Kate Richardson
New York,NY
Summary
Veteran Senior Executive with 18 years of strategic planning, media and content expertise. Proven track record in cross-functional collaboration and operational leadership, having led multiple brand on-boardings and first-to-market executions. Collaborative and dedicated to building and leading talented and motivated individuals.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
Work History
SVP, Planning
Spark Foundry
12.2023 - Current
- Currently overseeing Lowe's $825M annual omnichannel marketing budget, spanning ~100 individual campaigns for specific corporate and custom vendor needs.
- Onboarded Lowe's as new business; responsible for initiating billing and buy management set up, staffing, team organization, team trainings, and new meeting, processes and template implementation.
- Collaborating with executive interagency and client team members on long-term Lowe's brand framework and go to market strategy. This includes specialized approaches to annual partnerships, such as NFL.
- Increasing relevant audience targeting with refinement of Lowe's consumer definitions, new partner audience data share agreements, and first-time tests of premium audience sets.
- Building new annual measurement framework featuring updated partner studies, data readouts, and data delivery cadence to expand performance-led marketing approach.
- Directing work efficiency improvements such as migration to automated, self-service tools for media plan administration needs.
- Spearheading innovation opportunities that include AI audio, new shoppable partnerships, and first-ever expansion into podcasting and gaming.
- Managing a team of 17 employees, cultivating positive culture and focusing on career development.
SVP, Experience Design
Spark Foundry
12.2022 - 12.2023
- Established first Experience Design team on Campbell's, connecting all paid, owned and earned marketing executions for Swanson, Pace, Well Yes! and V8+ Energy into annual brand marketing plans.
- Focused on building Campbell's audience fandom, concentrating on cultural connectivity and speed to market of owned social. Updated approach resulted in follower growth of 47% or more across active brand's social platforms.
- Launched multi-year idea platforms for Swanson and V8+Energy, including first-ever V8 sampling program and integration into Instacart platform.
- Led content and media innovation team for Mattress Firm, stewarding linear, audio, digital and social based partnerships.
- Created “Chasing Sleep” in 2022, a two season long, custom 16-episode Mattress Firm podcast in partnership with iHeartMedia. Season 1 drove over $4M in sales, resulting in a 45% lift in incremental sales and achieving a 4x ROAS. Season 2 won Webby, OMMA Signal and Shorty awards.
- Executed first luxury audience specific publisher content campaign for Mattress Firm, creating white label content utilized across paid and owned channels that generated $30k of sales in first three months in market.
- Championed new Mattress Firm innovation through quarterly cross-channel "Half Baked" idea pitch meetings, resulting in $2M+ incremental in content programs.
VP, Content
Spark Foundry
01.2019 - 12.2022
- Oversaw Content and Digital/Print investment for USAA and Mattress Firm (May 2019-Dec 2022), Marriott (May 2019 - Feb 2021) and Macy's (Jan 2019 - May 2019). Managed $20M-$35M in annual investments.
- Co-created “Chasing Sleep" in 2022, a custom Mattress Firm podcast in partnership with iHeartMedia.
- LA Addy winner for 2022 USAA x Amazon "Top Gun: Maverick" partnership, including custom digital flight simulator.
- Managed 2021 USAA and ESPN “Home Base” content partnership, the first ever co-branded episodic social series of its scale on ESPN and first-ever series targeted toward the military community.
- Received Honorable Mention at 2021 Brand Film Awards for USAA and CNN "Small Town Heroes" content partnership.
- Engineered or supported 18 content programs for Marriott from 2019-2021, a creative investment of over $35M.
- Executed all content support for USAA’s Nov 2019 launch of new “MADE” brand campaign, including integrations and sponsorships across 14 media partners.
- Responsible for 7-16 direct reports at any one time, depending on the project.
Content Director
Omnicom Media Group
06.2017 - 12.2019
- Intel and Toys"R"Us (TRU) content marketing lead
- Generated a 56% increase in TRU website traffic and ratings growth among key younger demos through partnership partnership with ABC's The Toy Box.
- Spearheaded first-ever TRU sweepstakes in 564 stores nationwide as part of 2017 Worldwide Day of Play campaign with Nickelodeon.
- Led 2018 Intel "CRE8: Celebrate the Process" content campaign, including two original video series, custom editorial, social, and a live event ("CRE8CON") and its follow up, "CRE8: Live the Process," featuring the creation & live premiere of an interactive horror short film using Intel Optane memory. "CRE8 Live the Process" was one of Pressboard's 50 Best Branded Content Partnerships of 2018.
- Established inaugural Cycle for Survival program across OMD offices in LA, NY, Chicago and San Francisco, raising over $31,000 for cancer research.
Director / Associate Director, Brand Partnerships
IHeartMedia
10.2014 - 06.2017
Associate Media Director / Media Buyer
Spark Foundry
05.2008 - 10.2014
Media Buyer / Jr. Media Buyer
MediaEdge Communications
07.2006 - 05.2008
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Advertising & English
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY05.2006
Skills
- Leadership and People Development
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Solution Innovation
- Partnership Development
- Strategic Planning
- Operational Leadership
Timeline
SVP, Planning
Spark Foundry
12.2023 - Current
SVP, Experience Design
Spark Foundry
12.2022 - 12.2023
VP, Content
Spark Foundry
01.2019 - 12.2022
Content Director
Omnicom Media Group
06.2017 - 12.2019
Director / Associate Director, Brand Partnerships
IHeartMedia
10.2014 - 06.2017
Associate Media Director / Media Buyer
Spark Foundry
05.2008 - 10.2014
Media Buyer / Jr. Media Buyer
MediaEdge Communications
07.2006 - 05.2008
Bachelor of Arts - Advertising & English
Syracuse University