Sommer White

Experience

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  Chili's Bar & Grill

  Jan 1996 - Jan 1998

  Corporate Trainer/Bartender - New Store Opening

  Managed food & beverage operations, hire and train new employees and update training materials. * Youngest employee ever selected to join the Corporate Training Team as of 1996.

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  Bennigan's Grill & Tavern

  Jan 1998 - Jan 2001

  Corporate Trainer/ Key Manager - Multiple Store Openings

  Home unit duties included guest relations, food preparation, and set-up and tear down of the restaurant needs daily. As part of the Corporate Training Team, the following additional tasks were executed frequently * Selected and trained new employees* Updated and revised training materials * Traveled to various locations across the U.S. to execute Grand Openings of new location, training 200+ new employees per location* Organized and arranged the new locations for optimum efficiency Show less

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  Outback Steakhouse

  Jan 2001 - Jan 2006

  Key Manager/Head Trainer - New Store Openings

  Duties ranged from guest engagement and food preparation, to scheduling and maintaining new and current employees and their records. Interviewed potential employees, handled guest concerns, trained new servers and bartenders, assisted in food quality assurance and coordinated community activities ad donations with local organizations in need of support.

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  Kim Dawson Agency

  Jan 2002 - Jan 2005

  Assistant Agent/ Webmaster

  Maintained consistent engagement with a roster of nearly 1000 talent, and managed relationships with Casting Directors and Studios. Managed contracts, screening and selecting new talent, trained ‘green’ talent to aide them in gaining a strong foothold in the industry as a whole as well as training experienced models in the arena of on camera development. Developed and maintained the agency website. Directed talent to photographers and coaches who would work best with each individual. Attended all conventions, graduation performances, and plays, as well as festivals and various charity events to make sure our agency was involved in the community in as many ways as possible. Show less

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  Teldata Enterprise Networks

  Jan 2004 - Jan 2008

  Director - Carrier Solutions

  Brought on to establish and maintain key functions – installation planning, account management, sales support, financial operations, customer service and project delivery in a B2B environment. Succeeded in increasing sales by 56% in first year and 20% YOY in other three years; guided over 300 US clients in order processing, product education, cost controls, troubleshooting and execution of enterprise solutions.

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  TPN

  Jan 2008 - Jan 2013

  Manager - Brand Marketing - Partnerships (Sears)

  Promoted to head all marketing and branding functions for the Sears Holdings account, deploying new programs that drove online/in-store traffic, executed entertainment events, optimized customer loyalty, enhanced sales, grew market position and generated positive ROI. Closely collaborated, and maintained project timelines with different channel teams: Social Media, Digital, ShopYourWay.com, Legal, Sweepstakes, Circular and others.  Generated double-digit sales growth in WWE-licensed merchandise each year by aligning branding, broadcast and digital entertainment with integrated retail programs that targeted different consumer sectors. Organized, motivated, and led a 25-member cross-functional task force to identify and provide deliverables for each partnership/event – areas covered Footwear, Apparel, Toys, Home, Consumer Electronics and Grocery lines, ensuring asset delivery on time, and under budget. Show less

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  Sears Holdings Corporation

  Jan 2013 - Jan 2014

  Manager - Brand Marketing / Loyalty & Entertainment Partnerships

  Specially retained by client and continued to perform a wide range of duties, including strategic planning, integrated marketing and negotiation of partnership agreements. Liaised with Entertainment Director to administer a $10M annual budget. Analyzed consumer demographic data to identify and exploit entertainment franchise partnerships to maximize engagement opportunities and leverage customer loyalty.  Developed campaigns that delivered 110% more trips and 181% higher store-wide sales leveraging cross channel strategies that engaged loyalty members offline and online Conceived and introduced a first-ever “Shop Your Way” (SYW) member engagement offer in 2014, enhancing partner loyalty, ticket sales and film release coverage; achieved 200% higher offer conversion vs. industry standard. Piloted the first-time WWE Twitter Party that resulted in #WWEKmart record trending on Twitter – second only to a promoted tag; continued utilization by both partners. Deployed cutting-edge Twitter functionality to integrate the WWE world into Kmart’s WWE-focused homepage with a first-ever TweetBox that generated real-time tweets for top sports talent. Show less

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  Ashley HomeStore Retail Headquarters

  Dec 2014 - Nov 2017

  Senior Manager - Brand, Licensee, and Field Marketing, Partnership Development

  In charge of planning and overseeing all aspects of traditional, digital, and social media within a $100M national multimedia budget, including special events, promotions, and public relations. Corporate Social Responsibility development and execution focused on community engagement and building brand loyalty. Coordinate market analysis, vendor relations, deal negotiations and final event execution. Identify and develop partnerships with complementary retail brands, as well as identify organic opportunities with brands or properties who complement our target demographic. Partnerships have included Warner Bros. Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Lumber Liquidators, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Braves, Real Housewives of Atlanta, Orlando Magic, Minor League Baseball, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Walt Disney World.  Partner campaigns focused on Corporate Social Responsibility efforts have averaged over an 800% increase in impressions growth via PR and earned media, including likes, shares, and comments, as well as email, social, and digital CTR and resulting lead generation.  Developed a comprehensive, scalable Grand Opening Celebration strategy to support 71% unit growth in one year. Sustained results include an average of 58% over sales budget and 200% over traffic budget. Designed and launched a unique social influencer campaign in June, 2016 with a local vlogger, generating over 20K views of two main posts about new store tour during Grand Opening with another 32K views to follow-up posts and over 500 customer comments, representing a 200%+ increase in market engagement. Show less

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  Frank Kent Family of Brands

  Feb 2018 - Aug 2020

  Director Of Marketing And Advertising

  Leader of a small, but extremely efficient Marketing team managing all aspects of multiple business’ marketing efforts, including a major focus on SEO. The Family of Brands includes four automotive dealerships, two wine bars/retail shops, a brewery/pizzeria, retail food seasonings, grills, coolers, a GM parts wholesale company, and a local 501c3 organization. Leveraging a budget of a little over 4MM annually, creative cross-promotion is key to the success across the portfolio.  Responsible for media mix planning and budgeting, data analytics and reporting, digital marketing management, P.R., special events planning and execution, social media, Partnership Development, website and pricing management, email deployment, overall creative development, and multiple agency partners. Ideated, sourced, and executed monthly sweepstakes for lead generation and cross-promotion across all brands, resulting in 78% increase in new email subscribers over 2017, as well as increased social following, and ‘free’ promotion for the non-automotive entities. Designed and produced a locally viral Facebook campaign, ‘Buy a Cadillac, Get a Kayak,’ which resulted in follow up videos, ABC News coverage, and double-digit growth in Organic Search across all dealerships. Launched an entirely new brand in the Frank Kent Family – Fort Brewery and Pizza – in June 2018, with rolling YTD sales up +200% over the previous 12 months, as well as remarkable growth in social engagement and SEO. Strategized and implemented Covid-19 response marketing that lead to 12 - 21% increase in market share for March and April across the dealer group, under a 30% budget reduction. Show less

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  Freelance

  Aug 2020 - now

  Marketing Consultant

  Helping local businesses and charitable organizations develop their brand, build websites and creative content, and manage their digital presence, including SEO, social media, and reputation management. Identifying and developing Sponsorship and Partnership packages as applicable.

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  Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

  Jan 2021 - Mar 2022

  Director of Partnerships, Influencer, and Brand Marketing

  Responsible for planning, developing and executing marketing activities and promotions to increase value and performance for Dickey's Restaurant Brands, with a $5MM annual budget. Leveraging paid, owned, and earned media to drive traffic, sales, and engagement.• Participate in Promotional Planning Task Force, which partners culinary, executive, and marketing members to strategize on overarching promotional calendar and thematics.• Identify, develop, and execute National partnership campaigns with vendor partners, including procurement of partner funding as applicable.• Research and identify appropriate social media influencers for National Brand Integrations, develop and execute organic campaigns for each influencer’s brand voice. Highlight: Dougherty Dozen Partnership resulted in a 77% increase in average daily new social followers, and 2.7MM in Estimated Media Value.• Maintain Partnership/ Influencer budget from both marketing and partner funds, to achieve maximum results in brand growth and awareness.• Maintain reporting on campaign effectiveness, for both partnerships and influencer campaigns.• Work with Franchise Relations to communicate partnership and influencer programs, garnering field excitement, involvement, and participation.• Research, vet, and oversee Brand Ambassador program in conjunction with PR team. Show less

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  Wikimotive

  Mar 2022 - now

  Senior Performance Manager