Jason Ward Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Los Angeles, California, Us

Palo Alto, Ca, Us

BLCK Venture Institute (BVI) is a selective, curriculum-based program for Black operators and technology executives. Co-hosted by the Berkeley Haas School of Business and Berkeley Executive Education, BVI seeks to increase the representation of black fund managers, Angel and venture investors across the country.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Swish House is the world’s first basketball fitness company. Built by pros and backed by science, Swish House’s signature basketball fitness class is comprised of a variety of hoops-themed high intensity interval training (HIIT) stations.

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

Delivers breakthrough platform (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Metaverse) strategies against a global book of blue-chip brands in the retail, grocery, and service sectors. Consults with client’s C-Suite, Marketing, Media, and Agency leaders to drive platform expansion and performance against unique business objectives.

Chicago, Il, Us

Responsible for creating and implementing the overarching national brand strategy for the Y and its nearly 2700 individually operated branches and associations. Led the brand team, internal committees and external agencies toward a consumer centric marketing transformation designed to elevate community impact and sustainability for the $8.9B non-profit.

Chicago, Il, Us

Led 4 marketing directors and a team of internal and external stakeholders in defining Sears and Kmart brands marketing direction, representing a collective $10B in annual revenue across home, apparel, grocery, and drug categories.• Designed long and short range strategic planning process that improved planning cycle time by 5X, implemented a standardized strategic planning framework and increased integration between merchants, marketing and finance.• Built celebrity and cause marketing plans, driving revenue and relevance by leveraging brand’s influential and philanthropic partners, including celebrities Adam Levine, Jaclyn Smith, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Chicago, Il, Us

Reported directly to CMO, leading Sears internal content team, external creative and media agencies in transformation of $8B retailer’s content strategy. Moved program from traditional retail approach to data driven, measurable, cost effective, digital 1st model that expressed the brand’s point of view via content, media, and activations.• Transformed content strategy and drove $230M in revenue, $30 ROAS, 16M visits to dot com, and reduced production costs by merging digital people patterns, programmatic media, and content factory to serve right message to right individual at right time.• Guided award winning “Seriously Sears” campaign, recognized by Web Marketing Association for outstanding achievement in internet advertising for Best Retail Online Campaign and Webby Award for Best Advertising and Media Digital Campaign.

Chicago, Il, Us

Orchestrated and implemented unified brand positioning for Sears newly merged Home Appliance and Home Services categories representing combined $6.8B in revenue across 6 different business sectors. Led sector teams and agencies in creation of brand architecture, ideation of launch plans and omni-channel implementation against $200M+ marketing portfolio. • Led creation of “House Experts For Home Owners” branded campaign, consolidating sectors under common positioning, defining brand purpose, and boosting marketing efficiency.• Guided $50M+ in market spend on fully branded consumer engagement omnichannel program, delivering television campaign, strategic sponsorships, out-of-home, digital content, social and dot com refreshes.• Generated 350M+ total impressions, 200M social media impressions, 1M social media engagements, and acquired 3K+ new members at sub $5.00 CPM by leveraging PR, social media content, and strategic media partnerships, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Live with Kelly and Michael, and The Property Brothers.

Chicago, Il, Us

Provided strategic marketing leadership for Home Appliances category, Sears’ largest business unit with approximately $4B in annual sales. Led creative, public relations, research, and media agencies, guiding them to understand consumer and competitive insights, create customer value proposition, develop content, position brand effectively, and manage multi-channel marketing portfolio.• Increased YOY market share for 5 consecutive quarters, brand consideration scores for 10 consecutive months, brand equity scores by +12%, and generated $50M in incremental operating profit by developing and launching “Top 10 Advantage” value proposition.• Won ADDY Award for best creative use of multimedia content, garnered accolades from Entertainment Weekly, Business Week, Ad Age and Forbes, and attained positive social engagement for Sears brand from developing “Just Anywhere” campaign.

Chicago, Il, Us

Promoted to leadership position to drive Sears Home Appliances marketing communications plan against $6B business’ strategic priorities. Led 7 marketing managers and agencies against $100M+ marketing portfolio and chaired efforts to capture share of $300M government sponsored “Cash For Clunkers” program designed to stimulate economy. • Drove 14% quarterly increase for appliances and elevated company to quarterly gains by developing and launching 50 unique, state-based marketing programs for “Cash for Clunkers”.• Formulated “Green Team” cross-functional team of 7, generating $12M of incremental operating profit by partnering with utility administrators and leveraging ongoing government sponsored incentives aimed at increasing energy efficient appliance footprint.

Chicago, Il, Us

Transformed declining Sears Home Appliance category by providing strategic, brand management, asset portfolio management and promotional planning leadership. Developed customer value propositions and identified opportunities to grow sales, reduce costs, and increase reach.• Conceptualized and executed major strategic brand shift with launch of “Sears Blue Crew”, a brand positioning that introduced high impact value propositions, elevated brand sentiment, expanded marketing mix and was integrated across all Sears “hardlines” categories.• Achieved 5 consecutive quarters of market share growth, reversing trend of 27 consecutive quarters of decline, by leveraging consumer insights and competitive analysis, creating meaningful value propositions.• Cultivated vendor relationships and negotiated partnership programs that harvested $3.6M in subsidies while expanding marketing footprint at no incremental cost.

Chicago, Il, Us

Leveraged the brand’s value proposition to drive lower funnel activities, developing and implementing national promotional strategies within the home appliances category to increase draw, conversion rates and revenue. Developed the budget, defined the strategic intent and executed the creative for the $40 million circular. Worked closely with partners to develop advertising programs to affect consumer behavior. > Exceeded daily revenue goals and increased consumer draw using competitive analysis, market trends and margin benchmarks to create the Home Appliance promotional calendar. > Increased planning efficiency and executional accuracy through the development and implementation of an enhanced marketing planning process map.

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Il, Us