Gillian Curtis
Verified Expert in Marketing
Marketing Expert
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since May 17, 2023
Gillian is a results-oriented strategist with a decade of leadership experience with Fortune 500 brands targeting Generation Z and millennial consumers. She has managed all facets of media marketing, including the strategy, planning, and collateral development of post-campaigns across more than 15 global luxury beauty, food, and household brands. Gillian is known for consistently delivering exceptional results that drive brand growth in today's ever-changing consumer landscape.
Expertise
- Communication
- Digital Media
- Digital Strategy
- Management
- Marketing Operations
- Team Development
- Team Leadership
- Thought Leadership
Work Experience
Strategy and Planning Consultant (Contract)
On Being
- Played a key role as a marketing expert driving efficiencies through strategic targeting and thoughtful tactical planning.
- Built partnerships, driving connections and deepening my understanding of the brand's growth audience and their state of need.
- Developed the marketing communication strategy transforming digital media tactics across Facebook and Instagram.
Marketing Consultant (Contract)
WESAP
- Consulted on their spring/summer marketing plan creating and implementing the best possible strategies across social and mail to reach their target audience.
- Analyzed the company and consumer operational needs, advising on the flow of the client's website, allowing them to optimize their site to meet the needs of their on-the-go consumers.
- Highlighted digital best practices to WESAP, allowing them to optimize their creative before going to market.
Director of Media Planning
VaynerMedia
- Built corporate-level brand strategies and marketing plans for Fortune 500 brands and managed negotiations and evaluation of recommendations for clients across Oreo, Chips Ahoy!, and Nabisco Scale initiatives.
- Orchestrated cross-functional collaboration with all media channels, PR, creative, organic, and shopper marketing teams to execute successful 360 marketing campaigns, delivering on ROI goals.
- Acted as the cornerstone connecter for internal and external communication to ensure expert-level execution of all campaign tasks.
- Evaluated market opportunities acting as a thought leader, building case studies and POVs on trending digital channels and sites, and consistently applying consumer learnings to campaigns.
- Balanced multiple projects simultaneously that spoke to brands' target consumers, including Gen Z and millennials, to achieve brand goals.
Associate Director, Media Planning
VaynerMedia
- Promoted innovative thinking to produce product/consumer strategies that achieve the client's media objectives across social, digital, and search channels.
- Managed budgets of $15+ million for clients, ensuring our final marketing plans and budget allocations were linked to the strategy.
- Built interagency presentations centered around storytelling, presenting initiatives to senior client teams at Mondelēz.
- Mentored junior team members, allowing for smooth management of all points of the digital marketing process, including budgets, planning, and reporting.
- Strengthened relationships with Meta, TikTok, Twitter, and Google, crafting content agreements and go-to-market strategies for brands.
- Evaluated Nielsen media mix modeling (MMM) results, improving YoY return for brands across key channels.
Media Supervisor
OMD
- Led digital marketing campaigns while being accountable for managing all aspects of buying, negotiating, budgeting, optimizing, and tracking KPIs to achieve brand objectives.
- Planned and strategically activated custom content, social events, and influencer campaigns for Clinique and MAC.
- Collaborated with OMD internal teams and improved interagency relationships to ensure campaign activation processes aligned with brand goals.
Senior Digital Strategist
OMD
- Fostered good working relationships with client teams to facilitate flawless execution of marketing plans and handled client requests, i.e., plan changes, ad-hoc requests, and budget changes.
- Monitored daily campaigns, assisting with creative approval, tracking reports, budget maintenance, buy changes, trafficking, and issuing insertion orders (IOs).
- Served as a resource for associates and assistants to resolve issues and monitor ongoing projects.
Project History
Stunt Marketing Campaign to Re-engage with Consumers
Played a key role in a marketing campaign that won the Shorty Award, which resulted in increasing followers and social media engagement.
A tongue-in-cheek campaign was built around the “world is ending” panic that occurred before a harmless asteroid. One household snack brand decided to step in and save the most important thing—cookies. The campaign focused on organic and paid support across Twitter, the platform where users looked to find news first at the time.
Beauty Partnership Campaign
Led digital and in-person activation for the initiative.
I collaborated with trendy JOE & THE JUICE to remind consumers of the makeup and skincare brand’s purpose and relevance within the beauty world. Invites to influencers were sent to extend the reach of this push, increasing the brand’s earned impressions.
New Snack Product
Established a bespoke strategy and leaned into unique planning tactics.
It was a cross-functional project for the number one snack brand in countries worldwide, including the US. This brand revitalized a beloved limited edition product based on tactics targeting the brand’s growing consumers.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Business Management
Babson College - Wellesley, MA, USA
Skills
Core
Marketing, Digital Marketing, Digital Marketing Best Practices, Paid Advertising, Product Marketing, Audience Targeting, Google Paid Ads, Brand Strategy, Influencer Marketing, Marketing Operations, Content, LinkedIn Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy, Digital Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Branding, Content Marketing, Shopper Marketing
Platforms & Tools
TikTok, Meta Platform, Adobe Illustrator, Google Analytics
Other
Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, Digital Media, Digital Strategy, Leadership, Media Planning, Marketing Plans, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Project Management, Project Planning, Paid Media, Beauty Products, Food & Beverage, Thought Leadership, Communication, Consulting, Team Leadership, Team Development, Instagram, Facebook, Programmatic Marketing, Growth Strategy, Strategy, Product Strategy, Digital Creative Direction, Entrepreneurship, Management, Event Marketing, Retail & Wholesale, Snapchat, Cross-functional, Presentations, Budgeting, Podcasting, Go-to-market Plans, Go-to-market Optimization, Storytelling
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring