Amanda Willard Email & Phone Number

Oak Park, Il, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Led all Marketing and Communications efforts for Navy Pier, including the promotion of on-site tenants, 300+ free programs, and 100+ events annually. This leadership position contributed to driving attendance and increasing per capita spend by managing internal teams and agencies across social media, PR, media buying, web, and digital & traditional advertising including paid search, paid social, SEO, and email marketing.Built a nimble and strategic six-member MarCom team and hired four agencies to overhaul the marketing approach to visitor acquisition, growth and engagement. Working strategically and collaboratively across functions enabled full channel optimization since 2021 that resulted in 57% growth in visitation to 7,954,353 and a per cap growth of 28% to $22.82.Launched new brand, event and program promotional strategies across email, digital paid media, owned social, SEO, and paid search to drive traffic to our first-ever inclusive event calendar. These strategic and intuitive efforts resulted in a 55% growth in email subscribers, 20% growth in email open rates, 84% growth in event calendar views, and a 20% increase in website visitation over two years. This included rigorous A/B testing across digital platforms to continuously measure market performance to optimize our approach in real time. Co-Led robust quantitative research program resulting in five priority market segments for growth in visitation and per cap. Key learnings lead our collaborative teams to drive visitation frequency and dramatically increase advertising efficiencies.Created innovative way to announce the mask-lift with the Smile to Ride campaign where guests could have their picture taken without their mask and then see their larger-than-life photo in the middle of our 200-foot-high Ferris wheel during our Spring event preview that garnered 24 million media impressions and drove record attendance.

As a dynamic marketer, insight driven strategist, and adaptive planner, I work with organizations to create and implement strong marketing, brand, and business strategies. My value lies in figuring out what makes a brand different from its competition and relevant to its target markets. This is done through research and internal stakeholder interviews and supports overall buy-in and marketing implementation. Once this brand purpose is solidified, I support the delivery of marketing elements from vision to brand strategy and messaging to effective implementation resulting in increased awareness, impact, and/or revenue. Throughout this process I help organizations work cross-functionally to build consensus and create a culture of support towards each other and the business objectives. Services Provided:• Strategic Planning• Vision Development• Brand Strategy and Integration• Marketing & Advertising Strategy• Brand Architecture• Naming• Workshop Leadership and Coaching • Internal, Board, and Client Buy-In• Strategic Communications• Research Scope, Implementation, and Analysis • Digital Strategy, Marketing, and Execution• Social Media• Messaging Strategy, Framework, and Development• Visitor Experience• Brand Engagement• Event Ideation and Implementation• Project Management• Presentation training

Chicago, Il, Us

• Responsible for solidifying the brand strategy, clarifying target markets, strengthening consumer research, internal brand engagement, social and content marketing strategy, implementation and measurement, creative strategy, and advertising sales. • Partnered with Digital Marketing, Analytics, and Product teams to optimize customer experience and increase revenue.• Launched annual DEAL Pass product and updated Customer Loyalty program.

Chicago, Il, Us

• Created All My Penguins, an on-line storytelling blog of our endangered African Penguins to great success: doubling paid penguin encounters, increasing website traffic by 300%, national NPR coverage, and provided zoo lovers with something to easily share• Created and led the brand campaigns “The Road to Wildlife Conservation Starts Here”, “Where Curiosity Becomes Conservation”, and “I believe in Lincoln Park Zoo” that increased awareness of brand vision, priority of animal care, educational programing, and conservation• Launched multi-channel ADOPT campaign resulting in increased awareness of animal care and a 32% increase in total revenue from 2016

Chicago, Il, Us

• Led Lincoln Park Zoo through first-ever repositioning and brand launch by spearheading the institution through vision & strategic platform development, consumer research, brand architecture, Look & Feel development, brand engagement, messaging integration, full institutional buy-in, board expectation management, KPI creation, and digital & on-grounds marketing implementation• Proactively established Audience Research team deploying ongoing baseline research on-line, on-grounds, and off-grounds to inspire brand evolution and a renewed focus on the reality of consumers• Managed and mentored a team of 18 across traditional marketing, digital marketing, creative, public relations, communications, market research, video, photography, website, advertising, editorial and production• Relationship lead for all Brand, Marketing, and Advertising agencies based on strong industry experience including creation of RFPs, pitch evaluations, budget negotiations, forecasting, and KPIs

• Led and created the brand strategy and brand architecture healthcare program for Northwestern Medicine by simplifying the client’s strategic direction from the individual brands Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Hospital into one single academic medical center brand • Supported substantial growth of the Landor Chicago office revenue and doubled team size by bringing in Corporate work, nurturing current CPG clients and mentoring client services on brand strategy

• Directed $2.5m international brand program for Mediclinic resulting in a net increase of 175% in shareholder value; Including brand engagement training for 250 global marketing employees• Managed billability and resourcing for all 45 Client Services employees and created Client Services manual for all incoming Client Services employees

• Led Landor South Africa as the liaison between Pick n Pay and their 36 agencies to ensure all output was delegated effectively, on brand, on budget, and strategically sound• Ran CPG packaging program for the rebrand of Morrisons, a leading UK supermarket, covering over 40,000 SKUs and resulting in a bottom line 66% sales increase and DBA Gold

• Account manager on Diageo team that transformed Smirnoff from 9 to 25 million cases • Showcased the ability to develop passion and motivate teams and vendors towards real-time solutions• Led brand architecture training at the Johnnie Walker Experience in Scotland