Work Skills & Experience Thinking Side Quests Let's Talk

Mark Colangelo

Strategist & Writer

15+ years of hands-on experience across strategy, creative, digital and media, turning complexity into clear direction and ideas that drive results.

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Brands I've Worked With

Anthem
Bar Academy
Berio
BIC
Camacho
Davidoff
Diageo
Don Julio
Flipz
Godiva
Hempire
Ketel One
Killinga
Lilly
Newman's Own
Orajel
Sabra
Stoli
Swisher
Turtles
Vitafusion
Anthem
Bar Academy
Berio
BIC
Camacho
Davidoff
Diageo
Don Julio
Flipz
Godiva
Hempire
Ketel One
Killinga
Lilly
Newman's Own
Orajel
Sabra
Stoli
Swisher
Turtles
Vitafusion

Case Stories

Condensed examples of work I've helped bring into the world.

Google Nest Thermostat
Digital Strategy Content Creation Google
Google Nest

Creating efficient, adaptable content for Google

Read The Story →
Trojan
Brand Strategy Social Media Trojan
Trojan

Helping Trojan fight off scrappy competitors

Read The Story →
American Anthem Vodka
Brand Strategy Social Media Paid Media
American Anthem

Launching a Tito's fighter

Read The Story →
Hempire Rolling Papers
Brand Strategy Copywriting Social Media
Hempire

Inspiring consumers to find their reason to roll

Read The Story →
06820 Darien Campaign
Communications Strategy Social Media Darien, CT
06820 · Darien, CT

Making an underage drinking problem hit home

Read The Story →
Weleda
Brand Strategy Communications Strategy Weleda
Weleda

Harnessing the Power of Nature's Science

Read The Story →

Skills & Experience

Core Capability

Strategy

I find the sharpest way into the problem and help brands get clear on where they need to go and why.

  • Consumer & cultural insight
  • Brand positioning
  • Creative briefs
  • Brand narratives & messaging
  • Communications frameworks

Selected experience

  • Worked with a PhD anthropologist and semiotician, using elicitation sessions and real-world observation to unearth behavioral insight.
  • Ran stakeholder interviews, category research, and consumer insight work to build brand positionings.
  • Fluent with leading research platforms — Mintel, MRI-Simmons, WARC, Infegy, and Forrester.
  • Wrote briefs, brand narratives, manifestos, and tone-of-voice systems that gave creative teams a foundation to build from.
  • Built communications frameworks and message architectures for public-health and journalism nonprofits.

Clients include Google, Trojan Condoms, Guinness, Merck, Eli Lilly, Hiscox, Smirnoff, Upwards Farms, Swisher, and Weleda.

Experience that strengthens the strategy

Creative Experience

Clearer briefs and stronger ideas

Working in creative departments and writing the work has taught me what teams need from a strategy: a clear choice, a compelling starting point, and room to make something unexpected.

  • Wrote scripts for TV, radio, digital video, and direct response.
  • Concepted taglines, print campaigns, and paid and organic social content.
  • Led naming for new-to-world products.
More
  • Built a content-production process that delivered work clients could afford, at the pace they needed.
  • Co-hosted a podcast with guests including Rep. Ro Khanna, Marianne Williamson, and David Daley.

See it on Hempire →

Digital Experience

Thinking grounded in real behavior

Working across platforms, content, and social helps me anticipate how an idea needs to adapt to the places and moments where people will encounter it.

  • Served as digital lead on creative teams, guiding them toward stronger platform-native work.
  • Developed content and channel strategies that activated brands across the full digital ecosystem.
  • Grew Cabin Fever Whiskey's following from 2K to 50K in under a year.
More
  • Shaped influencer partnerships around credibility, audience fit, and a clear role in the campaign.
  • Contributed to Amazon eCommerce strategy, from product detail pages to sponsored placements.

See it on Google Nest →

Media Experience

Direction informed by delivery

Managing targeting, budgets, optimization, and reporting helps me consider how a strategy will reach its audience, what it will take to deliver, and what we can learn from the response.

  • Managed $75K+ annual digital media budgets across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and X.
  • Led the OptOut app-launch campaign to a Top-20 App Store news ranking, ahead of national publications.
  • Led paid search for Carrier Enterprise, generating hundreds of leads.
More
  • Built a fundraising campaign that generated $300K+ in grants and donations.

See it on American Anthem →

Thinking

Ideas and perspectives on advertising, culture and more.

Advertising Has a Streetlight Problem cover Essay

Advertising Has a Streetlight Problem

What the drunk under the streetlight teaches us about measuring what's easy instead of what matters.

Read Essay
Paracosm cover Strategy Deck

Paracosm And the Power of Place

What makes a stadium full of Parisians shout: I was born in the USA? And what can brands learn from this?

Read PDF

Side Quests

Projects, experiments, and work that happened outside of work.

Music

Silver Ship — Invisible Garden

My friend and I have been putting out music for twenty years. Check out our latest.

Game

Adcade

A fun vibe coding experiment.

Enter The Adcade →
Bot or Not — an Adcade game

Let's Work Together.

Have a project in mind? I'd love to hear about it.

markrcolangelo@gmail.com