Annette Steiner

Creative Direction and hands-on creative branding to grow a company or product. Consultative Solutions that make a difference.

A $5.6 billion global medical device company, headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. Products are sold in more than 100 countries and the company has over 20 major operations and manufacturing facilities worldwide.

Develop creative concepts for new product launches and marketing campaigns that drive product recognition. Design and execute award winning advertising, sales kits, collaterals and multi-media. Spearhead digital media strategy and implementation such as crowdsourcing, e-Publishing and augmented reality to drive adoption of emerging technologies.

• Concept and oversee development for mobile apps and online web content.
• Manage in-house creative staff of 7, freelancers and external agencies.
• Design and implement keyword photo search engine and nomenclature for optimized creative functionality.

Autism Speaks is dedicated to increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders, to funding research into the causes, prevention and treatments for autism.

Successfully revived and re-launched a failed product line with direct mail, packaging and new media campaigns. Transformed an under-performing in-house creative team with high turnover and low morale into a high performing team that positively impacted the bottom line and increased profit margins for company.

• Optimized and executed go-to-market creative strategies and processes while managing a 10-person group of art directors, copywriters and freelance designers.
• Established and implemented organization of creative workflows, job nomenclature and server structure to gain efficiencies.
• Recruited, trained and mentored staff of 7. Educated managers in creative workflow to better support the organizational goals.

Brought on to manage creative for small firm and quickly educated clients to recognize effective marketing opportunities that resulted in business growth. Translated client objectives into creative strategies. Persuaded locally focused client to migrate marketing efforts with rebranded regional collateral and integrated campaigns for national positioning and that garnered additional revenues for the agency.

• Moved agency from strictly print mindset to provide cutting edge multimedia, broadcast and new media services.
• Added to bottom line and increased billings by 4x within a 3-year period.
• Instituted organized processes to manage assets and streamline production.

Developed effective brand strategies for multiple Samsung divisions. Designed booth/graphics for CES, the predominant consumer electronics industry conference. Collaborated on targeted strategy to develop cross-division template and integrate consistent branding at Samsung. Brought on and oversaw staff of 7 and managed external vendors.

Directed, cast and executed award winning, industrial national client campaigns for print, radio, and broadcast. Developed launch campaign for DATA Products, new brand of copiers and strategy to entice sales reps to attend annual sales meeting on their own budget. Created a series of three commercials, direct mail and affordable branding for private retailers. Campaign successfully secured 100% rep attendance at conference, captured interest of company looking to acquire brands and resulted in a desired merger/acquisition of DATA Products with Hitachi.

Oversaw brand, seasonal and promotional messaging strategies/execution for TV, radio and print for local office of high-end commercial paint company. Developed communications and media buying plans for client. Adjusted Media buying habits to streamline process resulting in cost savings, broader ad reach and increased sales per media insertion by 6%. Relocated to LA corporate offices to oversee global marketing and communications.

• Handled creative for 5 global divisions and managed $3 million media budgets.
• Selected, directed and supervised photographers, illustrators, directors and producers.
• Trained and supervised art department staff.

Founded an award winning boutique agency specializing in photo art direction. Built in-house photography and video studios that combine conventional and non-conventional ad venues and provided clients with cutting edge technology as part of media mix. Partnered with PR/marketing agencies to bring about more options for Cigna Health Plans, Oxford Health Plans, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals, Citibank, Schick, Doubleday, Uncle Ben’s, Tyco Toys, Play Station, Sony Games and other clients.

Originated the practice of running commercials in movie theatres by creating a promo for the new ABC TV show “The Young Riders” and ran it as a commercial before the featured attractions. Recruited to collaborate on agency’s efforts to gain Parker Brothers account. Pitched winning concept to secure the account over competitor agencies and generated new venue for revenue (toys and games) at Grey Advertising.

Accountable for branding and name generation of Milton Bradley account toys and games (Battleship, Operation, Pictionary, Twister, etc.). Instrumental in influencing toymaker mindsets to reduce female stereotyping, create realistic female toy and game characters, and foster appreciation of women and girls in the toy industry. Supervised an art department of seven designers and copywriters.

• Created concepts that won the agency’s first non-toy account, Sharp Electronics.

Recruited from college to Dancer Fitzgerald Sample as one of 13 Jr. Art Director/Writer, mentored by Cliff Freeman, Donna Weinheim and Stanley Becker. Utilized digital graphics for a 15-second Cheerios TV spot and earned a promotion to Art Director within 3-months. Featured in Millimeter magazine for use of cutting edge technology. Recognized as creator of the most successful premium package for Cheerios. Subsequently awarded responsibility for Nabisco account new products, branding and name generation.

• Provided concepts and executed projects for print and TV
• Pitched ideas to both internal and external client marketing teams
• Attended focus groups
• Selected casting talent and supervised photographers, illustrators, directors and producers