Allison J. Bran

The REX Agency

Founder, CEO, Speaker, Educator, Author and Creator of the F.O.C.U.S. Formula, the Brand Compass + Brand Ascension Framework, helping brands from $750K - $30million to stop competing and start leading. I'm on a mission to build brands that inspire fans, inside and outside of organizations to give a sh!t about people.

Founder & CEO

Rex Image

Senior Brand Strategist & Marketing Consultant

Task Tools

Consultant/Packaging Design - CPG

Country Roots Furniture

Development and facilitation of integrated B2B and B2C marketing programs; creative director and developer for online marketing/promotional strategies; developed online customer experience that increased online sales by 2000% in one year.

Director of Marketing - B2B / B2C

RSI International

Lead designer for RSI corporate websites as well as the user interface for web-based Hotel Reservation System.  Responsible for visual marketing/communications materials in B2B marketing as well as to potential share holders during IPO.

UX/UI Designer + Branding, SAAS reservation software

QUICK BIO:

Business, Brand, & Marketing Strategist defining category-leading brands and solving business problems with communications solutions since 1999

Founder & CEO of REX Marketing + Design Inc., an internationally award-winning agency, voted a top Brand agency in Canada, and BC’s Best Marketer by Small Business BC

Committed to building brands that add value to people's lives, both inside and outside organizations

Passionate and animated podcast guest and speaker on brand, business, culture, leadership, communications, and personal development

Contributing author to an Amazon Best Seller on Women in Business

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MY AGENCY STORY: REX, EST 2017:

REX is a full-service marketing agency. We define winning strategies for differentiation, category leadership, and growth marketing, primarily for B2B & premium Consumer Services companies.

I'm passionate about entrepreneurship and the opportunities/ impact of independently owned SMEs in North America. 

After 17 years of working client-side, freelance gigs with agencies, and as an independent consultant, it became clear that the agency model doesn't work for SMEs. There's a service gap for this sector of business owners and it's limiting entrepreneurial growth.

Big agencies are priced too high to show returns and many are wildly inefficient. Small agencies are either too niche to understand the broader business need or are under-delivering by putting accounts on autopilot with insufficient strategic leadership.

As a result, SME marketing is too often directed by entrepreneurs themselves or the junior-to-intermediate-level marketing managers they hire who don't have enough business experience to see the strategic gaps between the business goal and marketing that will move the needle.

SMEs are guess-marketing and that's a big problem.

"Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." ~ Sun Tzu, Art of War

At REX, I'm striving to develop the agency model for SMEs that bridges the gap. Here's how:

• We are a strategic, creative, and tactical team of smart, creative, and caring marketing professionals
• We continually optimize our exceptional processes and project management for efficiency
• We educate our team on SME and Entrepreneur life so they can navigate with understanding
• We expose employees of all experience levels to the strategic processes to continually build their depth
• All accounts are overseen by an executive-level business, brand, and marketing strategist with a minimum of 10 years of experience

Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, and Impact-driven Marketers – reach out.

IHG Hotels & Resorts

Marketing Manager

Shangri-La Group

• Acted as key spokesperson for the Forbes 5-star hotel while managing in-house media engagements & FAM trips for national and international media publications: Vanity Fair, Travel + Leisure, VOGUE Magazine, Toronto Star and more
• To gain high level exposure in key feeder markets of the hotel; managed the production of global partnerships with: Toronto International Film Festival, National Ballet of Canada, Holt Renfrew, Cirque du Soleil, Veuve Clicquot and more
• In coordination with the hotel’s Corporate Communications team, ensured key messages were optimally distributed across all relevant platforms along with management of all communication activities. Key areas included: Press releases, media pitches, brand presentations, earned and owned content, proposals, website, copy and creative for hotel collaterals and management of media filming and photoshoots.
• Monitored the hotel’s online presence in major search engines and worked closely with the Corporate Digital team to ensure optimal results through search
• Managed tactical promotions & offers to drive incremental revenue to all streams of the hotel including rooms, food & beverage & events 
• Oversaw content development, photography, marketing strategy, and analytics for Instagram and Facebook. Increased Instagram follower growth by 21% over the span of 8 months of service at Shangri-La Toronto, surpassing the target of 30,000 followers for the year, bringing the team to 35,708 total followers by the end of 2022. The second highest following in our comp set of five luxury hotels
• Developed and executed the corporate events calendar, and consolidated this with activity across Shangri-La Canada portfolio 
• Created monthly reports highlighting key activity and results for GM, corporate head office & ownership

Marketing and Communications Manager

JW Marriott Parq Vancouver

• Developed media relations plans alongside PR agency to raise awareness of Parq Vancouver attractions across the property
• Coached and accompanied key talent and spokespeople appearing on TV or in upcoming editorial
• Lead resort-wide tours for international media and coordinated travel itineraries for publications such as Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, LA Travel, Forbes Travel, Jetset Magazine, Elite Traveler Magazine, GQ, Elle Canada, Maclean’s and more
• Developed and nurtured strong and mutually beneficial relationships with external tourism partners
• Managed the execution of a high volume of influencer activations on property, at global events, through website integrations, UGC campaigns and more
• Co-lead contract negotiation with talent agents, ensuring clear scope of work and alignment on timeline and deliverables. Partnered with legal team to draft and execute contracts
• Co-lead production of partnerships with top brands and events such as Canucks Sports and Entertainment, Rugby Sevens, Lyft, Cirque du Soleil, Aurora Winter Festival and Vancouver Queer Film Festival
• Developed content briefs, made website updates to ensure each internal partner was equally represented and worked alongside the digital team to support ongoing SEO performance and e-mail marketing strategy
• Co-lead the planning and execution of media events, intimate guest workshops and resort-wide quarterly events
• Represented the resort at conferences and media dinners while nurturing relationships with media in-market
• Developed meeting agendas, co-led meetings with internal and external partners, prepared meeting minutes and ensured projects were delivered on time, on budget while meeting marketing goals of each stakeholder

Resort Marketing Executive

Town Hall Brands

• Developed and distributed targeted press material, including press releases, media advisories and one-on-one pitches that successfully resulted in local and national news coverage in print, digital, radio and television media outlets
• Assisted clients with concept development and execution of events in the form of intimate media dinners to large scale food festivals attracting over 2000 attendees. 
• Oversaw the planning, management and execution of in-market media campaigns including developing and hosting group FAM trips in the top three wine regions of BC, individual media visits, influencer campaigns, and broadcast productions  
• Fostered client relationships; worked with internal team to prepare presentations and sales pitches, handled client communications, and reported on campaign results 
• Identified, developed, and maintained relationships with bloggers, journalists, influencers, stylists, sommeliers, tourism partners and tastemakers relevant to client industry and developed influencer program specific for each client

Publicist

• Captured new media targets, maintained outreach lists, tracked media hits and prepared reports, outlining media results
• Successfully acquired a bi-weekly column in digital publication, Blush Vancouver Eco Luxury Magazine and contributed earned written pieces highlighting clients in the BC wine and food industries 
• Scheduled and coordinated speaking engagements, TV appearances, photo shoots, and other special events 
• Strategized and executed social media content across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
• Practiced close attention to detail with the management of contacts in company database

Junior Publicist

A seasoned marketing and communications professional who has worked with tourism’s most celebrated brands. I lead businesses to create and connect digital and physical consumer experiences that tell their brand story, build loyalty and drive revenue. Equal parts creative strategist and tactical marketer, I excel at content development and direction, running results-driven PR campaigns, and building mutually beneficial corporate partnerships to achieve long-term business development goals.

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The Battle

Allison J. Bran

Genevieve Dufresne

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