Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Awards
Accomplishments
Timeline
Generic

Gary Aurand

Columbia

Summary

I’ve been entrusted with stewarding one of the most prolific and beloved brands in advertising. This privilege has given me the opportunity to lead an in-house team of gifted marketers, as well as work alongside some of the world’s most celebrated agency talent.

My team embraces both the art and science behind good marketing, is allergic to complacency, and is proud of the impact of their work; both to our business and beyond.

Overview

16
16
years of professional experience

Work History

Sr. Director, Brand Creative and Content

GEICO
10.2022 - Current
  • Set the creative vision, brand standards, and procedural expectations needed to drive operational and executional excellence across internal and external teams.
  • Consistently identify opportunities to accelerate and elevate team output, including but not limited to DCO and content iteration solutions, templatization self-service platforms, revamping and expanding enterprise viz-ID, as well as all corresponding governance.
  • Develop and execute marketing strategies that align with business objectives, strengthen brand positioning, and drive profitable growth. Oversee content development from brief to market, steward the development of marketing playbooks, and lead cross-functional teams in go-to market activation.
  • Develop and manage budgets for all content production, agency activity, and team operations. Consistently find ways to maximize all investments and leverage efforts beyond initial scope. Experienced with negotiating MSAs, annual/project SOWs, various fee models, and played an integral role in the agency review that landed Mediabrands to steward strategy, planning and execution of media budgets exceeding $1B.

Sr. Manager, Creative Studio

GEICO
06.2019 - 09.2021
  • Responsible for both the creative operations and creative direction over a large and diverse team.
  • Led multi-disciplinary teams to deliver thousands of high-quality assets annually across channels and funnel stages.
  • Provided strong leadership to enhance team productivity and morale.

Manager, Agency Relations and Media Advertising

GEICO
04.2016 - 06.2019
  • Oversee all aspects of multiple agency partnerships, including Media and Creative AOR.
  • Developed annual business targets, media budgets, channel planning, KPIs, and measurement frameworks.
  • Experienced leading 360 campaign activation, including but not limited to terrestrial and streaming broadcast, OOH, sports marketing, esports, promotional product and experiential marketing.

Media Advertising - Various Capacities

GEICO
11.2008 - 04.2016
  • Directly planned, negotiated, and executed media schedules across 11 markets with budgets exceeding $15M.
  • Oversaw the planning and execution of local radio and TV budgets across one hundred+ markets with budgets exceeding $150M.
  • Oversaw the planning and execution of OOH budgets across dozens of markets with budgets exceeding $25M.

Education

Bachelor of Science - Marketing

University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD
05.2008

Skills

  • Collaborative Leadership
  • Culture Transformation
  • Team Management
  • Creativity and Innovation
  • Negotiation
  • Content Development

Awards

  • '22 Adweek 50 - Spotlighting the behind-the-scenes luminaries in advertising, marketing, media and technology who were essential growth drivers.

Accomplishments

  • Successfully completed the Strategic Entrepreneurial Leadership Program through Darden Business School, UVA

Timeline

Sr. Director, Brand Creative and Content

GEICO
10.2022 - Current

Sr. Manager, Creative Studio

GEICO
06.2019 - 09.2021

Manager, Agency Relations and Media Advertising

GEICO
04.2016 - 06.2019

Media Advertising - Various Capacities

GEICO
11.2008 - 04.2016

Bachelor of Science - Marketing

University of Maryland - College Park

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Gary Aurand