Excellent branding requires cohesive campaigns

Consistent design plays a crucial role in establishing brand identity and executing effective marketing campaigns. I seek to create a unified visual representation—through color schemes, typography, and imagery—ensuring that each brand is easily recognizable and memorable for target audiences. This consistency fosters trust and loyalty, as consumers begin to associate specific design elements with the brand's values and quality. This also helps ensure that the messaging is clear and easily absorbable across various platforms which strengthens the overall impact of the campaign, and stands out in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

Case study

In 2021, following the peak of the pandemic's impact, the leadership at Ober Gatlinburg requested a branding refresh with a campaign to push it out into the community to make sure everyone knew we were open and ready to receive visitors. The leadership had several requests:

1. To keep the iconic typography and snowflake that was created when Ober Gatlinburg was founded in the 70’s.

2. To have a visual representation for the seasons: spring/summer, fall, and winter.

3. To have more emphasis on “Ober” since this was how the community often referred to the ski area and amusement park

Results:

I created a layered representation of the logo including a colorful mountain range that could be changed for the seasons (green for spring/summer, orange for fall, and blue for winter) and a translucent snowflake so that the emphasis would be more on the word “Ober.” This allowed it to be more easily recognized in brochure racks and on billboards.

Lessons learned:

While the leadership was happy with the design, I do find this design to be a bit “busy.” We ran this version for a year including all three of the color variations for the seasons and saw record numbers of customers who were overall happy with the brand representation.

Campaign concepts

We played on the idea that people have a checklist when visiting the Great Smoky Mountains and that many of their desired activities could be “checked off” by coming to Ober.

We pushed this out to the public with

• A 16 page full-color brochure

• Google Display Ads

• 16 billboard faces. Some were designed for longer read times in areas where the viewer might be stuck in traffic, and others were designed for shorted read times when they might be farther away and foing faster down the interstate.

• Social media organic and paid content

Good marketing needs good photos

In a creative marketing, having knowledge of photography is incredibly important. First, visual content immediately grabs the consumers attention and give cues on how to view a brand. As a leader with photography skills I can help create appealing images that connect with target audiences. Additionally, understanding photography helps me work better with creative teams, making discussions about ideas and styles more effective. This expertise also ensures that marketing campaigns are visually consistent and align with the brand strategy, increasing their effectiveness. Ultimately, I seek to enrich the marketing story, drawing in and keeping customer interest.

Website copy

Whether I’m creating web copy or managing a content team, I seek to drive success by focusing on high-quality content to attract and retain visitors. My approach enhances user experience and builds audience credibility. I know search engines favor relevant material, improving visibility and traffic. Investing in quality web copy has led clients to better engagement, higher conversion rates, and sustained growth. My expertise helps each website stand out, contributing to long-term success.

• Ober Mountain (previously Ober Gatlinburg)

• Arsenal Strength managed outside vendor and edited for brand tone

• Davenport Designs

• StoragePug - managed and enhanced customer testimonial section

Blogs

At Arsenal Strength, I had the opportunity to both write engaging articles and manage various outside vendors in order to help create high-quality, consistent content for their blog.

• Example 1 - Top 10 Social Media Posts for the Reloaded Linear Hack Squat

• Example 2 - Introducing the M-1 Functional Trainer

• Example 3 - XFL X Arsenal Strength (managed production of outside writing vendor)