David Cumpston Email & Phone Number

San Diego, California, United States

San Diego, California, United States

* Division lead for clients in consumer, lifestyle, hospitality, travel and related fields* Client partners include: Visit Napa Valley, San Diego Tourism Marketing District, Oakmont Management Group, World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024

San Diego, California, United States

Strategic planning, creative ideation, materials development and oversight of communications programs for:* CHASE Bank (Fraud prevention and education)* QDOBA Mexican Eats ("Best Fast Casual Restaurant," 600+ locations nationwide) * WHOLLY GUACAMOLE (Hormel Foods) * Daiya plant-based foods (cheeze, pizza, burritos, cheezecake) * Nature's Bakery snacks (KIND) * West Marine (America's leading retailer for water enthusiasts) * The Good Feet Store (personalized, premium arch supports) * CCRM Fertility (pioneers in fertility science, research, advancement) * Solaray (premium, heritage vitamin brand) * Sodexo (foodservice + facilities management)As division manager, also responsible for mentoring staff and providing direction and objectives, performance counseling and skill-building opportunities.

San Francisco, California, United States

* Client service expert; responsible for ensuring client happiness, from the initial pitch forward * Active, hands-on participant driving client successes for the award-winning, $2.5MM firm* Served on the senior management team, contributed to the overall agency strategy and growth* Simultaneously mentored junior PR professionals and talked many clients off many ledges* Managed campaigns for: Walmart; Graton Resort & Casino; Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria; Velodyne Lidar Inc.; Sutter Health/CPMC; UCSF Medical Center; Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford; Save the Redwoods League; NorthStar Memorial Group; On Lok senior health services; Altais Clinical Services / Brown & Toland Physicians; Troon Pacific luxury real estate; The Hibernia luxury event venue; Tripping.com; LYFE Kitchen; Airbnb* Social media content strategist: developed and implemented both agency and client-specific programs; managed award-winning “LCInsights” blog; led campaign to celebrate LCI’s 30-year anniversary* Strong media relationships across the San Francisco Bay Area, California and nationally – I’m as comfortable pitching breaking news as I am planning produced segments* Led successful agency awards program; earned “Best Small Agency of the Year” and “Campaign of the Year” (PRSA San Francisco); founding member of the “Agency Elite 100” (PR News); "America's Best PR Agencies 2021" (Forbes); and “Best Response to a Crisis” (Bulldog Reporter / Bulldog Media Relations Awards)* Crisis communications experience managing crises that threaten a brand’s reputation* Trusted with managing the most sensitive/delicate client relationships; regularly responsible for growing existing business opportunities earned as a result of good work* Consistently forecasted revenue, met/exceeded targets and troubleshooted unforeseen circumstances* Developed, presented multiple new business proposals

San Francisco, California, United States

Developed and implemented travel/hospitality, consumer and consumer tech PR programs for:* Couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.com): scope of work included writing the company's first strategic PR plan and crisis communications plan; key message development; tradeshow strategy; media training; global media pitching + interview prep* PotionPR (www.prpotion.com): scope of work included projects for The Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley; SixSeconds.org (emotional intelligence) and creating messages for the new "Passive Homes" trend* Ellipses Public Relations (www.ellipsespr.com): supported the founder's new business efforts

San Francisco, California, United States

* Developed/executed communications campaigns for travel, e-commerce and financial services clients including Orbitz, Best Western International, RetailMeNot and others* Best Western team lead: increased brand awareness among business travelers specifically; developed and launched the "You Must Be Trippin'" blog with third-party spokesperson, Chris McGinnis* Introduced and managed the Best Western-led Business Travel Media Summit which grew from a single, yearly session to a highly anticipated, bi-annual event spanning two countries* Instituted major, multi-year rebranding initiative to contemporize and make the global Best Western hotel chain relevant to today’s business/leisure travelers* Crisis mitigation for Orbitz re: a major American Airlines ticketing dispute* Re-launched the century-old Galleria Park Hotel, now a CoralTree property; secured multiple corporate and industry stories for Kimpton Hotels, Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas and ARAMARK Parks and Destinations (Mesa Verde National Park, Denali National Park, etc.)* Managed PR campaigns for Fly.com, Cheapflights.com, Points.com, Pageonce and BranchOut; launched things-to-search engine Goby.com (now part of Scout, the social navigation app)* Launched major mobile initiatives for Orbitz, Pageonce and BranchOut; launched GanedenBC30’s probiotic gummy bears: limited budget/crowded market* Secured multiple strategic stories in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, TIME, Forbes, Redbook, Family Circle, CNN.com, national/regional broadcast and many others* Mentored junior staff, led the agency's awards program and managed new business efforts

San Francisco, California, United States

* Daily client contact and team lead* Implemented communications programs for LeapFrog Enterprises, SideStep (acquired by KAYAK travel search engine), Hasbro, Philips Electronics, ALCiS Health, Midway Home Entertainment* Media relations juggernaut: maintained constant contact with reporters to build relationships in advance of new news announcements* Successfully positioned hungry underdog SideStep as the must-have, time-saving online travel utility; successful grassroots campaign drove app downloads that exceeded monthly marketing objectives* Secured significant Q4 holiday media coverage for multiple product launches amid very heavy competition: USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Newsweek, Reuters, Parents, Child, Money, “Today” and CNN * Competitive issues management: spearheaded multiple last-minute strategies to blunt competitive activity after surprise news announcements* Managed b-roll, co-op SMT / RMT production and VNR creation, distribution and placement* Managed multiple media tours in top 10 markets

San Francisco, California, United States

* Coordinated PR campaigns for gaming, e-commerce, food/beverage and education brands, including SEGA of America, AutoTrader.com, Val-Pak, Horizon Organic and Scholastic Multimedia * Member of the global PR team launching the Sega Dreamcast videogame console; analyzed and overcame negative brand associations to produce the biggest consumer product launch in entertainment history - $97 million sold in 24 hours* Worked in-house at Sega's U.S. offices to coordinate assets and facilitate media interviews* Worked with Sega’s Tokyo PR team, adhering to important and customary Japanese guidelines* Developed and maintained relationships with consumer/consumer tech/business and trade media, analysts and industry influencers* Generated positive pre-IPO coverage for AutoTrader in USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press, CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg; secured multiple company profiles in Fortune, San Jose Mercury-News, Upside and Automotive News* Strong writer and lead editor across all accounts: press releases, Q&As, executive bios, company backgrounders, fact sheets, case studies, bylined articles, client reports, etc.* Managed tradeshows, press tours, awards nominations and executive speaking engagements (e.g., Electronic Entertainment Expo, PlayDate, Toy Fair, National Automobile Dealers Association, Consumer Electronics Show (CES))* Proactively sought ways to improve agency’s quality of work and employee time-management efforts* Regularly brainstormed new ideas while mentoring 15 junior staff to do the same* Managed agency's awards program; secured wins with: PRWeek, Mercury Awards, PR News/Platinum PR Awards, PRSA/Compass Awards, Gold Quill Awards and SABRE

Austin, Texas Area

* Managed travel itineraries for company's luxury hotel division; vital worldwide link between general managers, sales managers and upscale corporate/leisure travelers* Maximized property revenue while minimizing losses; profits increased 300% during initial quarter of operation