marketing plans, including social-driven, blog-based campaign and launch of first brand-dedicated website.

- Helped launch 1st-ever multimedia brand campaign for Skinnygirl Cocktails, outscoring Alcohol and General ad norms and driving exponential growth of social media brand mentions and branded online search.

- Managed creative development and production for AXE Hair partnership with Universal Studios’ Ted.

Account Supervisor

Helped lead national credit card and local retail banking campaign development for Capital One as well as annual campaign for Chicago International Film Festival.

- Extensive broadcast and online video production experience, at the time including 13 of the highest scoring TV ads in Capital One’s history and online video campaign to launch NCAA Corporate Champion sponsorship, garnering 1.1MM views in 4 weeks.

- Launched multiple credit card and retail bank products, including most successful card acquisition campaign in company history, 1st direct banking effort, and post-acquisition rebrand of Washington DC’s leading bank.

- Experience managing celebrity talent throughout creative development and production process.

- Led production for Chicago International Film Festival “See More in the Dark” campaign, earning 2009 Mobius Award for Mixed Media Best in Show.

DDB Chicago

Responsible for daily management and execution for Princess Cruises and Cunard Line accounts.

- Oversaw production process for $9MM national consumer print, $1MM trade print and $7MM weekly national newspaper advertising.

- As part of weekly newspaper offers, managed local market Travel Agent co-op program, ensuring creative updates and facilitating creative approvals.  Also led project to expand the agency’s materials fulfillment capabilities, creating new source for agency revenue.

Kevin Passolt