Melissa Roxanne Ebanks

Melissa has been an advertising and marketing thought leader for 20 years working with an expansive range of Clients at some of the most creative ad agencies in the business.

Melissa’s agency experience includes, 22squared, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, BBDO, Cliff Freeman & Partners and Mindshare – where she leveraged her entrepreneurial spirit as the Associate Planning Director in a newly formed ‘experiential media’ department, the WOW Group.

Melissa‘s strength lies in her ability to identify Clients’ needs by delving into the competitive landscape and leverage strategic planning consumer insights to clearly outline key communications opportunities and guiding the development of short and long term marketing plans. Over her career Melissa has participated in all aspects of the business: marketing, advertising, PR, events, digital, social media, training, strategic planning, media planning and buying, creative briefs and more.

Melissa’s Client experience includes Publix Supermarkets, OGX, EverBank, ReNew Life, Ashley Furniture Industries, BNY Mellon (Domestic and International), The U.S. Army, Nestle Pure Life, Stouffer’s, Staples, Bellsouth, PeopleSoft, KFC, Cingular Wireless, Charles Schwab, Pepsi International, Pepsi, Frito Lay, American Eagle,
The Ad Council, Cotton, Inc., Yahoo!, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Hershey, American Express, Silk Soymilk, Shoney’s, Sports Authority, Ultimate Electronics, NY Daily News, Microsoft, Burger King and Volkswagen.

Some of her accomplishments are:
– Launched the first digital/social campaign for the OGX brand – resulting in OGX being #1 on Twitter and #2 on Facebook, with a budget that was only 8% of that spent by previous leaders in the category: L’Oreal, Proctor & Gamble and Unilever
– Developed an analytics report that combined strategy with data to prove out ROI for the Ever Bank campaign and provided weekly optimization insights
– Developed a CRM strategy for a new online furniture offering built on target insights, ROI and profit forecasting
– Led product development and naming for BK’s new products “Burger Shots” and “Apple Fries”
– Key team member in winning the Microsoft business new business pitch – $300MM
– Planning director and buyer of the program that won the media award for best out of home campaign for Yahoo Personals that – total budget of 25K – received 30MM dollars worth of unplanned media
– Led new business wins for multiple agencies.
– Launched over 25 events for Volkswagen. Helped to create the VW Garage that was featured at all events. Managed all strategy for anchor events, Sundance Film Festival, Download Music Festivals, etc.
– Won the Tampa ADDY for the OGX campaign, Created the winning EFFIE entry that garnered a Silver Effie for the Charles Schwab work

Melissa is a graduate of the Stony Brook University in New York, and holds a B.A. degree in Social Science with minors in Anthropology and Pre-Law. Melissa is a student of the world – loves to travel, reads everything she can get her hands on and is fearless in her quest to experience new things – and never, ever, stops smiling.