A Little Bit About Me

My passion lies in creating effective programs that deliver measurable results. Professionally, I've worked almost exclusively for global B2B technology companies to drive awareness, create brand preferences, and generate demand. Personally, I also love to use my skills for the greater good, with volunteer communications gigs for the American Cancer Society, the Sammamish Arts Commission, and other worthy organizations.

Michelle Manson

BRAND, MARKETING, PR, COMMUNICATIONS

Hi and welcome to my portfolio site!

I love to build brand experiences and company culture. As a brand, marketing, public relations, and communications strategist, I create and direct impactful global programs for B2B companies.

INDUSTRIES

Mil/Aero/Space

Software

Embedded Systems

Technology

EXPERTISE

BRAND, PR, MARKETING,

Global Brand Vision, Strategy, Messaging, and Deployment

PR, Media, and Analyst Strategy and Programs

Corporate Communications Vision, Strategy, Implementation

Complete Customer Journey Tactics Planning and Hands-On Execution

LEADERSHIP

Global and Local Team Leadership

Executive Team Collaboration

Communications Policy Development
Change Management

Leadership by Influence as Well as Authority

Coaching, Training, and Mentoring

ANALYSIS & TECH

Full Funnel Analytics

Marketing Automation/CRM Strategy and Implementation

ROI Analysis

Data-driven Planning and Budgeting

Market Research

EXPERTISE

IMPACT

Created a power brand out of 10+ small subsidiary brands, tripling awareness within 2 years
Launched several companies into market and thought leadership positions, leaping above entrenched competitors
Generated measurable, significant increases in demand, landing top Fortune 100 enterprise customers
Successfully marketed 4 companies from startup through buyouts, IPOs, or additional investment rounds
Streamlined efforts and reduced costs through digital, data-driven marketing strategies, programs, and analytics
Launched 100+ products, services, and company initiatives, generating earned media, sales leads, and analyst coverage

IMPACT

EXPERIENCE

2022- Present

Director, Corporate Brand and Marketing

KEYSIGHT TECHNOLOGIES, ELECTRONICS

Within a year, grew the global brand function of this $6B public company to 4 high-performing teams and 25 employees across the disciplines of PR, creative services, brand enablement, and pre-sales learning. Infused the brand messaging and core thought leadership topics throughout marketing, investor relations, and the org. Working through teams, implemented new strategies to drive PR SoV to 61%, 25% above next competitor, plus significantly scale social media followers +20%. Currently working to up-level company positioning as we face new industry competitors.

2021-2022

Director, Marketing & Communications

TEKTRONIX, TEST & MEASUREMENT

Recruited to serve as the head of marketing for the $250M services segment of the business. Drove brand development and demand generation for the organization to build awareness and sales revenue operating companies of Tek, Keithley, Fluke. Influenced 50%+ of segment revenue through marketing programs. Broke down silos to help Tek present an integrated product/service portfolio at the corporate brand level.

2020-21

Vice President, Marketing

SAGETECH AVIONICS, AEROSPACE & DEFENSE

Serving as the head of global marketing, built a new marketing function from the ground up. Worked cross-functionally with other executive leadership to develop long-term company vision. Created significant gains in brand awareness, thought leadership, product marketing, sales channel marketing, and direct demand generation. Created and managed a distributed virtual team for speed and effectiveness in achieving corporate goals.

2015-2020

Director, Marketing & Communications

ASTRONICS, AEROSPACE & DEFENSE

Starting in one of the subsidiaries, within 18 months promoted to global corporate marketing lead. Established a new global corporate marketing function, serving as the head of marketing, PR, and communications. Generated a fresh brand for the corporation, drawing many business units into the “One Voice of Astronics” and growing worldwide customer/media awareness. Developed/managed a cross-functional team and created a 3x lift in direct traffic within two years.

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

CHRONUS, SAAS SOFTWARE

Director of Marketing Communications

VPT, POWER ELECTRONICS, AERO/DEFENSE
Director of Marketing Communications

BSQUARE, EMBEDDED SYSTEMS & IoT
Director of Corporate Marketing

CRANE AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE
Marketing Manager

View Complete Resume

EDUCATION

1985-1989

Bachelor's Degree

UCLA
English

1985-1989

Certificate

UCLA

Business Administration

MULTIPLE

Continuing Coursework

UCLA
Marketing Strategy
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Certificate: Brand Management

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Certificate: Digital Marketing

WHARTON

Introduction to Marketing

PORTFOLIO

PORTFOLIO
Click to View Program Details and Links

Corporate Results Video

A fun way to celebrate the end of a successful year.

Keysight Technologies Website

Responsible for all corporate pages on Keysight.com. Reworked this home page to improve brand impression, messaging, and SEO. Generated constent engagement throughout the page.

Advertising via Video

These were 5 ads for the 5G/6G telecom market, the AV/EV auto market, data centers and IOT that streamed in a brand awareness campaign across YouTube, Google, engineering websites, and at the San Jose Airport.

Keysight Social Media Strategy and Management

Grew subscribers 20% within a year through strongly branded, interactive-first strategy and addition of push newsletter to leverage LinkedIn ecosystem.

Brand Strategy and Development

In this example, I was tasked to create a single power brand out of the 11 small companies of Astronics. Through listening, strategizing, and collaborating across the business unit, I led the effort, process, creative and messaging exercise to come together under the single tagline of Elevating Innovation. Across the business units, we developed our differentiator of E2E listening and engineering, helping us successfully compete against giants like Collins Aerospace.

Corporate Overview Video

Example of one of the many videos I've produced to tell stories about brands, technology, and people. I am hands-on with script writing, storyboarding, film direction, editing

Integrated Marketing Campaigning

Concepted, created, and wrote marketing campaigns. In this example, we ran print and digital advertising, leading to whitepapers, video, a blog, and other assets. Established our thought leadership in this space and generated trade show traffic plus earned media.

Byline Development and Placement

Develop and place bylines in trade and business publications.

Partner Marketing and PR Programs

Created partner marketing programs with major corporations that included channel material development, website development, and co-marketing activities. In this example, placed executive speakers at partner conferences, co-wrote scripts, and created video/presentation assets to support speaker concepts.

Exhibit Experience

Provided the vision, strategy, and directed the execution for corporate exhibit events, including AIX, Paris Airshow, and others. Adopted a cost-saving strategy to provide smaller booths to subsidiaries at substantially reduced cost while still promoting the One Astronics brand. Managed major multi-business unit exhibits with experiential displays, digital presentations, speaker placement, press briefings, social promotion, pre-show blogs, and other activities to leverage our show presence off the show floor. Visit the link to see one of my recent show implementations.

Blog Posts

Created a blog function for Astronics, authoring most of the blog posts. This blog post was the #1 performing blog post on the site, and put Astronics at the top of the search engines on the topic of the More Electric Aircraft. Also served as blog author on multiple other websites.

Media Relations

Served as the company media relations executive. Placed exeutive interviews, article contributions, wrote press releases, and other PR leadership activities. Leveraged resulting coverage in broadcast, print, and online across social media, company website, sales presentations, and other outlets.

Product and Solution Animations

Working with a design partner, I defined the strategy, created the product animation program, defined the storyboard and copy, and oversaw production.

Strategic Presentations

I offer deep experience in creating presentations for IR, business development, exective speaking, and other use cases. Typically I provide deck strategy, content planning, and slide creation for both standard and interactive deck styles, incorporating multimedia elements for audience attention and interest.

Sales Literature and Enablement Systems

Created a complete literature strategy with multiple components from the corporate brochure through product line brochures and down to datasheets and other collateral. The fact sheet did double duty as a line card and press overview.

Corporate Brand and ID

Working with an existing logo, we added gold and blue elements for interest and emphasis. The new letterhead, business cards, email signatures, and other items were deployed companywide. For marketing team members, we published an extensive brand guidelines document.

Company Store

Branded merchandise extends the reach and impact of your brand. Together with a vendor, we built the Astronics Company store to offer up items for external customers as well as internal employee rewards.

Brand ID Systems and Messaging

Developed multiple brand identities, logos and taglines. Strategically created identities to speak to different markets and target demographic profiles.

SKILLS

Strategic Marketing Plan Development

Content Development and Marketing

Event Strategy and Execution

Digital and Traditional Advertising

Full Funnel Analytics

PR and Thought Leadership Programs

Website Strategy and SEO

Social Media Strategy and Campaigns

Copywriting and Editing

CRM and Other Martech Implementations

CONTACT

A Little Bit About Me

Michelle Manson

INDUSTRIES

Mil/Aero/Space

Software

Embedded Systems

Technology

EXPERTISE

BRAND, PR, MARKETING,

LEADERSHIP

ANALYSIS & TECH

IMPACT

EXPERIENCE

2022- Present

2021-2022

2020-21

2015-2020

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

EDUCATION

1985-1989

1985-1989

MULTIPLE

PORTFOLIO
Click to View Program Details and Links

SKILLS

WHAT CAN WE BUILD TOGETHER?
CONTACT ME!

Michelle Manson

Phone:

Email

A Little Bit About Me

Michelle Manson

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INDUSTRIES

Mil/Aero/Space

Software

Embedded Systems

Technology

EXPERTISE

BRAND, PR, MARKETING,

LEADERSHIP

ANALYSIS & TECH

IMPACT

EXPERIENCE

2022- Present

2021-2022

2020-21

2015-2020

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

EDUCATION

1985-1989

1985-1989

MULTIPLE

PORTFOLIO Click to View Program Details and Links

SKILLS

PORTFOLIO
Click to View Program Details and Links