Hi, I’m Marc. I help grow

using my experience with

Who I've Worked With:

  • All
  • B2B
  • Branding
  • Creative Direction
  • Digital
  • Experiential
  • Gamification
  • Naming
  • Print
  • Strategy
  • Video
  • Web Design
for brands
for agencies
for startups

I'll help you understand and reach your target
better than ever using data and creativity

Recent brand projects

Relaunched the iconic surfing brand The Endless Summer as a 50th Anniversary Book & Box Set, overseeing the launch strategy, recruiting and management of a 360 team

Complete rebrand, web design and strategic overhaul of a popular wellness website to increase traffic and conversions.

 

Strategy and creative direction of a b2b marketing funnel for a top financial printer targeting hard to reach compliance execs at major corporations and institutions.

Customer research, brand strategy and grassroots roll out of a marketing campaign for the Florida State Department of Health’s Children’s Dentistry clinic. 

Create a product nomenclature and taxonomy system for a product line that’s a companion to several different brands of asthma inhalers. 

Naming, branding and creative development of sales materials for B2B SaaS warehouse apps powered by SAP.

How can I help?

Is your marketing getting messy? I can fix it. 

Research

DATA ANALYSIS

I will uncover hidden gems and insights in your data, finding the social media behaviors and interests of your fans and email lists. 

PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

Who is your ideal customer? Based on research I’ll not only identify interesting and new target personas, but give them fun names we can call them in marketing meetings. From Kelly Quantified to Sam Single, this shorthand will help your team understand who ever piece of communications is talking to. 

MOOD BOARD

Based on the social insights – understanding what media your fans are consuming, I’ll put together examples of the types of posts, ads and images they’re exposed to, which can help inform our creative development. 

Strategy, Media & Tech

ANALYTICS

If you’re selling something online, there’s at least one part of your sales funnel that can be improved and I can quickly find it and make recommendations. 

PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA

Facebook just took all their fun data toys away from us. Programmatic media offers enough levers to pull to make Congress want to interview me for a month straight. I can get you into buying programmatic – once a tool reserved for huge brands and agencies, at costs up to 80% cheaper than Facebook and Google with 80,000 more ways to target people. I will still do Facebook ads if you want me to. 

ADTECH

There’s a gazillion tools out there. Fortunately I’ve worked on the adtech side too and can find a nice SaaS when I see one. I will add key pieces of my marketing stack to your team’s repertoire, because we all know everyone is too busy to check out every vendor that approaches us. 

Creative

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

I have experience launching and relaunching dozens of brands. I will help you understand what your brand stands for, and rally your team around the vision. Then we’ll roll out new creative materials and tell the world. 

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

From award winning television commercials to hiding jokes in sweepstakes rules, I add to the nerdy analytics side with subversive and sometimes hilarious humor. 

WEIRD STUFF

Anything else that doesn’t fall under traditional. Stunts, hoaxes, unbranded sites, apps, gamification, scavenger hunts, and so on. 

I can help your agency find its voice, expand its capabilities and grow.

Agency development experience:

I founded MGC, headquartered in Gainesville, Florida in 2017 as a collective of worldwide talent and niche agencies to help me execute for my consulting clients. In that time I have launched and relaunched several brands, helped agencies fill gaps and built a worldwide network of talent.

I also spun off a subdivision focusing on offering programmatic media planning and buying to small business. 

 

 

Since 2015, I have helped ZDI, a Long Island based creative shop work with their clients on strategy, content and media planning including negotiating rates with media properties, handling all Facebook ads, analytics & optimization and client experience.

 

I joined DiMassimo Goldstein in 2013 as Head of Growth strategy, initially reporting to the CEO and collaborating with agency stakeholders on an internal rebrand.

This evolved into a hybrid role of consulting with their clients on growth strategies as well. My final nine months I reported to the President, focusing on new business and helping win new accounts including Hello Fresh and Weight Watchers. In this time I restarted the agency’s long-ignored award show submission process, working with the CEO and head of PR.

As a result of the efforts I started, the agency won Small Agency of the Year, Smart CEO 50, Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies (three years in a row) as well as numerous creative awards from these efforts, and grew 40% per year over 3 years.

As Half Fiction, the agency I founded in 2009 got the attention of larger accounts, I  needed a more stable team than my remote model could provide. I merged Half Fiction with Catch24. There, I started their strategy department and helped win new business from Casio and DirecTV.

Founded this network agency during the great recession in 2009 to help brands figure out social media and experiential – as these departments received deep cuts at bigger agencies. Won business from startups and emerging brands as well as L’Oreal, COTY, Clarins Fragrance Group, Kraft and Yahoo.

I joined this award-winning experiential agency when it was called Snap Marketing in 2005 as the creative director. Worked with the partners to rename and rebrand the agency “Escalate” while helping concept a strategic platform based on the psychology of relationships and applying it to brands. Created all new business materials and answered all RFPs. Helped secure major account wins from Coke Zero, Simply Orange, Sprite, Anheuser-Busch, Samsung, Haier, Chevy, Mercury and many other blue chip clients.

How can I help?

You specialize. You’re full service. There’s still gaps to fill. I can help with that. 

Agency Growth

AGENCY POSITIONING

I’ll audit your case studies, past work and experience and work with your executive team to identify your ideal customer profile. We’ll work together to figure out how to position your agency above the pitch / RFP process so you’re only competing against yourselves.

NEW BUSINESS

Once we establish your ideal customer profile, I’ll work with your new business team to fuse marketing and sales. From rewriting case studies, to creating inbound content pieces and marketing automation, let’s start getting some buzz around the agency again. 

RFP RESPONSES

It’s no one’s favorite thing to do, but I will learn your agency’s strengths and make them sing in the response. RFPs are all about detail and nuance. And I’m also great at telling you which ones to skip. 

Strategy & Media

ANALYTICS & DATA

From analyzing online funnels, to discovering hidden personas in a client’s social audience, I can help remind your client roster why they pay you so much money every month.  

PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA

Facebook just took all their fun data toys away from us. Programmatic media offers enough levers to pull to make Congress want to interview me for a month straight. Let’s offer your clients programmatic before someone else does. 

ADTECH

There’s a gazillion tools out there. Fortunately I’ve worked on the adtech side too and can find a nice SaaS when I see one. I will add key pieces of my marketing stack to your team’s repertoire, because we all know everyone is too busy to check out every vendor that approaches us. 

Creative

EXPERIENTIAL

Experiential events get lots of buzz, but understanding the nuances takes experience. I’ve launched huge campaigns for brands like Coke Zero, so I can not only come up with the idea but understand how to keep an idea under a budget and logistically possible. 

SOCIAL MEDIA ADS

Facebook ads. LinkedIn ads. They’re beneath your creative team. Your media department thinks it’s not their responsibility. Well, I can do it. I have an iterative process where I rapidly A/B test targeting and creative to optimize costs and report back with what’s working. Some of these ideas can then become their own campaigns that stand on their own. 

WEIRD STUFF

Anything else that doesn’t fall under traditional. Stunts, hoaxes, unbranded sites, apps, gamification, scavenger hunts, and so on. 

I help startup founders thrive in chaos and launch faster.

Recent startup projects

Naming, logo design, creative direction, user experience design, investor presentation writing and product development for a healthtech startup focused on medical adherence.

 

Social media behavioral analysis of asthma market, persona development, go-to-market strategy, investor pitch deck and copywriting for a healthtech startup focused on asthma adherence in the UK.

 

Gamification and economic rewards system for an alternative wellness marketplace.

Successful Kickstarter launch of a body-sized wet wipe leading to the establishment of a burgeoning consumer brand. 

Launch of a fashionable anti-microbial bag on Kickstarter which raised over 7 figures. 

Branding, web development and social media strategy to launch a healthtech company focused on alternative remedies to chronic pain.

You need a lot done...

I bet I can help with a lot of it. Startups need to be as lean and fast as possible in the early going. It’s tempting to create a list of roles once you have money and hire front end designers, backend designers, UI/UX experts, branding people, analytics, writers, etc. But it’s a lot faster when the UX person is also the designer and the writer. 

Disclaimer: I only work with funded startups, I don’t care how “visionary” your idea is, I have lots of unfunded visionary ideas of my own to work on for free. 

Pre-Launch

PITCH DECK

I’ve helped startups raise millions of dollars with pitch decks that explain concepts simply while creating excitement around the opportunity. I help founders cut away the hype and focus on the important details investors look for. 

PRODUCT

As an entrepreneur, I often see opportunities that might be missed by people too close to the project, or not invested because they have only one niche skill. As a member of startup teams, I’ve helped transform concepts and taken great ideas to the next level.

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

From naming, to logos and getting the message down, a solid brand is critical not just for launching to the public, but to get investors excited as well. 

Research

DATA ANALYSIS

I will uncover hidden gems and insights in data, finding the social media behaviors and interests of potential fans.

PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

Who is your ideal customer? Based on research I’ll not only identify interesting and new target personas, but give them fun names we can call them in marketing meetings. From Kelly Quantified to Sam Single, this shorthand will help your team understand who ever piece of communications is talking to. 

MOOD BOARD

Based on the social insights – understanding what media your potential fans are consuming, I’ll put together examples of the types of posts, ads and images they’re exposed to, which can help inform our creative development. 

Strategy, Media & Tech

ANALYTICS

If you’re selling something online, there’s at least one part of your sales funnel that can be improved and I can quickly find it and make recommendations. 

PROGRAMMATIC MEDIA

Facebook just took all their fun data toys away from us. Programmatic media offers enough levers to pull to make Congress want to interview me for a month straight. I can get you into buying programmatic – once a tool reserved for huge brands and agencies, at costs up to 80% cheaper than Facebook and Google with 80,000 more ways to target people. I will still do Facebook ads if you want me to. 

ADTECH

There’s a gazillion tools out there. Fortunately I’ve worked on the adtech side too and can find a nice SaaS when I see one. I will add key pieces of my marketing stack to your team’s repertoire, because we all know everyone is too busy to check out every vendor that approaches us. 

Creative

BRAND DEVELOPMENT

I have experience launching and relaunching dozens of brands. I will help you understand what your brand stands for, and rally your team around the vision. Then we’ll roll out new creative materials and tell the world. 

CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

From award winning television commercials to hiding jokes in sweepstakes rules, I add to the nerdy analytics side with subversive and sometimes hilarious humor. 

WEIRD STUFF

Anything else that doesn’t fall under traditional. Stunts, hoaxes, unbranded sites, apps, gamification, scavenger hunts, and so on. 

My Experience

“What are you looking for in a new hire?”

I’m frequently asked this in the small university town I currently live in when inquiring about hiring students.

“Give me someone curious with good taste, who can write well and can figure out things on the Internet and I’ll teach them the rest.” I’ll respond.

These are the common threads that have fueled a career that has spanned over two decades to deliver what some people are now starting to call a “Full Stack Marketer” and others call a “Growth Hacker.”

From top NYC ad agencies to startups, to my own ventures, I’ve held roles spanning creative, strategy, marketing and business development.

It’s my belief this is the future of marketing: thoroughly cross-trained individuals with a bias towards action.

You don’t need more people – just better people.

1988

After blowing off homework for the entire first semester of high school, I liberate my report card from the mailbox. My first venture into graphic design is making my own.

1988

Though my report card is much better designed than the real one, my lack of personal branding undermines me when my parents fail to believe I really aced all my classes.

1988

Part of my punishment is to help mom at work during school vacations. I find her job a total snore (media planning) and meander into the art department.

1988

A young art director takes me under his wing and teaches me how to use a stat camera and press type to create ad mechanicals. I’m thrilled with seeing my work in print the next day and hooked on advertising for life.

press type

1989

The agency gets its first Mac computers. I quickly teach myself how to use the programs to start an underground newspaper in high school.

1991

Still not getting good grades, my school ships me off to a trade school for half the day to learn advertising art.

1991

I wind up teaching the advertising art teacher how to use a Mac, and spend my time as the in-house agency for the school and teachers instead of having to do assignments.

1992

I’m accepted to The School of Visual Arts but can’t afford it. I decide to get a job doing Mac production until I figure things out. Take a job putting together supermarket circulars on Long Island at night while I wait to graduate high school.

1992

Graduate from high school and start a punk rock music magazine called Isotope, which later merges with a larger one to become the biggest free punk rock magazine on the east coast, supported by dozens of record label ads. Several indie record labels advertise and we interview a who’s who of famous bands.

1995

After three years toiling away in Long Island sweat shops, I get back in touch with the art director who mentored me at my mom’s agency. From his job at Mad Dogs & Englishmen, he tells me I’m funny and should be an “advertising creative” and stop doing this menial layout stuff.

1995

I find a recruiter in NYC willing to work with a 20 year old with no college diploma, who places me at a pharma agency production department doing small changes to Tylenol ads. My recruiter is nervous, calls my supervisor to see how I’m doing and they tell her I’m the fastest person they’ve ever had. She sends me to work in the production department at BBDO.

1996

Promoted to junior art director at BBDO working on Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, HBO, Visa, Pizza Hut and many other large clients.

1997

The Internet becomes popular and I’ve already been online in some form since 1992. I create the first ever web banners for Fed Ex and advise on the web development of M&Ms’ first website.

1997

After two years of endlessly long hours having a hand in the storyboards and props for 30% of the Super Bowl commercials, I leave advertising to design characters for the Emmy Award winning season of Nickelodeon’s Blue Clues.

1998

Joined my former BBDO creative director at Ammirati Puris Lintas as an art director, working on campaigns for UPS, Labatt’s, Dos Equis, RCA and GMC.

1998

A poster project UPS forgot about gives my partner and I an hour to come up with an idea. It wins Silver at the International ADDY Awards.

1999

After selling my fair share of headlines, I become a hybrid art director/copywriter. Recruiters don’t know what to do with me. 18 years later this is totally normal. I join a small agency working on RC Cola, Tracfone, Crain’s New York Business and InStyle Magazine.

2000

Become one of the first art directors at Brand Buzz, an agency form under the Y&R umbrella to integrate the creative process of the entire agency network. I work on concepts for Sony Wega, Toblerone, KFC and Colgate.

2002

Taking a break from NYC, I join a small agency in Western Massachusetts, working on Spalding, Polar Beverages and many local accounts, winning multiple regional ADDY awards and have work featured in the PRINT Regional Design Issue.

2004

Working with a company developing customized social network software, I founded Adholes. Adholes was an irreverent social network for advertising creatives and for many people in the business, the first one they ever logged into. Over six years, I growth hacked the site on a tiny budget to 10,000+ users, 20 worldwide chapters and hundreds of networking events. It was relaunched as a Slack community in 2016.

2004

2005

Joined Snap Marketing, an independent experiential marketing agency as creative director. Led a rebrand of the agency to ESCALATE. Collaborated with the President on all new business pitches. 

2005

Created award winning experiential marketing campaigns for Coke Zero, Mercury, Condé Nast, Royal Caribbean, The Royal Bank of Canada and several other major brands.

2009

Cofounded my own network agency, Half Fiction, specializing in social media, digital and experiential. Clients included Clarins Fragrance Group, Pax Wholesome Foods, COTY, L’Oreal and several funded startups.

 

2013

Merged Half Fiction with Catch-24. Started the strategy department. Pitched and won the consolidated Casio social media account across all brands as well as Sermo. Worked on digital strategy for Lufthansa, DirecTV, The New York Yankees and Oracle.

2014

Joined DiMassimo Goldstein as a the Head of Growth strategy. Worked with the CEO to rebrand the agency while heading up digital on all agency accounts including Reader’s Digest, TradeStation, Fresh Direct, Hello Fresh and Mediacom. Responsible for responding to RFIs and RFPs and creating the agency’s inbound marketing practice.

2015

Move to Florida and created a marketing collective called MGC Solutions, working with early to mid-stage startups and growth brands across the world.

LATEST WORK
1 Y
Graphic Design
1 Y
Art Director
1 Y
Copywriter
1 Y
Creative Director
1 Y
Creative Director
1 Y
Social Media
1 Y
Analytics + Big Data
1 Y
Inbound

How can I help?