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Creative Director, Copywriter Words, Ideas, Strategy, Leadership, Brand Building RESUME PORTFOLIO I am a Creative Director/Copywriter and brand builder with more than 20 years of experience, located in Buffalo, New York. (Go Bills) I can dissect a brief, game plan, develop a core idea and transform that idea into a 360-degree campaign that rallies the team, client, and brand. I empower brands to connect, grow, and scale. I’ve worked at agencies as small as 10 and as large as 250. I’ve been the only writer with one art director. I’ve worked with teams as large as you can imagine. I've won ADDYs, I've judged ADDY shows. I've mentored creatives and entire creative teams. I've been described as “extremely reliable" and multiple agency's “big thinker.” I have a reputation for efficiently running the brainstorm, spotting the best idea, organizing the idea, and effectively communicating that idea into a white paper or deck format. Of course, I can present that deck. I can give feedback. I can take feedback. I build trust and I build relationships, at the office and with clients. Eammon Azizi Creative Director, Copywriter, Brand Builder CLIENTS & BRANDS

Resume Experience Creative Marketing Director, Senior Copywriter, Brand Builder Present Bar Chord Marketing, Inc Buffalo, New York Freelance Copywriting & Creative Consulting. Bar Chord Marketing simplifies marketing problems, amplifies messages, and scales business. Conceptualized and launched a new CPG brand, overseeing product positioning, messaging strategy, and go-to-market execution, driving measurable growth. Recruited, structured, and led a high-performing global creative team, implementing workflow improvements leading to a 150% YoY increase in client satisfaction and retention. Conducted a full audit of a brand's digital marketing strategy, identifying inefficiencies, reallocating budget resources to high-ROI channels, eliminating $80k in waste. Led the strategic rebranding and positioning of multiple brands, including agencies and corporate brands. Built brand guides and led brand architecture exercises. Scripted and directed multiple videos, including instructional, promotion, and social content. Managed the content strategy for a major digital brand's email and social campaigns, based on a full-funnel marketing approach. Client sampling: Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Beverage, Food Tech, Law Firms, CPG, Education, Construction, Experiential Programs, Service Industry, Digital Agencies, Health Tech. Co-Founder, Award-Winning Pitmaster, Brand Manager April 2021 - Present Que 42 BBQ Buffalo, New York Built Que 42 BBQ from the backyard to retail shelves and event productions. Led brand development, messaging, and copywriting, ensuring a cohesive and stand-out identity in a crowded market. Creator of award-winning recipes: 6th Best Mustard Sauce in the World (2024, American Royal World Series) 14th Best Sweet Rub (KC Style) in the World (2023, American Royal World Series). People’s Choice Award (KC Sauce) (2018, Freeze Que) Sponsored and utilized by two championship-level BBQ teams. Produces, promotes, and executes experiential events for samplings, charity events, and hosting BBQ competitions. Achieved consistent YoY revenue, averaging 60% annually since launch. Recently added Que 42 products to the TikTok Shop and Amazon. Created and formulated all original recipes, developing product line from scratch. Expanded the Que 42 brand via the acquisition of GrillsMafia (2025). Available online at www.que42bbq.com and in select stores. Creative Director, Writer July 2018 - April 2022 Caleres, Inc. St. Louis, Missouri Directly managed in-house creative team for the Famous Footwear brand, including art directors, digital designers and writers. Record growth in revenue for the brand and company during my tenure, with increased sales 38.4%, year over year. Led the creative team through the successful execution of a rebrand, re-igniting the brand to compete and continue increasing sales and relevancy in an extremely competitive market. Pivoted through a pandemic, remotely managing the team. Maintained business through the worst of it, increased business as we worked out of it. Created efficiencies for the team by developing new and effective presentation strategies that moved projects through internal and external review faster and cleaner than ever before. Empowered my team to grow and transition from spectators to participants, to directors on photoshoots and leaders in presentations. 100% creative staff retention. Assisted in the development and implementation of an ideal team structure to maximize the efficiencies between talent and time. Senior Creative Director Sept. 2016 - July 2018 We Are Alexander St. Louis, Missouri We Are Alexander is a global agency that focuses in retail, experiential, digital, production, and brand marketing. Directly managed and mentored the creative team, elevating each team member from behind-the-scenes execution to client-facing creative partners. Retained business, and doubled the number of new and emerging brands assigned to my team within two years, including highly exclusive invites to large-scale RFPs competing and scoring business against the biggest agencies in the world. Assisted in the creation and establishment of the agency's experiential department, expanding agency opportunities and revenue streams. Led the strategy and messaging for national beverage brands, resulting in increased sales and more brands assigned to our team. Creative Director Feb. 2012 - Aug. 2016 Fusion Marketing St. Louis, Missouri Fusion is a full-service marketing agency that specializes in experiential, digital and retail brand marketing. Evolved from senior level writer to middle manager, to managing the entire creative staff, with double-digit direct reports. Increased our core retainer client base from two to more than ten brands in three years. Competed and won business, going up against some of the largest agencies in the world. Sustained business by defending our position during transitions and RFP challenges. Played an essential strategic role in successfully rebranding and reenergizing Wild Turkey bourbon and Cabo Wabo tequila. Performed as a strategic partner and lead writer on projects as large as the Bud Light Hotel during Super Bowl week and Budweiser World Cup activations. Storyboarded and directed video shoots and content creation, showcased by examples of successful programs in my portfolio. Created and managed the original social media accounts for American Honey and Anheuser-Busch. Attended numerous experiential activations as the creative lead along side clients to supervise, participate, and ensure a quality execution. Senior Copywriter Nov. 2010 - Jan. 2012 Infuz Digital St. Louis, Missouri Infuz was a 100% digital advertising agency that had a talented team of developers and programmers who brought creative digital experiences to life. Performed as the senior writer for white papers, presentations, ads, blogs, press releases, social media, emails, banner ads, websites, web tools and event materials. Played an essential role in launching Purina's first Facebook and social media presence. Wrote numerous websites, including large-scale form submissions, dictated by user experience and flow. Saw projects through from ideation to white paper, to development and final digital product. Mentored creative internship staff. Senior Copywriter April 2008 - Nov. 2010 4ORCE Digital St. Louis, Missouri 4ORCE is a digital advertising agency that blends usability, SEO and marketing science with creative execution. 4ORCE calls it, “Empirical Marketing.” An agency focused on branding, digital executions and the use of emerging media and tools. Performed as lead writer for decks, white papers, presentations, ads, brochures, newsletters, events, outdoor, experiential marketing, radio, video, sales kits, branding, direct mail, press releases, social media, digital/web copy and internal branding. Worked closely with user experience team, mastering the then emerging skill of how to write for the web. Sustained core clients, earning more and more business during RFP cycles. Copywriter Feb. 2004 - April 2008 Momentum Worldwide St. Louis, Missouri Momentum is a large, diverse worldwide promotions and advertising agency that’s a McCann-Erickson partner. While the company spans the globe, the creative hub of Momentum has traditionally been in St. Louis. Momentum is best known for the Pontiac giveaway on the Oprah show, Buick sponsored PGA events and Cok e Olympic promotions. Wrote copy for decks, white papers, presentations, ads, brochures, newsletters, events, outdoor, experiential marketing, sales kits, radio, video, direct mail, press releases, web copy. Performed as lead writer through Wendy's successful rebrand from "Dave" to the "Red Wig." Within this large agency, was regularly called upon to participate in the largest and most important pitches. Worked on a variety of teams – as large as 20 and as small as three. Assisted in the development of interns and junior copywriters. Saw projects through from white paper, to development to final product, website or event. Copywriter July 2003 - Jan. 2004 Foot Levelers Roanoke, Virginia A leader in developing high-tech chiropractic products, Foot Levelers plays the role of a partner for doctors and chiropractic institutions, worldwide. Wrote copy for ads, brochures, direct mail, web copy, press releases. Lead wri ter on internal marketing team. Six total on team. Learned about and wrote in-depth marketing materials focused on complicated and proprietary medical information. Copywriter July 2001 - Jan. 2003 O'Connor Group Advertising Roanoke, Virginia A small, 12-person agency that’s focused on print and identity work. Most clients were local and industrial. This was my first full-time copywriting job out of college. Wrote copy for ads, brochures, direct mail, web copy, radio, sales kits, press releases, decks and internal branding. Discovered my writer's intuition by taking on the challenge of writing 14 ads per day for The Roanoke Times, sustaining the agency's largest client. Assisted in the development of the agency featuring a Retirement Community focused branch. Education 1997 - 2001 MARSHALL UNIVERISTY Huntington, West Virginia Bachelor of Arts, Journalism & Mass Communication, with a Focus on Advertising. Minor: Sociology Fun College Time Facts: Enjoyed Theatre Appreciation class with Hall of Fame NFL player Randy Moss. Hosted a radio show on WMUL with future NFL Quarterback Chad Pennington. My first published article was about the 1970 "We Are Marshall" plane crash for an online magazine, in 1998. JUDD DEMALINE MANAGER OF CONTENT CREATION, FAMOUS FOOTWEAR "I worked with Eammon closely for over two years. In that time I watched him lead with his heart and his ethics. He has this ability to get right to the core of what is being advertised and how to promote it. The man is truly an idea generator. He delivers in brainstorms by making everyone in the room feel like they were heard and seen. In advertising, there’s no greater gift than that. Eammon is a Creative’s creative."

How we brought the sound of refreshment "Buschhhhh" to life in the retail space, and increased sales. < Back Busch Beer - Creative Direction How we brought the sound of refreshment "Buschhhhh" to life in the retail space, and increased sales. During my time at We Are Alexander, I was the Senior Creative Director over the “Value Brands” for Anheuser-Busch. The biggest brand of the bunch: Busch. Managing a team of four art directors and one writer, we collaborated with agencies from all over the country to re-launch this iconic brand in a fun and engaging way. As the “retail agency” it was our job to translate the “Buschhhhhhhhh” creative at the store while also hitting pivotal passion points throughout the year, mainly racing and the outdoors. A Brief Summary The brief was definitely brief: The above the line agency had a new TV ad reaching back to the ’80s for that famous “Buuuuuschhhh” sound. Our challenge was to use this concept to sell beer at retail. We started by creating our own benefit-driven tagline: “The Sound of Refreshment.” From here, we were able to develop the look, feel and type of retail elements. Our bread and butter retail pieces for two years showcased the CTA: “Crack One Open” on a bright blue background with condensation, and the classic spraying can. Pricing was also a very important message for this "value" brand, that continues to grow in sales and visibility. My Specific Contributions: Led the creative team, brainstorms, and presented all creative to clients and partners Wrote copy for the pieces and, of course, the decks Partnered closely with multiple agencies across the country Fun fact: I wrote and recorded an original song about Busch beer for a “Billy Bass Busch” singing/talking fish retail and on-premise item (Hit single can be seen and heard here: https://youtu.be/Y5r-gP_ax4k ) Project Gallery Previous Project Next Project

Portfolio Behind the Barrel - Wild Turkey Reigniting passion for a worthy brand, through an unforgettable experience. Read More Busch Beer - Creative Direction How we brought the sound of refreshment "Buschhhhh" to life in the retail space, and increased sales. Read More CAT - Instructional Videos Video Directing & Script Writing Read More Cabo - Thick Cut Lifestyle How we blazed a path were no tequila had ever gone before. Read More Cabo Diablo - Branding & Social Media Launching a new coffee flavored tequila, from the ground-up. Read More Digital - Web & Social Media Hodgepodge A variety of social, web, and digital content creations. Read More Footwear Marketing Dipping my feet into the retail and digital side of footwear marketing, and making an impact. Read More Natty Light - Creative Direction How we increased sales for a value brand in an extremely competitive environment. Read More Print Ads & Headlines A collection of traditional print pieces with great headlines. Read More Purina Work - Mostly Cats A collection of pieces I wrote or concepted for Purina over the years. Read More Que 42 - Launching Our Own BBQ Brand The journey from cooking in the backyard to store shelves & online sales. Read More Radio Spots Two radio spots - Verizon Wireless & O'Charley's Read More Rock n' Awe - Cabo Wabo When Cabo was still about rock n' roll, this is how we treated loyal fans like rock stars. Read More The Pledge - Anheuser-Busch How we celebrated Anheuser-Busch's 30th anniversary of its landmark “Know When To Say When” campaign. Read More Wendy's "Year of the Burger" A burger making contest, taste tour & more - for the love of a burger that doesn't cut corners. Read More Wild Turkey - Retail, Ads & More A collection of pieces I wrote and/or worked on for this awesome bourbon brand. Read More

The journey from cooking in the backyard to store shelves & online sales. < Back Que 42 - Launching Our Own BBQ Brand The journey from cooking in the backyard to store shelves & online sales. I've cooked and participated in the competition BBQ scene for almost a decade. Over those years, I've learned so much from mentors and the overall experience. Living in Buffalo, I wanted to bring the passion and knowledge I had learned to a market not known for its own style of que. Starting with my original two sauce and rub recipes, we began working on bringing Que 42 to life ... The Inspiration The name is inspired by the parallel that Buffalo city sits upon: 42. The ingredients are all real, natural, no fillers. The honey comes from a farm less than an hour up the road. The recipes are authentic to their regional inspiration, and award-winning on the BBQ circuit. First Steps & Background Working with a professional designer, we quickly developed the logo and brand essence. It's gritty, to represent Buffalo city. Black and white, because we're transparent about everything that goes into our products. The horizontal line communicates that "42" is our place on the map. Each product is numbered to represent its inspirational place on the map. Every sauce bottle is batch numbered, and the first seven batches were hand-filled, sealed, labeled and numbered, much like a bottle of bourbon. The biggest challenge in starting your own CPG brand is in how to take a recipe and make it shelf-stable. They don't teach you these things in school. We quickly learned what a "Scheduled Process" is through Cornell University. Testing and testing in the kitchen, I finally had my exact to the .01 ounce of each ingredient in each recipe. With approval from the health department and Cornell's food scientists, we could start producing. It Started with Batch #001 After carefully sourcing ingredients from as many local suppliers as possible, and bottles, caps, seals, labels ... it was time to secure time at a commercial kitchen. We had made and hot-filled every bottle, crafting about 24 bottles per session. With about 50 bottles of each product, we secured our first shelf space at a local craftsmen store, launched our e-commerce website, and social media channels. Our sampling events were a huge hit and gave us early proof of concept. That's when we found co-packers in the Western New York region to help us create a larger batch, allowing us to expand versus cooking sauces and mixing rubs all day. When that first batch was ready, I rented a uHaul to pick up our 128 cases, and unloaded our stock into the house by hand ... just the two of us. We've grown to be featured on multiple store shelves, and have the support of former and current Buffalo Bills players, fellow food influencers in our region, and national influencers. You can dig in and even order your own bottles at www.que42bbq.com . Project Gallery Previous Project Next Project

Reigniting passion for a worthy brand, through an unforgettable experience. < Back Behind the Barrel - Wild Turkey Reigniting passion for a worthy brand, through an unforgettable experience. Challenge: Shift Consumer Perception While knowledgeable bartenders know that Wild Turkey is a fantastic and high quality bourbon, for far too long the brand had suffered from misguided consumer perception. Research showed that the average drinker thought of Wild Turkey as a harsh whiskey made for the "good ol’ boys." Solution: Inspire Gatekeepers to Educate Consumers Using industry contacts, we personally invited 30 of the country’s best and most influential bartenders to Kentucky to spend two nights immersing themselves into the Wild Turkey bourbon world and family. The Experience: https://youtu.be/kzBSitmqY8o How The Event Inspired: Private welcome dinner and cocktails with the Master Distillers. Visit to Independent Stave for a hard-hat wearing VIP tour, witnessing bourbon barrels being built and charred. Two-hour VIP tour with the Master Distillers. Skeet shooting on the grounds, while learning about how Wild Turkey earned its name during a turkey hunting trip. The Rare Breed Challenge: Divided into groups, bartenders blended their own small batch bourbon to match the flavor and profile of Wild Turkey’s own Rare Breed bourbon. Drinking bourbon straight from the barrel: The Master Distillers thief’d and served from the oldest warehouse on the grounds. Outdoor dinner, overlooking the Kentucky River and an amazing skyline. Bonfire, music and bourbon with the Master Distillers. Sleeping on the distillery grounds in 5-star tents. This event was such a success, it's been running twice a year ever since this innagural launch. Plus, the program now invites bartenders from all over the world! My Specific Contributions: Led the creative process and ideation for the event, from the original pitch deck through complete execution and expansion. Wrote copy for all communication pieces and talking points. Worked closely with experiential team during planning and on-site to put on a perfect event. Collaborated with the Master Distillers and brand team to ensure integrity. Personally took care of bartenders who partied too hard the first night. Led the creative process for the next iteration of the event based on feedback. Project Gallery Previous Project Next Project

How we blazed a path were no tequila had ever gone before. < Back Cabo - Thick Cut Lifestyle How we blazed a path were no tequila had ever gone before. Cabo Wabo was in need of a big re-brand and revamped direction in the way it connected with consumers. Instead of following the pack and harping on Mexican heritage and pretentious quality, we took a fresh approach, based on insights, that made Cabo Tequila stand out for some more assertive reasons. Cutting Into It First, let’s define what “Thick Cut” means. It’s a two-part answer: 1. When Cabo is made, the master distiller uses a thicker cut of the distillate. In plain words, it’s a bolder, more agave-forward tasting liquid. 2. Thick Cut is a way of life. It means taking a no-holds barred approach to life, liberty and the pursuit of pleasure, and never apologizing for doing what you love. Because hell, you’ve earned it. It was our job to bring the program to life through retail, digital and experiences. After running the Cabo social channels for a couple of years, we used digital insights to develop a very targeted campaign, focused on the middle aged, mid-western male. He knows what he likes, will pay more for the things he wants and doesn’t care what you think. From one of our positioning decks, Cabo is “100% Mexican, 110% American” tequila. We Did the Research & Delivered After hosting focus groups, we discovered that our drinker loves grilling and outdoor entertaining as much as drinking tequila. So we connected Cabo with some of the nation’s top BBQ experts. Our approach was to provide utilitarian content from the experts, taking each consumer’s already awesome grilling and drink making skills to an even more awesome level – while showing them how to pair the perfect, bold Cabo drink with their kick-ass meal. While the campaign was digital content and retail focused, we also were aggressive in hosting sampling events throughout the country, especially at BBQ-centric events. That's where our influencers would appear to serve up meats and Cabo drinks. It was a truly 360-degree campaign, highlighted by an ever-growing video series, retail promotions and ongoing digital/social content. Some Fun Results: Over 3 million video views. 20,000+ drink and meat samples. 23.5 overall impressions. 31% new Facebook fans, 13.1% more Twitter followers, 152.3% more Instagram followers, 85.5% more YouTube followers. My Specific Contributions: Led the creative process and ideation for how to execute the Thick Cut Living program. Wrote copy for communication/retail pieces/website and overall talking points. Worked closely with experiential team to run and manage sampling events. Led scripting and direction of video content. Directed overall social media content and communication strategies. This platform and programming is still ongoing and evolving. Project Gallery Previous Project Next Project

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Video Directing & Script Writing < Back CAT - Instructional Videos Video Directing & Script Writing CAT needed to create a series of instructional videos that brought their complex operating manuals to life. They needed a director and writer ... which is why I was brought on board for the project. Digging in ... The challenge was distilling complex machinery information into something digestible to someone trying to learn about their machine or confirm that the machine was the best choice for the job. It was my job to develop shot-lists, time-stamps, and then script writing for more than 20 instructional videos. Yes, it was a dirty job. I spent three days on CAT's campus, shooting onsite in their arena and outdoors for specific machine moves. The hardest part was shooting the monitors. Our team definitely got creative in how to position a camera for clear vision while an expert went through the motions. Going through hundreds of motions, actions, and explanations, I then took the audio and notes to develop the scripts. Working closely with the video editor, we went through rounds of revisions, ensuring the information was accurate and clear. While there are more than 20 of these live on YouTube, unless you're in the market for a new dozer, a simple example or two should do the trick in showcasing what this project was all about. These videos have received thousands of views, with the long-form versions receiving the most views. Project Gallery Previous Project Next Project

When Cabo was still about rock n' roll, this is how we treated loyal fans like rock stars. < Back Rock n' Awe - Cabo Wabo When Cabo was still about rock n' roll, this is how we treated loyal fans like rock stars. Cabo Wabo Tequila was in a state of transition, moving on from its Sammy Hagar identity and turning itself into a premium brand that represents the rock n’ roll lifestyle . The challenge: Create an experiential campaign that lets consumers experience the rock n’ roll lifestyle, without relying on music or celebrity endorsement. Concept The Rock n’ Awe experience was three days for winners to party like they were rock stars on tour, but without the burden of actually having to play a show or instrument. We flew winners into LA for a night of decadence on the strip. They then hopped on a bus that drove to Las Vegas overnight. When they arrived, they received VIP access at the casinos and bars to do as they pleased. Finally they hopped on a private plane and landed in Cabo San Lucas for a private beach party. The Rockin' Sweeps Winners were selected through a digital sweepstakes. The fun part was how we conducted entry at sampling events: Consumers gave us their “rock star name.” It was created by combining their middle name with their school’s mascot. (For example, mine would be Johnny Thundering Herd). My Specific Contributions: Developed the original Rock n’ Awe tour concept Assisted in the development of the sampling engagement tactic Wrote all content and copy for the program This was such a success, it became a flagship portfolio piece for the brand Project Gallery Previous Project Next Project

Two radio spots - Verizon Wireless & O'Charley's < Back Radio Spots Two radio spots - Verizon Wireless & O'Charley's I wrote the scripts, came up with the concepts, selected the talent and performed as producer for these spots. Both ran nationwide. Project Gallery Previous Project Next Project