Wilfrid Laurier University

Media & Digital Marketing Executive

Promoted to lead PepsiCo Foods North America's (PFNA) Digital Marketing and Social Media capabilities, including oversight of brand social strategy / activation, community management, websites / microsites, email / CRM, 1P data acquisition, SEO and DAM support for 30+ brands (including 9 billion-dollar brands). Delivering memorable, 'smile-worth' digital and social experiences to consumers that convert. Manage a team of 31 marketing professionals from across North America including in the United States, Mexico and Canada as part of PFNA's internal agency D3.

Lead organic social strategy and activation for 27 brands including 5 billion-dollar brands (Doritos, Lay’s, Tostitos, Quaker and Ruffles) increasing impressions delivered by +142% and followers by +3.7MM in ’23 vs. PY.

Founded the FLVR Food Entertainment CRM program, a groundbreaking omnichannel initiative to engage consumers through unconventional recipes using PepsiCo’s food products. FLVR is currently the most followed PepsiCo brand globally on TikTok, amassing over 1.4MM followers and delivering a ROAS 50x Amazon CPG benchmark on FireTV.

Led Super Bowl War Room at SBLVI, SBLVII & SBLVIII to successfully cut through a cluttered media landscape. Each year saw PFNA brands organically trend on X (formally Twitter) and generate tens of thousands of organic consumer mentions to connect consumers to our Super Bowl campaign narratives. 

Championed the expansion of the PFUS digital marketing ecosystem, which currently includes a portfolio of 22 brand websites with annual site traffic exceeding 20MM (+87% vs. PY).

Created the Digital Recipe Engine (DRE), a new internal DAM capability to act as source of truth for PFNA recipe content, allowing teams to easily access recipe-related insights, integrate recipes and faceted recipe search via API into our existing and future consumer websites.

Specialties: Social Strategy, Digital Strategy, Influencer Marketing, CRM, SEO, Email / Web Marketing, Digital Transformation

PepsiCo

Sr. Director II - Digital & Social 

Managed a team of 8 overseeing the entire media activation value-chain including – media strategy, planning, activation, optimization, and measurement.

Led Frito-Lay North America's portfolio media investment and measurement strategy including planning for hundreds of millions in annual media spend in order to maximize short and long term goals.

Led web, email, data and CRM strategies including planning for multi-million annual digital marketing spend in order to maximize short and long term goals.

Primary interface and representative of Frito-Lay North America with publishers, media platforms/partners, and media agency leadership.

Leveraged multi-million dollar media analytics investment to drive consumer engagement programs and broader marketing analytics capability.

Led Frito-Lay North America's media learning agenda, contributing to over-arching PepsiCo global learnings.

Represented Frito-Lay media and digital marketing interests in coordination with peers at PepsiCo Beverages North America, Quaker, Gatorade and the NA & Global Media COE, sharing insights and developing shared capability across the globe.

Led Frito-Lay North America's mar-tech strategy, including sourcing best-in-breed solutions and incorporating new technological advancements like artificial intelligence.

Partnered with in-house and external creative agencies to drive impactful creative and media effectiveness by sharing best practices and providing pre-testing solution for digital content.

Responsible for coaching, developing, and prioritizing projects for team-members, agency partners, and contractors.

Specialties: Paid Media (Linear TV, Terrestrial Radio, Streaming Audio, Social, OTT, Display Advertising, SEM, Native Advertising, Sponsorships, Branded Content, Out-of-Home OOH, Print, Influencer Marketing), Measurement (MMM, Sales Lift, Brand Lift, Matched Market Testing), CRM / Digital Marketing (Email, Web, Database, DMP)

Sr. Director I - Media Strategy & CRM

Managed external agencies in addition to an internal team of six overseeing the entire media activation value-chain including – media strategy, planning, activation, optimization, and measurement.

Oversaw Portfolio media investment strategy including strategic and annual planning for multi-million dollar annual media spend in order to maximize short and long term growth goals.

Led Portfolio web, email and data strategies including the management of Frito-Lay's Snack Perks CRM program.

Leveraged annual media analytics investment to measure advertising performance and derive actionable insights that will deliver improved business outcomes over time (MMM, Closed-Loop, Brand Lift, Ad Pre-testing etc.).

Led development of Mar-Tech and Data strategies, including sourcing best-in-breed platform solutions leveraging new technologies like artificial intelligence.

Specialties: Paid Media (Linear TV, Terrestrial Radio, Streaming Audio, Social, OTT, Display Advertising, SEM, Native Advertising, Sponsorships, Branded Content, Out-of-Home OOH, Print, Influencer Marketing), Measurement (MMM, Sales Lift, Brand Lift, Matched Market Testing), CRM / Digital Marketing (Email, Web, Database, DMP)

Director Media, Analytics & CRM

Led Digital and Social Media Marketing strategy and execution for all Pepsico Foods Canada brands, including Doritos, Lay's, Cheetos, Ruffles, Miss Vickie's, Stacy's, Twistos, Smartfood, Crispy Minis, Quaker and Tostitos.

Responsible for maximizing effectiveness of paid digital media investment across the PepsiCo Foods Canada portfolio, helping evolve the mix to deliver superior ROI over time.  Experienced with creative best practices and media planning principles across a breadth of digital ad formats, including OLV, paid social, SEM, display and native ads.

Led PepsiCo Foods Canada's scale digital marketing effort, including strategic development and launch of a new CRM / Loyalty program Tasty Rewards, consumer database, e-commerce and email marketing initiatives.

Founder and chair of PepsiCo Canada's Social Media Governance Council, responsible for helping the organization mitigate undue reputation and legal risk while ensuring our brands continue to see success from a social media marketing perspective.

Oversaw the development and roll out of social listening capabilities and standardized analytics / reporting of digital marketing activity as well as campaign based executions in partnership with PepsiCo Foods Insights team.

Led PepsiCo Foods Canada's portfolio website redesign and creative refresh project, delivering best-in-class mobile responsive web experiences to consumers across 11 of our priority brands.

Responsible for PepsiCo Foods Canada's consumer data strategy, leveraging 1st party data for insights purposes as well as to increase media effectiveness and minimize waste through the development of custom targets and real-time optimization of in-market digital creative.

Oversaw social media publishing and community management across all PepsiCo Foods Canada brands.

Specialties: Paid Media (Social, Display Advertising, SEM, Native Ads, Branded Content, Influencer), Measurement (MMM, Brand Lift, Matched Market Testing), CRM / Digital Marketing

Sr. Digital Marketing Manager

Promoted to CRM Manager II based on strong track record of performance.  Responsible for delivering a best-in-class digital content marketing program across Kraft Canada’s paid, owned and earned media channels, driving improved business results and increasing overall consumer engagement with Kraft brands

Supported Canadian CRM digital marketing effort through oversight of flagship website (kraftcanada.com), loyalty program (Kraft what's cooking rewards), digital magazine (Kraft what's cooking), mobile app, SEO, Email, Consumer Database and third-party monetization

Co-led the development of unique and customized digital content through close coordination with the Kraft Kitchens, SEO vendor, Bloggers and third-party content suppliers.

Acted as internal digital adviser for the grocery, scale and shopper marketing teams, working with and advising iconic Canadian brands including Kraft Dinner, Kraft Peanut Butter, JELL-O, Kraft Hockeyville and Miracle Whip to identify CRM amplification opportunities leveraging powerful owned media assets and the Kraft consumer database.

Supported Kraft Canada's data strategy, harnessing 1st party data to reduce media waste through the development of custom targets and real-time optimization of in-market creative.

Canadian Marketing lead for NA website migration and redesign project, successfully re-launching kraftcanada.com  with industry leading design, back-end functionality and mobile user experience

Successfully redeveloped Kraft Canada's scale loyalty program, reducing non-working agency fees by 40% while increasing overall reach and consumer engagement.  This included rebranding the program to Kraft what’s cooking rewards, launch of the coupon centre and enhancement to digital sampling program (Kraft Samplicious)

Responsible for significant paid digital media spend, including oversight of SEM, Digital Display, Promoted Video, and Paid Social Media

Marketing lead for Kraft Canada e-commerce

The Kraft Heinz Company

CRM Manager II - Web, Mobile, Email, Database & Loyalty

Responsible for delivering a best-in-class digital content marketing program across Kraft Canada’s paid, owned and earned media channels, driving improved business results and increasing overall consumer engagement with Kraft brands

Supported Canadian CRM digital marketing effort through oversight of flagship website (kraftcanada.com), digital magazine (Kraft what's cooking), social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google+, Blogger Outreach and Pinterest) and mobile app

Co-led the development of unique and customized digital content through close coordination with the Kraft Kitchens, SEO vendor, Bloggers and third-party content suppliers.

Acted as internal digital adviser for the grocery, scale and shopper marketing teams, working with and advising iconic Canadian brands including Kraft Dinner, Kraft Peanut Butter, JELL-O, Kraft Hockeyville and Miracle Whip to identify CRM amplification opportunities leveraging powerful owned media assets and the Kraft consumer database.

Responsible for significant paid digital media spend, including oversight of Promoted Video, and Paid Social Media

CRM Manager I - Web, Mobile & Social

Supported digital marketing strategy for Maple Leaf Foods' Masterbrands (Maple Leaf, Schneiders, Dempster’s, Olivieri, Prime, Tenderflake, Villaggio and Lunchmate) as well as 15+ Regional Brands

Responsible for paid, owned and earned digital marketing execution across the Maple Leaf Foods organization (including CRM, Digital Couponing, SEM, Facebook and Twitter)

Provided support to brands looking to leverage the digital, social & mobile marketing channels to help achieve their business objectives. This includes education, strategy development and execution of digital and social media marketing tactics

Managed agency relationships and liaised with key internal stakeholders including Brand Marketing, Corporate Communications, Consumer Affairs, Culinary and Legal

Supported development of organizational policies and protocols related to the management of digital and social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.

Managed a team of 2 full-time Digital Marketing Coordinators and a substantial yearly Ad & Promo budget 

Founded and led the Maple Leaf Foods Connects blogger outreach program consisting of 1,000+ opt-in Canadian bloggers 

Identified and scoped new digital and social strategies, tactics and technologies Maple Leaf Foods leveraged to ensure ongoing competitiveness and innovation from a communications standpoint

Oversaw analytics and reporting of always-on digital marketing activity as well as campaign based execution across all brands

Overall results exceeded targets including growth in size, engagement and monetization of digital and social media audience. This included adding 900,000+ new Facebook fans, 7,000 Twitter / 400+ Pinterest followers as well as generating enough earned and owned media value to illustrate a high ROI on digital marketing investment

Digital and social media marketing execution was key driver of Maple Leaf Foods winning 2011 Marketer of the Year by Marketing Magazine (View Article: http://bit.ly/yykwRu)

Maple Leaf Foods

Digital & Social Media Marketing Manager

Contributed to the development of long and short-term brand strategies, marketing plans, packaging, advertising and sales promotions that achieved corporate profit, volume and share objectives for the Maple Leaf Prime brand.

Managed relationships with brand, activation, interactive and packaging agencies working on various projects supporting Maple Leaf Prime.

Assistant Marketing Manager

Maximized sales volume and revenue in a pre-determined territory through the cultivation of strong relationships with both customers and franchisees.

Activated local and national in-field marketing promotions to build brand awareness and increase sales across key brands including Dempster's and Villaggio.

Coached and led a team of 17 DSD franchisees on selling and display execution, merchandising standards, and ensured accurate and timely orders were submitted and delivered to all customers (Walmart, Sobeys, Loblaws, Shopper's Drug Mart, Price Chopper, Costco, RCSS, Longos).

Territory Manager

Responsible for monthly financial reporting and forecasting requirements, budget preparation and ad hoc analysis to support individual marketing and sales initiatives.

Financial Analyst

Managed complex packaging models and coordinated with suppliers to ensure efficient production and minimize packaging obsolescence across Frito-Lay Canada brands (Lay's, Cheetos, Doritos, Tostitos, Miss Vickie's, Stacy's, Ruffles, Smartfood).

Worked cross-functionally as well as with graphic design agency on an on-going basis to ensure new product critical paths were achieved.

Led the development of a new product ordering model, used to help better predict demand for packaging materials at Frito-Lay Canada.

PepsiCo - Frito Lay

Purchasing Coordinator (Internship)

Ensured appropriate allocation of merchandise to Winners and Homesense stores, thus maintaining desired inventory levels and product mix.

Responsible for conducting store-level audits to help drive sales through best in class merchandising of product across all Winners and Homesense retail locations. 

Analyzed weekly sales and inventory reports to create weekly store shipping strategies designed to maximize sales across the Winners and Homesense network.

TJX Canada/Winners Merchants International L.P.

Allocation Analyst (Internship)

Prepared and analyzed credit applications from current and prospective customers through financial statement analysis.

Developed direct mail marketing materials to support Account Managers in securing new business.

Collaborated with Account Managers and Documentation Specialists to fund major leasing and loan projects.

James Clarke