Meet

samantha

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Former corporate communications/marketing professional turned brand strategist and endurance athlete living in Washington, DC.

As a brand and business consultant, Samantha helps brands tap into and expose the intrinsic qualities that make them unique. From digital, social and traditional marketing to community engagement and PR, Samantha is an expert in consumer engagement, storytelling, and brand strategy.

Born and raised in New York, Samantha spent most of her career in the fashion and beauty industry, working for larger corporations Shiseido, Procter & Gamble, and COTY, Inc, working on PR and communications strategies for NARS, Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, Gucci Beauty, Burberry Beauty, Hugo Boss Fragrances and Lacoste Fragrances.

Samantha has guided several businesses (including Culture House, Shilling Canning Company, MiniLuxe and Summit To Soul) through their marketing efforts (driving social media and PR to build equity and awareness (and in some cases, steering them through the pandemic).

Most recently, she worked with award-winning creative agency Design Army on advertising and creative strategy for Saucony, taking a 125 year old performance footwear brand and invigorating it with a newness and edge, working from campaign ideation to production to bring to life a new look and feel for brand and product.

From restaurants and members-only resorts, to non-profit organizations, art venues, and consumer brands, Samantha guides brands as they pull on the many marketing levers that fuel their businesses. This holistic perspective is what she employs to her clients - helping them navigate an overwhelming marketing landscape and focus on where to dedicate their hard-earned resources.

Earlier years

Starting out with Seventeen , Marie Claire and InStyle magazines, Samantha explored a writing career working under some of the beauty industry’s most talented and well known beauty editors.

Wanting to pivot to a more brand-specific role focused on strategy and public relations, Samantha started her communications career at NARS Cosmetics where she was responsible for elevating the brands’ global roster of makeup artists, developing their portfolios, securing opportunities that would bring them added exposure, and producing the backstage makeup teams of for over 15 fashion shows each season, collaborating with some of the industry’s top fashion designers, makeup artists and creatives. She worked on store opening strategies, launched a professionals-only discount platform, and was responsible for getting NARS into the hands of top celebrities, makeup artists and industry tastemakers (the start of the ‘influencer marketing’ bubble!).

In 2014, Samantha joined Procter & Gamble to lead North American communications for Dolce & Gabbana Beauty, a licensed brand under P&G’s specialty beauty division that sold fragrance, cosmetics and skincare. She would later experience the beauty industry's largest merger ever when Procter & Gamble diverged its specialty beauty business to COTY, Inc., and her role changed from the traditionally-facing “public relations” to “public relations & influencer marketing,” catapulting her into a digital-first function. Responsible for transitioning a portfolio of 7 brands to COTY, Samantha led the change from P&G’s former agency-centric approach to an in-house model, contributing to the team’s growth from 3 members to 7 in just a year and a half. In her new role, she would aid in the development of advertising plans, digital/native partnerships, social media strategy, and consumer engagement

In Spring 2018, Samantha moved to Washington, DC, and started her freelancing and consulting career, fulfilling a passion and desire to work with local/small businesses and focus on her fitness journey.