Alberta University of the Arts

Chief Marketing Officer

From the very first day I was brought on by the founders and everyday on my journey to become the first-ever CMO, I did not rest until we had truly achieved a $1bil 360° brand and a confident household name. It wasn’t easy going from 20 stores to 98, no team to an entire VP-led marketing department, creative director to CMO, founder-led to private equity, private to public, CEO to CEO, but I didn’t have to do it alone. Together with the executive team, I led the charge to build in-house marketing capabilities from the ground up, baking rock-solid processes and workflows into our DNA all along the journey from a traditional to a modern and relevant digital retail lifestyle brand that everyone’s heard of.

The Container Store

Creative Director to CMO in total tandem with Brand Growth 

How do you develop a brand personality, identity, and ideology for a young company in total growth mode? Go deep with intention, information, and strategy. Have clear vision and values. Define positioning and messaging. Account for structure and size. Set your priorities. Give ‘em resources. Ask the customer for feedback and invite them in with an emotional connection. Scan the business landscape and study the competition. Listen to and interpret the data. Put it to good use. Adapt, adjust and align campaigns to short-term customer acquisition and long-term brand awareness. Balance campaigns between performance and relationship building. Give the team—from the call center to the corporate office to the retail sales floor—everything they need to be a brand ambassador. Give the customer an omnichannel experience—everything they need to stay loyal.

Chief Omnichannel Brand Officer & Resident Customer POV Expert

The divine is in the details. When you pay strict attention to every single intersection between the organization and the consumer, it’s easier to engage them with an elevated, connective, and deeper relationship. I map out the customer journey with the sharpest point on the pencil, identifying every opportunity to leverage our love brand by implementing the right tactic and the right time with the right team member with the right-n-ready resources. It was my job to make absolutely sure that we had a high-quality experience at every touchpoint and on every channel—seamless, feel-good, creating an emotional connection and building trust.

Customer Journey Architect & Brand Experience Orchestrator

In order to successfully integrate change, onboard partnerships (Marie Kondo), optimize a campaign (“Welcome to the Organization”), premier a loyalty program (“Organized Insider”), launch an app, recruit talent, generate word-of-mouth, and become a household name, you have to enroll every single stakeholder into embracing it. The kind of marketing funnels that build and drive long-term traffic are holistic, balancing experimentation and testing, maverick and a known-quantity, internal and external, creative and science, emotional and data-driven, digital and in-person. This is the art of finding new customers while keeping established customers happy—and I absolutely love it.

Ignite Whole-Org Consciousness, Collaborative Partnerships, and Big Retail Energy 

It was my mission to stewart the brand through every iteration and innovation. I did this by modernizing when we needed it and co-creating a culture of can-do-edness. Here I honed the ability to get the marketing ready to launch quickly. Despite any shifts in strategy, global change, and the breakneck speed of digital change and tech innovation, I help my team pivot with perfection. I’ve learned long ago that being in reactive mode doesn’t do anybody any good; I stake my reputation on a creative, purpose-driven approach to brand building for generations of loyal customers.

Change Agent, Innovator & Long-Term Future Casting

Love-centered brands take a lot of work to make the magic happen and keep the customers in love. Less functionality and more emotional messaging—if you want to become part of the customer’s sense of self, identity, and purpose, you must understand what makes them feel some kind of way about your company. How do you know exactly what that is? Ask them. While you’re at it, pay attention to what the competition is saying and look for untapped opportunities to be totally unique. Double-down on your differentiators and dive deep into the data. I set the tone, find the words, and drive the design for unignorable/adorable benefit-driven marketing mixes and unwavering dedication.

Emotional Connector | Positioning, Messaging, and Brand Purpose

One of the very best parts about being a leader is what you learn about yourself in the process of developing a leadership style. My journey from one-person-art-department to the c-suite has unlocked an uncanny ability to be a steady constant in the face of complex chaos. I can filter out the noise and focus on the tasks at hand: Un-silo everything and integrate marketing into every touchpoint. That means empowering performance with irreproachable processes, systems, and expectations—along with a culture of confidence in our abilities and values. It’s my job to reinforce self-worth and provide an empowered ecosystem so that together, we could do anything. From navigating reorg to COVID, there was no curveball, blindspot, or unprecedented incident we couldn’t navigate with ease and grace.

Zero-to-60 Team Design, Development & Direction 

Promoting “That Country Club Lifestyle” was the name of the game 12 months a year. When it came to securing and directing photographers and illustrators, managing budgets, and working alongside an editorial team, I stayed true to a LIFECYCLE management mindset, keeping processes, deadlines, and decision-making in alignment with publication efficiency/effectiveness.

ClubCorp

Graphic Design Artist – Private Clubs Magazine 

When you are THE name in advertising for real estate development in Calgary and Greater Canada, the pressure is on to produce top-tier marketing assets and sales tools that connect deeply with a single specialized audience: Custom-Built Residential Home Buyers and Investors. We were marketing whole neighborhoods and it was my job to develop strategic branding & marketing materials and well-positioned assets to sell a highly-coveted lifestyle.

Communication Strategy Group (CSG)

Senior Art Director 

My first foray into my career was baptism-by-fire…and I loved it! I became intimately familiar with the inner workings of an agency, getting great at work orders and direction. I developed a heads-down, deliverable-driven work ethic and embraced a merit-minded ideology, learning to receive feedback and be constructively competitive. Soon, I grew a strong desire to come out from behind the scenes and become client-facing, bringing the best of what I experienced working for big name, highly regarded and diverse brands to my next adventure.

Melissa Collins