chris matthews career highlights

Chris MatthewsSome highlights of things I’ve actually done.

Specialized Global Marketing Team Offsite Workshops

Starting in 2006, I developed and ran twice-yearly meetings of our global marketing managers, bringing together the entire team from around the world for discussions and workshops on brand strategy (Fall), and execution (Spring).

Digital Asset ManagementOne of the first things I did when I started at Specialized in 2005 was to research and implement a digital asset management system for the global organization. This single system eliminated brand inconsistencies that had plagued the company for years. It wasn’t my job to do this, but that never mattered at Specialized. It’s still in use today.

Case Study: http://www.celum.com/customers/success-stories/specialized/

Digital Marketing Tools and Technologies I brought many new digital tools and technologies into the Specialized Marketing team, including shared online spreadsheets (for crowdsourced translation projects), wiki pages (for internal project management and meeting note taking), cloud-based database tools (for consumer product registration), blogging platforms (for influencer programs), as well as pretty much every social media tool, from Facebook to Spotify.

Specialized Social Media

Between 2005-2007, I started all of Specialized’s social media efforts. Within 2 years I’d hired the first social team, and it became the foundation for a complete rebuild of Specialized’s digital brand. There are now dedicated social media team members in every global office.

Tour de France TV Commercials

I managed production for the first Specialized TV commercials in 2007. Success led to 4 subsequent years of managing increasingly ambitious film shoots under tight budgets and deadlines. The first year we produced two 30-second spots that broadcast in 67 countries, total budget under $60K.

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The Specialized AngelThe Tour of California was introduced in February 2006. Our brand needed to own this Pro Tour event happening in our backyard. I suggested an angel. “Great idea”, they said. “Go do it.” Race organizers tried to have me arrested for usurping their media coverage (I wasn’t).

Specialized & McLaren

One of my first projects as Director of International Marketing was to develop and manage the kickoff of a brand partnership between Specialized and the F1 car company McLaren. We oversold the bike, it won it’s first race, and we monopolized global media for a month – and not just for bike media. Fun times.

Specialized & The Dave Matthews Band

The bassist for DMB wanted a new mountain bike, and somehow got my number. I turned that call into a multi-year partnership with the band, including DMB fan club contests, VIP riding experiences, and 40+ bikes that went on tour with the band, who all regularly rode them for exercise.

GeneSolve Brand IdentityI built the GeneSolve brand from scratch, working with doctors to clarify the brand’s values, our product, our position, and corporate identity.

GeneSolve Media CoverageI worked to communicate GeneSolve's brand and value proposition across multiple media channels, building awareness and generating new patient and doctor leads. One of our first national media wins was a 2-page feature article on GeneSolve and the future of healthcare in the October issue of Outside Magazine. GeneSolve was also featured in Elle UK (March 2015 issue), WSJ (Dec 30/14), and dozens of radio & TV interviews

GeneSolve Doctor Training Curriculum

I designed and created extensive doctor training curriculum and materials to facilitate fast onboarding of new doctors. These materials included tutorial videos for the platform, office staff manuals, and continuing education modules.

Brands aren’t always based on a transaction.

Introducing our lawn dinosaur, Dug the T-Rex. We dress him up sometimes.

Thanksgiving 2014

- Total reach >3x page likes- Engagement 10%- 0.07% negative sentiment

He’s been Reddit’s front page #1 spot on three different occasions

We’re at the end of the beginning.