Eric Wright
East Aurora,NY
Summary
Brand Marketing Leader with more than 20 years of experience researching, planning, executing, and directing marketing strategy focused on building strong relationships between brands and their consumers to maximize lifetime value.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Director, Brand Marketing
Careismatic Brands, Inc. (CBI)
Santa Monica, CA
08.2020 - Current
- Senior Marketing leader providing marketing strategy and creative direction to a suite of medical apparel brands within the Careismatic Brands, Inc portfolio
- Develop and execute comprehensive marketing strategies, resulting in forecasted revenue in excess of $250 million for 2023
- Responsible for leading branded efforts across all functional teams within the organization to provide a fully integrated marketing plan to support key product launches
- Oversee project management plans to support key seasonal initiatives and retail marketing efforts, enhancing consumer engagement and driving sell-through of CBI branded medical apparel
- Lead Creative Marketing team to innovate and deliver enhanced offerings in both the business-to-business and direct to consumer spaces, resulting in increased brand visibility and improved sales performance
- Successfully restructured the Marketing Team in collaboration with Chief Marketing Officer, assembling a high-performing internal team focused on delivering top-tier service to Careismatic Brands.
Account Director
The Martin Group
Buffalo, NY
03.2018 - 04.2020
- Senior Account Team member responsible for many of the agency’s largest and most high-profile clients
- Responsible for driving the overall brand strategy for client’s marketing plans and delivering a fully integrated plan, including Creative, Digital, Social Media, Paid Media, and PR components
- Pitched new business opportunities with key clients in response to their incoming marketing briefs
- Ensured that all solutions provided were actionable and able to be executed within a specific budget
- Strategized with brand marketing teams to build and evolve annual marketing plans designed to exceed KPI’s set forth by senior management
- Crafted strategic brand briefs which incorporated all aspects of the client’s business and marketing needs, and used those briefs to direct The Martin Group’s internal functional teams in building out the full project or campaign solution
- Responsible for forecasting annual revenue projections for the agency and ensuring that targets were achieved or surpassed to maximize profitability
- Managed the integrated marketing plans throughout the duration to ensure that all elements were running as planned and that adjustments were implemented as needed to meet the client’s needs
- Account lead and strategist for ADDY’s 2019 “Best In Show”: ASICS’ “Welcome to the Dojo” campaign.
Manager, Creative Services
New Era Cap
Buffalo, NY
01.2014 - 10.2017
- Led a team of 14 direct reports, across graphic design, photography, traffic, and digital asset management
- Directed consumer facing retail and digital marketing creative
- Developed sales catalogs and selling tools that drove $400 million in annual revenue
- Built and maintained a $750,000 annual budget, as well as more than $1 million in payroll budget
- Built a new process for developing digitally rendered images that produced 20% more digital images, while reducing costs by nearly $900,000 annually
- Oversaw the creation of more than 50 product and brand level marketing campaigns designed to grow New Era’s presence in the sport and lifestyle business
- Managed production team through all aspects of photo shoots, with budgets in excess of $500,000
- Built an internal team of graphic designers and photographers tasked with elevating the New Era Brand voice
- Maintained zero turnover on staff for more than 2 years
- Effectively managed relationships with 3 creative agencies, 8 production agency partners, and 5 print production vendors
- Collaborated with Senior VP of Global Brand, VP of Marketing, and business unit leads to develop annual Go to Market strategies for North America.
Manager, Marketing Planning & Insights
New Era Cap
Buffalo, NY
04.2012 - 01.2014
- Created an inaugural consumer driven research direction that identified overall market size and opportunity
- Drove that research work to launch at a multi-national level across 12 countries on 4 continents
- Developed and activated annual market research strategy that delivered an understanding of New Era’s target consumer market to key stakeholders across all departments with annual research budget of $500k
- Identified opportunity in headwear product market that evolved into largest selling product line
- Developed high level brand stories and worked with specific functional teams (Retail, Digital, PR, Creative) to execute those plans
- Helped build and manage annual $47M North America Marketing budget, and acted as key liaison between Marketing & Finance departments to ensure thorough communication and track P&L’s.
Senior Manager, Data & Research Analytics
Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
New York, NY
05.2003 - 04.2012
- Headed up the agency’s data collection and reporting department for 9 years
- Managed a team of 12 analysts across 3 countries throughout the data collection and reporting process of all ongoing research projects within the organization
- Developed global team and research network for business to business information technology research
- Recognized expert in business segmentation, consulted several Fortune 500 organizations on their business to business marketing strategies
- Restructured data collection and reporting process, decreasing turnaround time 40%
- Successfully lead a new research initiative with multiple vendors across 23 countries which generated over $3 million in corporate revenue.
Education
MBA - Marketing
05.2008
Bachelor of Science - Business Management
05.1999
Skills
- Global Go-to-Market Strategies
- Product Branding
- Organizational Leadership
- Client Relationship Management
- Budget Development/Management
- Production Direction
- Digital Asset Management
- Vendor Relationship Management
- Consumer Research
Websites
Functional Experience
- Brand Marketing
- Client Management/Consulting
- Creative Direction
- Project Management
- Consumer/Market Research
Selected Strengths
- Global Go-to-Market Strategies
- Production Direction
- Product Branding
- Digital Asset Management
- Organizational Leadership
- Vendor Relationship Management
- Client Relationship Management
- Consumer Research
- Budget Development/Management
Industry Experience
- Apparel
- Sports Marketing
- Retail/Wholesale
- Information Technology
- Consumer Packaged Goods
Timeline
Senior Director, Brand Marketing - Careismatic Brands, Inc. (CBI)
08.2020 - Current
Account Director - The Martin Group
03.2018 - 04.2020
Manager, Creative Services - New Era Cap
01.2014 - 10.2017
Manager, Marketing Planning & Insights - New Era Cap
04.2012 - 01.2014
Senior Manager, Data & Research Analytics - Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.
05.2003 - 04.2012
University At Buffalo - MBA, Marketing
University At Buffalo - Bachelor of Science, Business Management