Work That Moves Brands Forward
A selection of global campaigns, strategies, and transformations that shaped business growth and consumer connection. More available upon request.
Marketing Strategy
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Marketing Strategy *
North America Brand Moments Strategy - adidas North America
From this
To This:
Re-Balancing Brand Investment adidas North America
Building a 5-year Marketing Strategy & Positioning Framework
This section includes just a few representative case studies; I’m glad to share additional examples and deeper detail as needed
Case Study 1: Case Study: Re-Balancing Brand vs. Performance Marketing – adidas North America
Marketing Challenge
Post-COVID, adidas NA had over-indexed on performance marketing to drive short-term eCom sales. While effective in the near-term, brand health scores stagnated, cultural credibility slipped, and the business became vulnerable with little investment in long-term equity.
Approach
As Director of Brand Strategy, Planning & Health, I led a reset to re-establish brand strength and rebalance investment across the funnel - restoring both cultural credibility and marketing effectiveness.
Redefined Brand Positioning: Partnered with global and NA leadership to shape adidas’ first long-term brand platform in years, reconnecting the brand to sport and culture.
Unified Executive Alignment: Brought the President, GMs, and CFO together around the long-term business value of brand investment, balancing short-term revenue with sustainable growth.
Rebuilt the Full Funnel: Restored upper- and mid-funnel marketing layers, connecting brand, category, and product campaigns to work cohesively from awareness through conversion.
Proved the Business Case: Introduced Media Mix Modeling (MMM) and a new measurement framework linking brand spend to ROI, halo effects, and long-term sales impact.
Embedded Brand Thinking: Integrated brand-building principles into annual and seasonal planning across Finance, Brand, and Business Units.
Results
Rebounded brand health scores across awareness, credibility, and cultural relevance, reversing stagnation.
Unaided awareness rose +5pts in just two years, a notoriously difficult metric to shift.
Established adidas’ first long-term brand platform in North America since impossible is nothing, still in-market and haloing across categories.
Strengthened credibility in strategic NAM growth categories reinforcing equity while driving commercial growth.
Performance marketing efficiency increased, with brand equity improvements making conversion campaigns more effective.
Case Study 2: Building a 5-year Marketing Strategy & Positioning Framework - adidas North America
Marketing Challenge:
Adidas needed a unified marketing strategy to re-establish its position as a global icon, one that could drive sustainable brand growth, strengthen credibility in sport and culture, and deliver measurable business impact.
After years of fragmented plans and uneven investment, the brand required a clear, future-facing framework defining the role of marketing in achieving adidas’ business ambition.
Approach:
As Director of Brand Strategy, Planning & Health, I shaped and implemented the 5-Year Marketing Strategy and Framework - rooted in the industry-leading WARC framework, widely recognized as the global benchmark for marketing effectiveness.
Defined the Role of Marketing: Clarified marketing’s purpose in driving both short- and long-term growth, building awareness, desire, and demand across the funnel.
Built a Long-Term Strategy: Developed a five-year plan to grow unaided awareness (+5 pts), consideration (+7 pts), and strengthen adidas’ sport and culture credibility.
Established the Investment Framework: Designed a full-funnel allocation model across Brand, Business Units, Channels, and Markets, aligning spend to strategic objectives and ROI.
Created the Marketing Calendar & Campaign Hierarchy: Connected the brand campaign layer (“You Got This”) with product and commercial campaigns, ensuring each had a defined role in the funnel.
Product Prioritization System: Introduced a tiering framework for product franchises, from “Elevated Franchises” to “Lead Categories” - to connect marketing strategies and efforts to commercial ambitions
Cross-Functional Implementation: Partnered with GMs, Merchandising, Category, and Channel Marketing teams to operationalize the strategy across functions and markets.
Leadership Alignment: Guided executive teams on balancing brand and commercial investments, connecting marketing KPIs to business growth
Results:
Re-entered Kantar’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the world.
Improved brand metrics in NAM: unaided awareness up +5 pts, consideration +7 pts, and brand strength gains across sport and culture categories.
Increased marketing ROI through clearer allocation and integrated brand–product planning.
Unlocked “freedom within a framework” - aligning to global consistency whilst adapting to local needs, empowering teams to execute with clarity and speed.
Case Study 3: North America Brand Moments Strategy - adidas
Marketing Challenge
Consumer insight and brand health data revealed that U.S. consumers…especially Gen Z were most engaged not with brand-created “moments,” but with existing cultural and sport moments that already commanded mass attention.
From Super Bowl and Coachella, to NBA All-Star Weekend, the U.S. Open, and even sneaker-specific moments like Boxing Day, these events captured disproportionate share of consumer interest and impressions.
adidas North America needed a new approach to brand strategy: stop forcing attention into brand-only campaigns and instead elevate adidas within the moments the consumer already cared about most.
Approach
As Director of Brand Strategy, I created and scaled the North America Brand & Cultural Moments Framework, embedding adidas into the cultural calendar with intent:
Insight to Marketing Strategy: Translated audience + brand health data into a “moments hierarchy” (Sport, Culture, Commercial).
Framework Design: Built a planning model to prioritize moments by visibility, cultural relevance, and product heat.
Operational Integration: Embedded the framework into seasonal brand planning, ensuring alignment across categories.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Partnered with merchandising, PR, media, and global campaign teams to unify investments and storytelling.
Measurement Framework: Designed a full-funnel measurement system (brand funnel, digital engagement, earned media, and commercial return) to evaluate the impact of brand moments and provide leadership with clear ROI proof points.
Business Results
Established a repeatable North America Moments Strategy, adopted across categories and functions.
Increased awareness & consideration with Gen Z, closing a key brand health gap.
Strengthened adidas’ fashion + sport relevance, reinforcing credibility and influence in culture.
Generated record-breaking brand buzz, engagement, and earned media, with multiple moments reaching all-time highs in impressions and visibility.
Improved efficiency by concentrating investment into fewer, higher-ROI moments, amplifying both consumer impact and commercial return.
