LEO BURNETT

Posted on June 28, 2016July 19, 2016

Initially started at Leo Burnett as a Content Manager before being promoted to Content Strategist after a year of employment. Worked primarily on Altria’s various tobacco websites (Marlboro.com, Freshcope.com, Skoal.com, GoRedSeal.com, MyParliment.com, VirginiaSlims.com) as well as various digital campaigns and mircosites for Allstate Insurance.

Responsible for managing daily digital content updates and coordinating with development team on monthly deployments for several major tobacco websites.

Coordinated with user experience, creative, account, development and optimization teams to plan, pitch and execute metrics-driven digital content strategies including web, email, direct mail, POS and print communications with channel-specific KPIs.

Collaborated with creative team to conceptualize and present multi-million dollar digital and experiential promotions; creating and executing specific content and messaging strategies for each project.

Worked closely with user experience team to conduct user research and strategic goal setting using interviews, personas, story vignettes and competitor analyses.

Created information architecture and content hierarchies based on user/consumer research and brand’s business goals to lead UX team in creating user flows and wireframes.

Developed and interpreted content matrices to facilitate gap analyses, competitive assessments and heuristic evaluations of digital content and usability.

Created and implemented guidelines for content-production processes and asset creation.

Identified digital performance metrics to meet and exceed through project-specific content strategies that saw month-by-month and yearly increases in unique visitors, page views and repeat engagement.

BuyEwert.com

Posted on June 8, 2016 Leave a comment

Playboy.com

Posted on January 15, 2012July 19, 2016

Considering the range of my responsibilities as a Digital Content Producer and Magazine Section Editor for Playboy.com, to simply say I produced web content or edited a portion of the site would be a disservice to all the various assignments I was tasked with and undertook.

Below you’ll find some links, screen-shots and a list of some of my various responsibilities and proudest accomplishments from Playboy.com:

Edit for style, quality, tone, and messaging of all web content for Playboy.com;
Manage, format and publish all content for magazine section of Playboy.com;
Work with Director of Content, Associate magazine Editors and Public Relations staff to coordinate digital release of magazine content on Playboy.com;
Support Creative Director and Senior Designers to oversee user experience and information architecture Playboy.com and affiliated web sites;
Update homepage daily and magazine section content weekly with a mixture of marketable, popular, timely and socially engaging content;
Promote and develop an engaging use of multimedia, including video, still photography and interactive elements to create dynamic, compelling editorial and brand-integrated content;
Serve as editor of the online Playboy event calendars, making certain they are up-to-date, thorough, accurate and coordinated appropriately;
Create and format web pages using the several of Playboy’s Content Management Systems (Fat Wire, WordPress, MARS, K4);
Develop and maintain web editorial style guide, and ensure compliance with those standards;
Review and approves content changes before the changes go live on the website;
Coordinate with social media and affiliate Playboy web properties to maximize impact, viral efficacy and media pick-up;
Nurture, cultivate, and engage Playboy’s audience across various online communities;
Develop creative messages that innovate and drive brand-integrated marketing campaigns that utilize and engage social media platforms;
Monitor online discussions taking place among Playboy.com visitors, and report on trends and insights;
Collaborate, develop and execute digital marketing campaigns with advertising and strategic content directors and production staff;
Work with the graphic designers and web developers to create templates for web and new media that better improve production quality and efficiency;
Measure and analyze impact of Playboy.com content and marketing campaigns through web sites, social media, online communities and digital communications using various metrics and analytics;
Conduct usability testing and enhance the user experience on Playboy.com and affiliate web site;
Work with web developers to coordinate search engine optimization for Playboy.com;
Keep current on digital editorial and entertainment communication media trends;

Handle various projects as assigned by the Creative Director and Editorial Content Director.

Web Producer and Magazine Section Editor for Playboy.com – January 2011-November 2011

Playboy.com Home — Home page for Playboy.com – Responsible for general daily maintenance and content creation for Playboy.com: Daily updates, events and news from dozens of Playboy’s various creative properties. Provided quality control support, edited site content and developed re-occurring original content franchises. Produced brand-integrated web content for advertorial and marketing campaigns. Oversaw and helped with a complete redesign of Playboy.com, assisting in site layout, copy and information architecture. Worked in both a custom CMS and WordPress platforms.

Playboy.com - Magazine Section — My main responsibility was producing and editing for the web all of Playboy magazine content on Playboy.com. Managed communications between various Playboy-branded properties and original content creation. (200k monthly page views)

iPlayboy Gonzo Channel — Developed and produced $200k marketing and editorial campaign for the 2011 film The Rum Diary. This is the iPlayboy component of the campaign; a curated online channel of Hunter S. Thompson inspired articles from the iPlayboy digital archives. Responsible for concept, design and copy.

Playboy.com HST Correspondence — As part of Playboy’s Rum Diary marketing campaign, I produced this feature on scans of letters between Playboy magazine and Hunter S. Thompson.

Playboy.com Rum Diary — Compiled, edited and obtained rights for several articles, features and interviews by or about Hunter S. Thompson from Playboy magazine. Wrote and edited all copy, and directed design layout.

The Hef Pages — Responsible for updating, editing, developing and creating Playboy.com’s branded-legacy content including features on the Playboy art collection and iPlayboy.

Playboy Art Gallery — I worked with Playboy’s long-time art curator to create this re-occurring franchise on Playboy.com that featured different artists and works of art from Playboy’s art collection; giving cultural context to the work and historical insight into the artists’ involvement with Playboy.

Playboy.com Oddities — Repackaging Playboy’s archived and legacy content I created, researched and edited periodic features for Playboy’s Cyber Club.

Proximity

Posted on January 10, 2012January 25, 2012

Managing and Contributing Editor – Proximity: March 2008 – June 2009.

Proximity is an award-winning magazine dedicated to contemporary art and culture. Published by the Chicago-based nonprofit Public Media Institute, Proximity is nationally distributed and available in nearly a dozen countries.

Proximity #6 (An) Other Art Worlds

My involvement with Proximity began in early 2008 as a contributing writer. After the first two issues were published I began working in support roles with the art director, Chad Kouri, and managing editor, Mairead Case. In mid-2008 I served as managing editor; contributing to and editing Proximity #6. As managing editor, I worked alongside publisher, Ed Marszewski, and Kouri to concept, assign, compile, market, advertise and print the Chicago-based 200-page arts and culture publication.

Below you will find images of the publication, links to writing samples and content from issue #6:

Issue 6
Interview with artist Steve Lambert
Review of Beautiful Losers documentary

Proximity #1 – The Debut Issue

Proximity #2 – The City Issue

Proximity #3 The New Issue

Proximity #4 The Remedies Issue

Proximity #5 The Photography Issue

Proximity #7 A Catalog of Strategies

Lumpen

Posted on January 9, 2012January 25, 2012

Lumpen magazine is an independent, critical arts and culture publication, published 3-4 times a year. Lumpen’s 5-15,000 copies per issue are distributed in Chicago, LA, Olympia, Portland and NYC.

Lumpen 113 — First issue following 2009 redesign by Plural.

Lumpen is the oldest project of its publisher, the Chicago-based nonprofit, Public Media Institute. More than simply a magazine, Lumpen works in coordination with a wide array of media projects, festivals, events, exhibitions and various other publications produced by PMI.

Lumpen stack — Photo via MichaelFreimuth.com

During my time in various roles at PMI, Lumpen, and Proximity, I had the pleasure of working in collaboration on these projects, publications and events by PMI:

– Version, an international festival about art technology and social issues.

– Select Media Festival our annual media arts festival

– Lumpen TLVSN, a cable-access television series and web tv channel

– Co-Prosperity Sphere, an experimental cultural center. (As well as Eastern Expansion and Northern Exposure)

– Proximity Magazine, an enjoyable art mag

– Matériel Magazine, another awesome art mag

– Pr, an art broadsheet newsletter

– The (con)Temporary Art Guide Chicago, an annual directory of contemporary art spaces in Chicago

My work with Ed Marszewski and The Public Media Institute began in early 2008 after returning to Chicago from Montana where I worked in new media research and event coordinating for Project Vote Smart, a nonprofit political education organization. I started as a contributing writer the end of 2008 when I promoted to managing editor. As managing editor I initiated and oversaw a complete visual and editorial redesign by Chicago design firm Plural.

Lumpen 112 before new format and design.

Lumpen 113 layout — New layout in Lumpen 113 - Majhongg's European tour photo diary.

lum·pen adj. 1. Of or relating to dispossessed, often displaced people who have been cut off from the socioeconomic class with which they would ordinarily be identified: lumpen intellectuals unable to find work in their fields. A member the underclass, especially the lowest social stratum. 2. Vulgar or common; plebeian.

LUMPEN TLVSN (interview) – The Yes Men at Co-Prosperity Sphere from lumpen on Vimeo.

Designing Obama

Posted on January 8, 2012January 25, 2012

Copy Editor and Contributing Ghostwriter – Designing Obama (Post Press) – March 2009 – February 2010.

Designing Obama

Designing Obama was originally conceived as a Kickstarter project by Scott Thomas, the Design Director for the Obama for America Campaign. The $84,613 Designing Obama raised is still among Kickstarter’s most successful and lucrative projects.

The 360-page book is full-color and hardbound, highly crafted with an embossed sleeve. It features forewords written by Steven Heller and Michael Bierut.

Designing Obama Book – The Kickstarter Video from SimpleScott on Vimeo.

Shortly after President Barack Obama was inaugurated, Thomas contacted me about helping to write and edited his book. Thomas played an integral part in creating and implementing the visual media and physical collateral for the campaign’s numerous functions and purposes, both in print and online. He asked me to work with him on the skeletal draft he already had to build a narrative that would speak to his own individual story, but not overshadow the significance of the tireless work of millions of artists and volunteers that made President Barack Obama’s story possible.

The intention from the get go was to create a book filled predominately with art. The challenge from the beginning was to create a story that spoke to the impressive collection of art work Thomas had collected, while balancing the interests of designers and artists with the generalized and contextual interests of the millions that supported Barack Obama.

Designing Obama TOC — Designing Obama T.O.C. layout

The Post Family

Posted on January 7, 2012February 2, 2012

Contributing Writer – ThePostFamily.com – January 2008 – Present.

I’ve been peripherally involved with The Post Family since the Chicago design collective’s inception in 2007. During that time I’ve assumed many titles: spirituality guru, historian, resident salvia-video expert. But mainly I’ve concentrated on doing the bulk of site’s music content; interviews, videos and blog posts. I’ve dabbled in the group’s other gallery functions like printing and installing, and serve as a main copy and editorial collaborator.

Music Interviews and Features:
Wyatt Cenac
Yoni Wolf (WHY?)
Icy Demons
Mayer Hawthorne
Zach Hill (Hella)
Tom Fec (Tobacco and Black Moth Super Rainbow)
Verma

"A trap door from here to eternity and back again: not just another drop in the bucket" - James Harry Ewert Jr. — Collage sculpture at "There, Now It Will Last Forever" show at The Family Room (June 2010).

Freelance Writing | Editing

Posted on January 7, 2012January 31, 2012

I’ve attempted to gather every available clip I have at my disposal. Everything from my college newspaper clips to mundane blog posts. It’s all right here in some form or another. Please let me know if you encounter any broken links.

Alarm Press (Contributing Writer)
Earth
Braids
Marnie Stern
War on Drugs

Jettison Quarterly (Managing Editor #6, #7 | Contributing Writer)
Acre and Harold Arts Feature PDF
Avan Lava interview PDF
Shit We’re Into PDF
Mayer Hawthorne interview PDF
Interview with Tom Fec of Tobacco and Black Moth Super Rainbow

My Chicago Athlete magazine (Contributing Writer)
Mayor Daley’s Bike Legacy

Magazine of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Columbia College Chicago (Contributing Writer)
Becca Klaver Profile

Chicago Reader (Editorial Intern | Contributing Writer)
Breakdown of largest collecting of legal fees from city
write up on Happy Village Bar
Roger’s Park Neighborhood Listings

In These Times magazine (Editorial Intern | Contributing Writer)
Adbusters’ ads busted
Hard times for student borrowers

Glen Ellyn Patch (Reporter)
District 89 test scores dip; fail to meet expectations
Gallery exhibit opens to a bang then annoying hum

Chicago Innerview (Contributing Writer)
Interviews:
Air
The Flaming Lips
Bon Iver
Mogwai
Bloc Party
Owen Pallett
She Wants Revenge
The Faint
Bobby Bare Jr. and the Young Criminals Starvation League
Mayer Hawthorne
The Heart Procession
The Redwalls
Ted Leo
Mission of Burma