How to use this site

Portfolio: Please scroll down the page to see a portfolio of my market research, marketing communications and PR work. This site is designed to be an easy introduction to how I create powerful copy to position brands and sell product, all while meeting tight timelines and shoestring budgets.

Resume: I’m more than a first-rate copywriter and market researcher. Click here to view my resume and learn about my successes generating revenue, developing new partnerships, and managing relationships.

Copywriting: annual reports

The challenge: Create copy according to tight deadlines while working with a global chain of exacting stakeholders (including Dentsu) while preserving consistent messaging, as well as creating all-new copy that strictly conformed to existing Honda idiom.
The solution: To quote Yoda, “There is no ‘try’, there is only ‘do’.”
The success: We created a powerful story for millions of Honda customers, shareholders and employees.

Copywriting: PR + Messaging

Click here for Portfolio Sample

The challenge: Highlight Camosun College’s energy sustainability initiatives and give prominent partners recognition for an upcoming print and online campaign.
The solution: Create punchy, powerful messaging that highlight’s Camosun’s hidden
The success: We created a powerful story for millions of Honda customers, shareholders and employees.

Market research: focus groups + survey design + analysis

The challenge: Find funding for and carry out a market research project to deliver basic intelligence about local compensation trends for skilled, sales and managerial positions in Greater Victoria’s technology sector.
The solution: Facilitate focus groups with credible stakeholders from industry to help steer and validate the project, and meet project costs by using Survey Monkey and other low-cost web tools to collect the information.
The success: I designed and accomplished Victoria’s first-ever successful salary survey for tech companies, featuring data for 50 positions from 50 companies, with a lot of help from VIATeC and its member companies.

Copywriting: broadcast content

The challenge: Quickly localize colour/play by play of Japan’s most popular reality program for use by producers at G4, the Comcast property that broadcasts Ninja Warrior in the United States
The solution: Create high-quality, interesting content in plain English that could be easily used and modified by the end client.
The success: G4 liked my copywriting so much that it purchased the entire back catalog (dating back to 1994) from the Japanese vendor, TBS, Japan’s largest network.

Sample video, featuring my script:

Marketing tools: webinars + messaging

The challenge: During a time of government restraint and slashed budgets, develop strategies to maintain funding for nine regional science councils.
The solution: We researched how these councils leveraged a relatively small amount of funding to create a variety of benefits for industry, and created a video to tell their story.
The success: We showed the video to more than 120 cabinet ministers, MLAs, senior public servants and industry leaders, and the nine science councils continue to maintain their funding while other budgets are being slashed.

Portfolio Sample (video):

Marketing tools: news releases

The challenge: Meet the tight approval timeline of a large federal partner while ensuring my two client groups receive proper credit and recognition, and making sure benefits of a new program are clearly and simply communicated.
The solution: Plan ahead, anticipate needs, and provide stakeholders with messaging that hits the bulls-eye on the very first draft, to save valuable time.
The success: The news release paved the way for an announcement featuring four stakeholder groups: the client receiving the funding, the province, the federal agency, and a federal Cabinet representative.

Technical writing: translating technical concepts into plain language

The challenge: Translate an essay about design simplicity by one of the world’s leading software architects into elegant, plain English.
The solution: Ask for advice about software development (I’m not a coder), and then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
The success: My translation was published by O’Reilly Media, the chronicler and catalyst of leading-edge development.

Market research: email campaigns + project management

The challenge: Mark the launch of VIATeC’s new website by updating 250+ entries in the VIATeC Business Directory on a limited budget
The solution: Design an effective email marketing campaign to get the word out, and create an online survey tool that makes it easy for companies to update their own info.
The success: By having access to an updated database of the tech sector’s core capabilities, VIATeC was able to continue to act as a credible voice for its industry.

Marketing tools: profiles

The challenge: Engage a sophisticated customer base with a refreshing perspective on a market they already know intimately.
The solution: Celebrate companies companies who have found success in the market by identify their winning strategies.
The success: The client (CCCJ) asked me to provide a regular series of profiles for their membership communications.

My role: I helped my client engage its community – the Chamber needed someone with solid research and journalism skills to create high-quality, sophisticated content for a business audience intimately familiar with its target market.

Client: Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan