BEN M COLLINS.
BRAND STRATEGIST.
OBJECTIVE
To elevate a mission-driven company’s brand value through the development and implementation of a story-driven, emotion-provoking, disruptive brand strategy to grow revenue, increase awareness, and enhance customer loyalty.
Ben M. Collins Photography
January 2013 - Present
Translated brand identities into successful visual identities for 50+ clients through careful strategy, planning, execution, and delivery of projects in varying scope and scale.
Strategized and executed long-term visual content creation campaigns for clients such as Local Maverick, leading to successful fundraising and the launch of their first retail store.
Created video campaigns for startup Verde Technologies which directly resulted in a $500,000 fundraising award.
Scaled the business by creating an exceptional client experience and optimized sales pipeline to grow business revenue by 280% in the first full-time year of 2021 to 2022 and 13.15% from 2022 to 2023
Grew brand awareness through coordinated organic content marketing campaigns on social media, resulting in a maintained follower growth rate of 17.76% YOY.
Clients
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United States Geological Survey, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance, Sound Experience
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Brooks Brothers, Grayer’s, Ski The East, Adventure Dinner, Foam Brewers, VLES Designs, Verde Technologies, Switchback Brewing, Stowe Cider
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Newport Folk Festival, Otis Mountain Get Down, Higher Ground, Nectar’s, ArtsRiot, Courtney Marie Andrews, Kat Wright, Ripe, Sammy Rae & The Friends, All Night Boogie Band, Moondogs, Bob Wagner, Zach Nugent, Tank Recording Studios, Future Fields, Dwight & Nicole, Maple Roots Festival,
Marketing Department Coordinator
iSun Energy, May 2020 - May 2021
Developed a brand strategy and managed its implementation across the web, social media, and print which led to a purchase of the company by publicly-traded Peck Energy for the use of the iSun brand.
Increased national brand awareness by leading an internal team/working with external web developers to redesign the company website, leading to a 5454% increase in organic monthly visitors within one year.
Ensured a successful company merger through PR communications and marketing campaigns, measured by adherence to SEC guidelines.
Organic Traffic
Video Marketing Associate
radius Financial Group, May 2018 - April 2020
Assisted loan officers in closing sales, as measured by a 90% increase in revenue to $103 million, by creating strategic marketing and education videos for clients and internal use.
Increased national market awareness in expanding regions through the creation of customer personas, data-driven development of brand strategy, and implementation of said brand strategy in a redesign of the website, resulting in a 70.19% increase in average monthly visitors.
“Strategic video marketing and education helped loan officers see a 90% increase in revenue to $103 million”
Organic Traffic
Marketing and Brand Coordinator
ArtsRiot, December 2020 - September 2021
Developed a brand strategy for the venue to open post-pandemic with a new identity and managed the brand through the communication of new initiatives and business-model changes.
Managed and executed all marketing and content creation efforts for Burlington’s premiere music venue and restaurant/bar.
Education
University of Vermont
Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, Focus in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Graduated May 2022
Elected president of the Entrepreneurship Club as a Freshman.
Created educational and valuable student experiences such as weekly workshops and guest speakers talks to grow the club by 233% in average weekly attendance.
Leveraged mine, and the university’s network, to bring in guest speakers weekly to address topics that members of the club expressed interest in.
Developed workshops for students on topics such as social media management, content creation, business finance, fundraising from investors, and numerous other topics designed to supplement their education at school.
Created and hosted pitch competitions that allowed UVM students to pitch their business ideas in competition for a cash prize to finance their ideas, awarding $1,000 in cash prizes per semester to student entrepreneurs.
Created a student internship program called the Academic Research Commercialization program with members of the club’s leadership by developing and pitching the idea to the President of the University. The A.R.C program pairs faculty innovations with student entrepreneur teams in an internship program where students create a brand, go-to-market strategy, and develop a full startup around the innovation in a way of gaining experience. We were able to advocate for the experience to be a paid internship for students and to do so, secured funding from the University and like-donors.
