Gigantic Ventures is a micro-agency that supports Founders, CEOs, EDs, and partner agencies with strategic branding services and omnichannel marketing plans. I often stay with clients as a Fractional CMO after plans are complete to help recruit and train sales and marketing employees, institute more innovative thinking, and execute complex campaigns. Although my typical client load includes those in specialty foods and travel/hospitality, my first love was managing international design teams for the educational software market. That said, my experience covers many industries (B2B & B2C), so feel free to contact me to discuss your goals. I'll likely have an agency (or specialist) recommendation in the off chance your campaign isn't a fit for Gigantic.🏴‍☠️ What's the bizarre pirate octopus logo all about? (1) Modern marketers need to juggle a seemingly unrelated skillset to ensure their brands are competitive, and seasoned professionals are able to devise unconventional strategies to execute successful campaigns. (2) Once you see it, you won't forget it. Go ahead and try to stop thinking about a pirate octopus...I dare you.Here's just a small list of skills (below) that you'll want to look for before hiring your next CMO, VP of Marketing, Marketing Director or senior-level marketer:

Fresh from an acquisition from Emmi (Switzerland), I had the opportunity to build the brand’s first multi-channel marketing strategy and dedicated marketing team, doubling the company’s sales in under five years.- Drove all marketing, advertising, PR, events, brand identity, social media, influencer campaigns, and partnerships- Focused-on scalable campaigns (B2B & B2C) that leverage other departments’ efforts- Developed the brand's first NPD (new product development) system for multidisciplinary teams- Oversaw budgets, negotiations, developed contracts, supervised staff- Earned press in Martha Stewart Living, Oprah’s Favorite Things, Food Network Mag, NYT, SF Chronicle, The Boston Herald, Huffington Post, EATER, Sunset, DRAFT, Real Simple, Cooks Illustrated, Food and Wine, CNN…🧀 Let me know if you need help building a cheese company, or any specialty food brand!

Thanks to experience gained in the educational software business, I was in a position to launch a niche brand of my own. I relocated to Portland, Maine to found the health/lifestyle brand Dr.MOZ which specialized in gifts and gear for new and expecting fathers. - Product Development: Created line of gift/lifestyle CPGs for niche new father market. Managed 14 freelancers (graphic design, illustration, animation, 3D art, baby skills lesson content, audio, programming) from prototype to finished products.- Flagship Product: Half baby book and half video game, the flagship product "The GoodFather" gift CD-ROM offered new and expecting fathers interactive baby lessons set to an animated parody of the GodFather gangster series. Packaged in two custom gift boxes, The GoodFather included hundreds of medically approved lessons and humorous advice for the baby you can't refuse.- Stork Tools: Dr.MOZ's product line eventually grew to include the "Stork Tools" line of daddy diaper bags. Sold D2C and in baby boutique and maternity stores, Stork Tools daddy diaper bags were "athletic" in style with partitions both dad and baby.- Sales: Built B2C online sales (40%) and traditional B2B distribution (60%) across eight countries and 27 U.S. states with no employees or distributors.- SEO and SEM: Dr.MOZ’s online parenting network of niche blogs and health-related directories earning millions of organic "uniques" per year. Traffic was reinforced with targeted PPC.- Press: Parents, The Chicago Tribune, MSNBC.com, The Seattle Times, Gizmodo, Pregnancy Magazine, Wired's GeekDad, BusinessWeek.com, Babble, Chatelaine, Rogers TV (Canada), The Fine Living Network, and ABC News among many others around the globe.🍼 Marketing Tip: Don't confuse your product user with your actual target market. For example, I sold a popular line of gifts and gear for new and expecting fathers. Approximately 90% of sales were to those who buy gifts for new and expecting fathers...women.

Once a small math-based educational software company, Riverdeep Interactive of Dublin (Ireland) slowly began acquiring niche educational software companies around the world. Their first of many acquisitions was our K-12 Language Arts software company EdVantage Software based in Sonoma, CA. My role grew from Art Director to Creative Director were I managed design teams from offices in Sonoma, CA and Dublin, IRE. - Team Management: Hired, trained, and supervised international design teams for Sonoma, California and Dublin, Ireland-based K-12 educational software company including Graphic Designers, Web Designers, Illustrators, and 3D Artists.- Product Development: Owned product design lifecycle, prototype roughs to finished products including style guides, UX/UI design, character/theme development, beta testing with local school districts (teachers and students).- Corporate: Regularly presented to investors, executives, interdisciplinary software production teams, board members, and K-12 users.They've since rebranded as ​Houghton Mifflin Harcourt after a flurry of mergers and acquisitions, as software companies tend to do.