I am an agency founder and strategic planner with 20+ years of experience developing brand, campaign, and consumer engagement strategies for brands that want to stand out while remaining authentically true to their roots. I’ve done everything from repositioning global blue-chip brands to handling all aspects of brand building and activation planning for startups and new ventures. The untapped potential of a brand’s story excites me; I love the work of creative translation that happens between the first Annual Planning meeting and when the campaign breaks. It’s the adrenaline rush of telling a great story that gets me up in the morning and keeps me coming back until the job is done.For six years I was the Director of Strategy for Night After Night (formerly Phear Creative), a strategic and creative planning agency where I oversaw Strategy, PR & Social Media for all clients and led Jameson Irish Whiskey’s strategic planning for North America. I worked with Pernod Ricard USA’s brand, consumer insights and sales directors on consumer, trade and sales strategies and activation programs that helped Jameson triple their volume (750K cases to 2.5M cases) and sustain a 15%+ YOY sales growth for six years. For an agency, we were small but we didn’t act like it, and were soon made strategic and creative lead for Jameson’s entire roster of agencies.A part of the agency’s senior leadership team, I was responsible for winning eight pieces of new business, increasing revenue 10x and growing the agency by 16 FTE. I oversaw all aspects of communications planning for our clients: consumer research, concept testing, brand identity, positioning and architecture development, content and channel planning, activation and tactic development for social, digital, experiential, PR and advocacy programs, and writing creative strategies for global brand campaigns, brand innovation initiatives and new product launches.In 2018, my family moved to Copenhagen and I opened McNamara Strategy, through which I provide strategic leadership and support for creatives, entrepreneurs & innovators in a freelance capacity. During that time I provided strategic leadership to a number of small to mid-size agencies (as well as new ventures and startups) for new business pitches and existing client work. After moving back to NYC in 2020, I opened the Zeus McNamara Strategic & Creative Agencyto meet the needs of a growing roster of retainer and recurring project clients.