James Townsend Email and Phone Number

As the CEO of Article Group, I’m building around the concept of being an agency, consultancy, and creative studio built for marketers with hard-to-reach audiences. Our industry is always in a state of disruption, and we are finding ways to be helpful to the humans behind brands big and small, as they chase and engage their audiences who are moving faster than ever.That means a lot if big technology product marketers that need to build a story and system to take their product to market or reboot their strategy; startup founders with big ideas that need a narrative to power growth and drive understanding; and, increasingly, science communicators building audiences outside of their bounded niche.We like to say, “give us your hard s*hit”, and we’ll give you an elegant solution.We’re making a remote and hybrid model work and are passionately independent, so focus on flexing to what our client partners actually need.

Regis brands include over 7,000 stores, private label retail products, and proprietary technology products and platforms.I joined as CMO as part of the transformation to become a fully-franchised business and technology company. During my tenure key achievements included: Launched new digital capabilities across our priority brands, including but not limited to, branded apps and sites, eCommerce and direct booking, first party data strategies and CRM, and moving our paid media from traditional to performance digital.Positioning and marketing related to our owned tech platforms. Notably the launch of a new demand gen and store management system, Opensalon Pro. Developed and deployed the company’s first influencer program focused on our consumer brands, private label launches, and recruitment. Led our retail merchandise business as we transitioned to franchisor and DTC vendor, with a focus on private label creation and modernization. This led to a change in strategy and new partnerships with L’Oreal and Sally Beauty, enabling Regis to beneficially exit its dated supply chain. Created and launched five unique brand strategies to drive differentiation as we consolidated our universe of brands (45+) down to 5 core brands.Developed national and local media and marketing programs to drive customer engagement and store traffic.Built and optimized our measurement ecosystem that led to over 80% of all media dollars being measurable when that number was under 20% when I joined.Finally, one of my most fulfilling projects was working with Jim Moriarty and Brand Citizens to craft and launch a new corporate purpose for Regis. This was an amazing project that helped us get through the dark days of the pandemic and resonated powerfully with investors, employees, and partners.

As a member of the Global Leadership Team my role as Chief Development Officer was all about making sure that we had our eyes on growth, what our clients wanted and needed, and what potential partners needed to see from us. I worked with global and office leadership to stay focussed on (and stoked about) the company's evolving story, vision, and offering. Being able to tell this story in modern and relevant ways, and from the same playbook was essential to showing up in the market as a powerful brand. This included a lot of time spent with the various leaders and different areas of our business, aligning on how we told our story and engaged our partners about it. I worked closely with our offices and business development teams in each region to manage and prioritise the myriad of opportunities that we created or came our way. This included the important task of deploying senior/founder time and focus, gathering and leveraging non traditional intelligence, deploying myself into situations where useful, and oversight to all organic and new revenue goals.Winning was all about being able to work with incoming and existing brand partners to determine how best to leverage our global network of offices and companies. During my tenure, we won multiple large new pieces of business.

I opened and led 72andSunny's first office in New York. With an initial team hired to work on the recently-won global Smirnoff account, I built and had P&L responsibility for the office and ultimately a leadership team that included some dear friends and amazing talents. Based on our success we moved our Samsung business to New York quickly, and also won new and amazing partners like Comcast, Facebook, Ciroc, ESPN, Seventh Generation, General Mills, LG, and more. A few things we were particularly proud of:Samsung's multi-award winning global partnership with Rhianna and ANTIdiary album launch (3x 2016 Cannes Lions / 4x 2016 Cannes Shortlists / 2x LIA / 2x D&AD / 3x OneShow). The strategic follow up to our partnership with Jay Z / MCHG, we once again led the entire effort to launch this album with a digital/IRL experience.Strategic and execution lead on Comcast Xfinity Olympics partnership, covering their universe of streaming products and features and their historical connecting via NBC. Getting mainstream parents to consider environmental impact by making it a matter of family's health, not the environment. With a movement around ingredient transparency and a partnership with Maya Rudolph, Seventh Generation grew double digits, taking volume from the mass market brands. We won a Gold Effie in the process. Consistently winning assignments to position and market innovative technology products such as Marcus (FinTech by GS), 23andMe, and various Facebook and Spotify products and efforts.Leading Smirnoff's global brand pivot to reclaim its crown as the king/queen of the mass-market. Celebrating inclusivity in all its forms and interpretations. Positioning that continues to this day. This included shifting a TV based approach in the US to an always-on social publishing model, connecting commercially important cocktails to culturally relevant conversations. The Smirnoff Drinks Engine delivering 9.5x category value growth and won a Gold Effie.

Co-led our Brand Management group in Los Angeles. Worked to keep us good as we grew. Stayed as close to the work as I could. A great time with great people. Samsung, Anheuser-Busch, ESPN, and Sonos.

I was responsible for a group of partners including Comcast, Maybelline, and Budweiser. Comcast selected HUGE as their first digital AOR at the beginning of 2011 and I was responsible for shaping the relationship, building the team, and guiding the work. One of the largest accounts in the agency, HUGE was tasked with transforming Comcast’s digital business while working with a wide set of agency partners to develop industry-leading digital marketing work.Work across this and other accounts included, core product, experience, marketing, mobile, and social.

Managed GSPʼs global Yahoo business with a large team across all disciplines. Our work encompassed brand and communication strategy, and creative services across all channels and platforms. I led teams that created experiences on specific properties across the Yahoo network as well as integrated campaigns for paid media.

I was a senior member of the NY-based management team of this growing and award-winning interactive agency. My roles were split between overseeing the Production and Client Services across interactive product and marketing communications. For the last 9 months of my time with Code and Theory I served as General Manager of Code and Theoryʼs San Francisco office.

My role with The Rumor Mill included general management, production oversight, and the development of strategic client relationships outside of the traditional scope of a commercial music company.We focused on developing the ongoing commercial business with major advertising agencies (US and overseas) for clients such as: Toyota, Amstel, Coca Cola, Merrill Lynch and Honda. As well as film, album, and art-based projects.

Screenwriter and producer with various credits in independent film and TV.

Walked the red carpets, learned a lot from the training program, and enjoyed Mr Ogilvy's book.