Ruth Schmidt

As the lead writer on social media infographics for Ameriprise Financial, I took complex statistics and financial data and converted them into clear social posts. 

With every project our aim was to stay within the brand voice and the industry's strict requirements. We followed a no-nonsense guide to make sure none of our communication was promissory to the consumer in any way. 

Honey Suckle White (HSW)—a Cargill brand—brings honest, simple turkeys from independent farms to the marketplace. Developing the HSW brand language started by finding a voice that was true to the farmers who make the brand possible. Research for the project consisted of distilling brand truths from farmer interviews and profiles. The result was a brand voice with integrity and authenticity. 

The 100-page guide is now used by the corporate communications teams and agencies in advertising and branding development. 

Team: Adam Elwell

Ask any bartender. Everyone is talking about cocktails and craft brews. And for a major domestic beer brand, that cultural dialogue isn't exactly great for business. 

So to champion the simple love of the classic America lager, Anheuser-Busch took the content marketing approach with the blog http://LetsGrabABeer.com. 

To help stock the site with custom content, I wrote, produced and directed three videos that showed the world just how classy a beer can be. 

DP: Dustin Schirer 

Gatorade EDGE (BETA) was a complete athletic training experience. The articles we wrote helped young athletes measure performance and offered personalized information straight from the elite trainers who work with the pros.

I worked with a small editorial team creating and managing the editorial calendar. I wrote articles, brainstormed hundreds of SEO-friendly headlines, assigned stories to celebrity trainers, nutritionists and coaches, edited content from media partners, researched our target audiences, managed more than 400 articles within the CMS, stayed on top of sports nutrition trends by reading scientific journals and industry research, conducted interviews and worked with legal and client contacts to make sure all site content met brand standards.

Team: Kim Wallace

As the nation’s largest broker dealer, LPL Financial needed to continue its growth by recruiting more financial advisors to join their ranks. LPL asked my team to spearhead lead generation through B2B paid social efforts and organic awareness posts. I extended the newly launched Advisor Voices campaign into the social space by writing all the copy for the images featuring advisors' ‘voices.’ I also wrote all the content for our promoted posts. The posts asked advisors to either share their #AdvisorVoices using the hashtag or to click the link for a white paper download.

With a modest goal of 300 leads this year, we blew away the expectations by bringing in 1,079 leads through paid social in the first eight months. In September alone, paid social drove 700,000 impressions and 9,250 click-thrus with just 8 posts. 

My copy helped capture the attention of a highly targeted and niche B2B audience who has traditionally been very difficult to reach through social media tactics. 

LG wanted to give everyone access to the world's kitchen with information on cooking necessities. I helped craft more than 10,000 words in three weeks to describe more than 40 kitchen appliances, exotic herbs, spices and ingredients. I researched every item to find country of origin, common uses and insider tips. I then compiled all pertinent information and delivered bite-sized paragraphs for easy consumer digestion. 

I spent a year at the happiest place on earth—Hallmark Cards Inc. Embedded in their in-house agency I served as copywriter for digital, broadcast and brand initiatives. For Valentine's Day 2017 we mixed a lifestyle photo shoot with playful product photography. I was proud to be the writer on this campaign because it prominently featured a Queer couple–something brands were still hesitant to do at the time.

In addition to seasonal campaigns, I wrote weekly brand emails for the Gold Crown Stores, and I consulted on social media strategy for the Hallmark Channel's Christmas movies.

Hershey wanted to relaunch the TAKE5 Bar and introduce it to a new generation. As the ultimate remix of 5 layers, TAKE5 set out to remix its packaging, social content, and guerrilla street activations. So we packed up and headed to South By Southwest in Austin to remix the festival experience. And we knew exactly what needed a remix—SWAG. At SXSW it's everywhere. We set up the first ever TAKE5 Swag Exchange. People brought us unwanted swag and we handed them something they actually wanted. Our Twitter following grew by 90% and our social content experienced at 18% engagement rate that week. We ended the week with 32.7M media impressions and we proved that a brand can do SXSW right if they remix it instead of add to the noise. 

Team: Tanya Karpitskiy

In my role as the Senior Director of the Brehm Center—a center for the integration of arts and spirituality—I was in charge of all corporate communications. I also had the opportunity to write film reviews. Using a press pass I attended the Sundance Film Festival twice, once digitally and once in person. Each review was an opportunity to not only evaluate and honor the art, but to help the reader think about the meaning of the film in their own context. Creativity and storytelling can often break down bigotry and open our hearts to the struggles of others. Many of the films I reviewed told the story of a marginalized person and their journey toward equity and full inclusion—which was important to me personally as a Queer person.

Read all my reviews here.

Anybody can sell chicken wings. Wingstop is on another level.

Why? Because of its gritty, in-your-face cult following. And those chicken wing fans let their loyalty be known on Twitter. Using insights from the social platform, we listened to our audience and crafted our gorilla and broadcast campaigns based on real trends. 

That set the bar high for developing social media content.

We leaned into the realities of our fans' daily lives and spoke with them honestly—all corporate niceties were off the table. We developed this brand voice through monthly social content, influencer partnerships, street activations and a national food truck tour. 

Team: Justin Smith, Thomas Price & Morgan Howell

Wingstop's fans go crazy when a new flavor is released. So we teased out the launch of Spicy Korean Q in order to cultivate the crave. 

As a writer on this campaign, I helped with brainstorming the concept and writing copy to support the rollout.

Supporting the online brand campaigns, we developed social content in three month batches. From strategy and concepting, to shot lists and photo shoots, we used the brand promise—For Women Who Do—as our North Star with every piece of content we developed. 

Team: Chelsea Ceasor

KC LOVES is a collaborative documentary project telling the stories of what KC loves, by the artists who love their city.

I got to hang out at The Campground in its early days and write the story about how it all got started. 

The Campground is now a full service bar and restaurant operating in the West Bottoms of Kansas City.

Read the full article I wrote here: https://www.kcloves.com/home/stories/the-campground/

Team: Josh Dubois

Dairy Queen is an iconic American brand. And their social media following is full of loyal fans who love to look at BLIZZARDS. 

Through monthly social content that supported campaigns, we took what fans loved the most and wove it into culturally relevant social trends. The result was beautiful brand storytelling that felt at home in the highly artistic Instagram environment. 

Team: Thomas Price & Justin Smith 

As the Senior Director of the Brehm Center I create and manage all marketing for Brehm Film events with some of Hollywood’s biggest directors, writers, and producers.

Working with the marketing teams at studios like Amazon, Sony, Apple, and A24, I produced and promoted advance screenings for hundreds of movie fans each year. After each screening we hosted Q&As to bring the audience into conversation with filmmakers.

Guests have included:

Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, Pete Docter

Actor Tony Hale

Director Paul Schrader

Director Lee Isaac Chung

Director Scott Derrickson

My voice acting ranges from warm and welcoming, to dramatic and strong. Listen to my commercial demo: RuthSchmidtVO.com