Michelle Cardinal

Michelle Cardinal has over 30 years of experience in advertising and media, starting in TV media buying and ad sales in the early 90s. She founded Cmedia in Portland, Oregon in 1998 and later merged it with Respond2 to form R2C Group in 2004, eventually rebranding it to Rain the Growth Agency in 2020. Michelle is known for her innovative approach of combining efficient media buying for ROI with effective brand messaging, coined as Transactional Brand Building. She is dedicated to leveraging technology and data for strategic marketing decisions, leading the development of media analytic tools and attribution platforms like Tracker™ and ConsumerID™. Michelle has built multiple successful companies from the ground up, partnered with private equity firms, and navigated several company acquisitions. With 250 employees and $750 million in annual revenue, Rain the Growth Agency is a leading independent, women-led advertising agency nationally. Michelle graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a BA in Communication and currently resides in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their yellow Lab, Lemon.