I work at NZ Aerosports, the creators and manufacturers of Icarus Canopies parachutes. They've been on a mission to inspire skydivers to experience Pure Wild Flight since 1986, and I've been leading that charge since 2010.With nine years managing marketing and creative for the company, strong roots in the brand image/voice, and as a creative catalyst, I became our Brand Marketing Lead when NZA reorganised workstreams to an agile structure in 2019. In a nutshell, I am responsible for bringing the NZA brand to life at every level of the company, advising leadership, guiding marketing, managing creatives and demonstrating brand values through day-to-day interactions.My greatest goal is to create enduring brand stories that are the bridge between our canopies and our customers, driving sales, creating a cult following and increasing brand loyalty. I plan and execute communications and media across all channels, and wear many hats: that of marketing lead, creative director, social advertiser, culture ambassador, communications lead and occasionally brand/marketing analyst!

A pure over-excitement for skydiving and my interest with New Zealand parachute manufacturer NZ Aerosports' R&D project in 2010 while I was learning to skydive and finishing a Communications degree landed me with a job managing their Facebook page. NZA was an established company with a somewhat messy homegrown brand and no marketing team, so quickly the whole marketing shebang became my baby!Nearly 10 years have flown by (pun intended) and the role grew and developed along with technology, the market and the company, but Marketing & Creative Manager sums it up best. Some highlights: I created a viral video campaign of our R&D projects that had 200,000+ views on YouTube. Increased our Facebook following by nearly 400% in four years with a combination of edgy, fun and shareable content, organic growth and targeted Facebook advertising campaigns. Grew an organic Instagram following of over 10,000 followers in 1 year with as little as 1 hour of time per week (now 26K). I created branded promotional materials to increase brand identity and awareness, pushed for a sponsorship structure that improved our efficiency and cost, as well as athlete experience, and developed a range of documents to build loyalty in our athlete team. I increased our direct marketing reach to over 2000 people a year by representing the company with demo products all around the world in 2013-15, and organised multiple large international trade events that generated lots of new leads and helped break us into the UK market. In 2019 launched our new ecommerce/responsive website www.nzaerosports.com where I was involved in the design process and created all the visual and written content.Our late founder Jyro often referred to me as "the face of the company" - one with a quick smile and undying enthusiasm for flight that took the Icarus name and brand with me around the world. And that's the type of passion and reputation I hope to take with me to every role in the future.

Creating new flying addicts, one first-time-flyer at a time ;)

As the Marketing & Creative Director for Australian skydiving tech startup Dekunu, I got to work in my field of expertise and be a professional learner! I was responsible for all digital, email/social creative and campaigns, PR, website content and setup, industrial design, packaging design, promotional design, some user interface design, ambassador program and event planning/marketing.We launched the Dekunu One SmartAlti and sold to 50+ countries first round. The videos I created to promote the concept and product had over 140,000+ views. This was one of the most exciting and dynamic projects I've ever worked on, a grass-roots, fast paced and growth based company in the flight and tech space - and I'm proud to have been a successful player in it's lift-off to the world.

It all started in a jazz bar in St Petersburg, where Dekunu's founder pitched an idea of a new SmartAltimeter to myself and a friend. From humble beginnings in a shipping container at Skydive Byron Bay, I was a key founding member of the team that took this Aussie skydive tech startup to the world. My co-founder role included business strategy and setup, team building and management, prototyping and product development, procedure development, procurement, manufacturing and more.

I was asked by NZ Aerosports to create a brand and following for a new canopy flight education syllabus, The Canopy School. Along with a team of athletes and coaches, we created state-of-the-art canopy flight training materials. I project managed the website design and development process, and implemented important design features to improve the user experience. I was responsible for over 200 subscribers and a Facebook following of 4000+ followers before launch. I wrote strong copy and workflows and created a content strategy for the business including editing and publishing a blog. I developed a small promotional range and the the online campaign strategy for launch.

I helped grow what is now the largest skydiving community on Facebook, I Love Skydiving (now known as Join the Teem). From its humble beginnings, I was part of a team of four skydiving marketing power-women ILS/Teem's founder brought on board to curate content and write catchy - sometimes downright hilarious - blurbs to increase engagement and likes.

I worked as the middle-woman between the RNZAF Base Whenuapai (New Zealand Airforce) and the media, for JumpStart, an event that takes teenagers affected by Cancer for a tandem skydive out of a C-130 Hercules aircraft. This involved organising paperwork and permissions for reporters and journalists to visit the base, coordinating interviews and arranged media participation on aircraft sorties. I managed video and photo collection from the team of 10+ camerflyers, and filmed interviews and B-roll on the day. I produced a 10 minute video, 5 minute photo slideshow and a DVD with all content embedded to be produced for 50 teenagers and their families.The role required a high level of sensitivity and people skills, making sure everyone involved was comfortable being on camera, portraying the event in the most positive light, and working to make everyone happy with their access in a restricted area. It was both challenging and rewarding, and I was happy to see that all parties I were involved with were left smiling and happy at the end of the event.

I created a complete social media startup strategy for the business and was a key team member in Project CONNECT, a transmedia event. I created content and wrote copy for the website and social media pages. My responsibilities included video editing for a range of different projects and commercial clients. I also did field work including shooting video and photos both documentary styled and staged.