Hi I’m Effie.

Oops, I mean Ellie.

“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”

Ben Franklin didn’t know about Effies.

I learned how to craft them at Ogilvy and then started writing them when I got to Mullen, where I wrote the Grand Effie-winning case for American Greetings’ World’s Toughest Job. And that was it. No good deed goes unpunished. A perennial prison of my own creation. That was over 10 years ago, much like this headshot featuring my innocence.

In that time, I operationalized a process across our US network, scaling our effort from a handful of entries to double digit-winning cases that earned our not huge agency the distinction of being the 2nd Most Effective Agency in the country. Multiple times. It was awesome—worth it to provide clients with tight, merchandisable stories of their impact, generate loads of new business value, and develop my strategists—but it also totally sucked.

Tracking the hours for our process revealed that we’d collectively spent about an 1200 in a 10-week period. About the size of a major pitch. Ouch.

And then there was the investment. The entry costs that increased exponentially when client work took precedence or a bottleneck in the creation of case study videos emerged.

Doing this on top of the day job was and is hard. But I’ve got to say, there’s nothing like the satisfaction of cracking a story that feels so tight and so inevitable that it’s a joy to read. I love that. And I teach teams how to do it at scale. EFF-YEAH™!

Regardless of how you feel about awards, these days no clients have time or money for work that doesn’t work. It’s a non-negotiable. And things like industry awards will be around as long as people value recognition.

While I’ve got a knack for effectiveness craft, I’m also a Head of Strategy. I ran JetBlue during its hey-day, when this little challenger airline had to hold the line on brand health and put butts in seats—without a brand campaign. It was the funnest era of my career, full stop. Time of my life. We did experiments at 35k feet that brought to life the brand’s mission of inspiring humanity and got the whole world talking in the process. Activations like FlyBabies, Reach Across the Aisle, and Pie in the Sky. Doing more with less is so fun.

I’ve learned a lot over the years and I’d love to help you out with this stuff—the effectiveness grind or any kind of strategy project. Let’s work together! Enjoy my Blue Steel.

Experience

MullenLowe

SVP, Head of Strategy, 2020-Present

  • Built a culture of effectiveness at MullenLowe Boston that was recognized with 16 Effie Awards in 2020. Despite our small size, earned the distinction of being the 2nd Most Effective Agency in the country—twice in a row. Developed the EFF-YEAH™ process that scales quality and quantity Effie entries and reduces costs.

  • Unified MullenLowe globally around a single positioning: Stay Positively Dissatisfied.

  • Landed the strategy behind T.J.Maxx’s integrated You to the Maxx brand platform that drove an uplift in consideration among prospects worth $20-40M in sales. Campaign was brought to life in TV, video, social, digital and purpose/brand behaviors.

  • Launched JetBlue’s Just Alright Doesn’t Fly Here, the campaign designed to puncture complacency and get prospects to fly JetBlue.

  • Managed the team that converted pitch wins from T.J.Maxx, KFC, Invesco, Scotts, Roundup, Eti Wanted, Yieldstreet and more.

  • Quarterbacked the career progression of 20 brand and social strategists that saw 100% advance their careers at MullenLowe.

  • Expanded my role to own social strategy in addition to brand strategy.

  • Led with empathy through the pandemic: uniting and overseeing strategy teams across multiple offices, compassionately downsized staff due to ebb and flow of agency revenue.

VP, Group Strategy Director, 2016-2018

  • Repositioned American Greetings around relationship care/wellness, and in doing so won a distribution deal worth $150M in sales per year with Kroger.

  • Drove an unfair share of attention for JetBlue that increased brand health and butts in seats during a three year period where there was no budget for a brand campaign. Architected the strategy that led to three years of buzz activations for the brand, millions of dollars of earned media, 11% YoY revenue growth and ultimately loyalty beyond reason. Earned a Gold Effie for Sustained Success.

  • Converted new business pitches like Talbots and Nuveen.

  • Orchestrated MullenLowe US’s Effie effort, including the management of the process, creation of tools and templates, writing cases, review cases, and giving feedback on video case studies.

  • Collaborated with cross-functional and integrated agency teams effectively.

  • Received the coveted MullenLowe Beast Award.

Strategy Director, 2014-2016

  • Recruited to lead strategy for American Greetings and Fage. Managed three strategists.

  • Penned the Grand Effie-winning entry for American Greetings’ World’s Toughest Job.

  • Made cards relevant for American Greetings through campaigns that stopped selling cards and started selling what they’re in service of: relationships.

  • Developed portfolio management strategy for American Greetings based on consumer need.

  • Launched FAGE Split Cups, the brand’s leading product.

OGILVY NY

Senior Strategist, 2012-2014

  • Translated American Express’ enterprise idea into a relevant and compelling proposition for various B2B and B2C constituents, across all channels.

  • Launched Bluebird by American Express, a prepaid product designed for the underbanked. Owned the qualitative research project that generated the insights.

  • Tapped into the power lore of the Medici family to position Nestle Waters’ Acqua Panna as the undisputed category leader.

Strategist, 2009-2012

  • Pitched and won the IKEA business in 2010. Played a key role in implementing the strategy that went on to win awards for effectiveness. Led the ethnographic research that gave birth to the “Life Improvement Store” brand idea.

  • Modernized Avon’s recruiting platform to better open doors for women.

Dentsu America

Junior Strategist, 2007-2009

  • Developed the insights and strategy that launched multiple Canon Powershot digital cameras. Orchestrated research projects and thoughtleadership for Canon Powershot, Canon Business Machines, and Toyota.

  • Participated in the 4As Institute of Advanced Advertising Studies and received the 4As Rising Star Award.

Recognition

  • Written and won 50+ Effie awards

  • Final Round Effie judge

  • Dozens of WARC Awards

  • Cannes Lions

Holy Cross

B.A. Sociology, 2003-2007

University of Cape Town

Concentration in Peace and Conflict Studies, 2005-2006

FOR FUN

Pen spinning. Playing soccer. Tiny houses. Karaoke. Big talk. Beach. Lefty. Mom.