Resume

WHERE I'M HEADED

Harry Houdini was a lousy magician.

He goes and spends an hour and a half on one trick, in a closed room, out of sight of the audience. Yet he's the most famous, successful "magician" ever. How come? By becoming an escape artist, Houdini reinvented the category. He beat the competition… by eliminating it.

I aspire to such remarkable feats of daring-do.
As champion of an organization's people, stories, vision & values.
Be it from the agency side or client side.
All I need is a volunteer…

WHERE I'VE BEEN

A client cross-section includes: Horseshoe Gaming • Southwest Airlines • Bank of America • Head / Penn Racquet Sports • Miller Brewing • Oscar Mayer • Rayovac • Qwest • Del Webb • Petsmart • Discount Tire • Intel • Circle K • Phoenix Suns • Arizona Diamondbacks • Salt River Project Utility • Shamrock Farms Dairy • Bashas' Supermarkets • Arizona Lottery • Arizona Republic Newspaper • Phoenix Art Museum • Arizona State University

FAT BRAIN CREATIVE

agency:

Start-up

responsibilities:

Founding Partner responsible for product, service & organizational excellence.

notable:

• For seeing a client on the news smashed to pieces by Katrina then receiving a call to help put the pieces back together (Copa / Island View Casino, Gulfport MS ).
• For losing a piece of business in the best possible way, with success so resounding your much larger competitor cries "uncle"…and acquires your client (Kierland Commons by Westcorp).

lesson:

Principles aren't principles until they cost you money.

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LAVIDGE COMPANY

agency:

Revitalization Project

responsibilities:

As Creative Director (w/partnership option), given keys to the office and told, "just win, baby."

notable:

To "impress" prospects during agency tours, staged a thread-bare, tired office at various times as a piano lounge, a mechanic's garage, a ski lodge and fittingly enough, a circus tent with animals to dramatize – make memorable – key presentation points. The show + business formula brought clients, awards (the agency received more recognition for creative excellence in one year than in the agency's previous 15 years of existence combined) and most important of all, a swagger to the place.

lessons:

• Be elegant or be outrageous.
• Will beats skill.

reading:

• A New Brand World
• The Simple Art of Greatness
• Under the Radar

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CRAMER-KRASSELT

Friday, March 6, 1998

Marketing/Media

Cramer-Krasselt Phoenix tops firm's total billings

Cramer-Krasselt Phoenix tops firm's total billings - Phoenix Business Journal:

Of Cramer-Krasselt's four locations, the integrated marketing agency's Phoenix office had the most growth in 1997 with $34.4 million in capitalized billings. It was a 33.3 percent increase from the $26.8 million done in 1996. "The engine is firing on all cylinders, and we've got a great team of people assembled," said Brian Landauer, senior vice president and general manager at the Phoenix office." I think they're all ver y comfortable now working together and solving problems together."

agency:

TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN

responsibilities :

As V.P., Creative Director to ride herd on process supervising the market's largest (30+ member) creative dept. and help transform the biggest agency in town into the all-around best.

notable:

• Set new agency benchmark for creative excellence winning more than 100 awards including national ADDY. OBIE, Graphis and Print Regional Design recognition.
• Helped spur a 30% agency growth rate over a three-year period (see press clipping to the left).
• My brush with greatness. Modest, unassuming Jack Binion was a legendary casino operator going back to the sawdust-joint days. His insights such as "we don't do anything 100% better than our competition, we do 100 things 1% better" shared with every client ever since. Action Jack's empire was worth 1/2 billion when we first turned his venerated Horseshoe logo right-side up into the shape of a U (a nod to "you" the customer). It was worth a billion to Harrah's by the end of our assignment. Luck had little to do with it.

lessons:

• That sacrifice is the essence of strategy.
• Measure twice, cut once.
• Leadership is about absorbing uncertainty.

reading

• The Art of Account Planning
• Hey Whipple, Squeeze This
• A Technique For Producing Ideas
• Where The Suckers Moon

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SRO

agency:

In-House

responsibilities:

Open a state of the art arena and market the burgeoning sports and entertainment empire housed within as creative director / copywriter.

notable:

• Gave boxer Oscar De La Hoya nickname of "Golden Boy." A million dollar idea then, a billion dollar brand today.
• Created one of the first-ever bus wraps. The glowering image of Charles Barkley, earned SRO a national award and me a trip to New York City. Cooler still, it garnered national attention as a story & full-page photo in Sports Illustrated.
• The job was clear and simple: Put butts in seats. Pure retail. I was close to the product. Close to the public. Close to the decision makers. As a marketer, I had the best seat in the house. The Phoenix Suns sold out every game the three seasons I worked there. America West Arena became the bustling, glistening center of town.

lesson:

Swing for the fences ("Phoenix Suns"), run out the grounders ("Roller Hockey International").

reading:

• A Technique for Producing Ideas
• Box score attendance figures

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