Saren Sakurai

Responsibility for agency-client relationships for the Experience Design (XD) division of a National IT Consulting firm. The primary Client Service lead for a number of Fortune 100 clients and national brands.

Direct agency teams across multiple agency accounts, including all the email programs for the Auto Club of Southern California. Currently direct an eight member Email Marketing team, delivering over 220 email campaigns, to over 53 million recipients, annually. The team has sustained 10% list growth for the last 2 years, and in 2012 our team drove more than $5 million in revenue at a 45% profitability rate.

Responsible for driving digital innovation, strategic thought-leadership, and organic year-over-year client growth. Agency lead in developing industry presentations for conferences and events.

Integrated marketing consultant for pre-seed start-ups and emerging brands. Collaborate with C-level executives to define marketing strategy, social media and digital platform tactics; write marketing portions of business plans; create concise and effective pitch decks for investor presentations; provide consumer and market research; scope and estimate MVP iOS app development. Advisor to teams located at the Digital Media Center anda six person iOS/Android development team called Super Toy Box.

Responsibility for all agency-client relationships, including world-class brands Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Scion, PacSun, Clear Channel and the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Responsible for driving digital innovation, strategic thought-leadership, and organic year-over-year client growth.

Directed the agency's Sprite (Coca-Cola) North American digital account in 2010 and the Honda USA account in 2011.

Directed the AKQA Client Services, Strategy, and Production teams for the Kraft Foods Account. Worked intimately with Kraft Senior Brand Management, as well as in concert with numerous Kraft partner agencies, to develop successful annual, integrated, strategic marketing plans across all media channels - broadcast, in-store, out of home, PR, and digital.

Presented digital strategic forecasting and industry landscape presentations to Kraft upper-management bi-annually, and was the voice of digital in all annual Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) planning work for eleven distinct brands - collectively planning over $100M in annual marketing budget.

Grew the Kraft account at AKQA from a new client and a single brand, to eleven brands in three categories; quadrupled the annual budget with the agency year-over-year; and maintained 40% profitability for the agency.

Major brand partners: Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Jell-o, DiGiorno, Miracle Whip, Kraft Singles, California Pizza Kitchen, and Velveeta.

Projects included: Experiencial Websites; Integrated Social Media Campaigns; Mobile Brand Engagements; Viral Content Creation; Blog Seeding; and Rich Media Campaigns.

As the sole lead account representative, with a concentration in digital engagement strategy, I managed teams to provide innovative interactive marketing solutions for a variety of entertainment, mobile, and youth brand companies.

Our team delivered the digital campaigns for all three Spider-Man movies for Sony Pictures; as well as variety of innovative, engaging, digital experiences for 6-8 other Sony Picture properties each year.

Additional clients included Paramount Pictures, Amp'd Mobile, Team Red Bull, CBS Digital, CBS Mobile, Kyocera Wireless, Sony Home Entertainment, The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, and Wind-up Records.

Trigger specialized in experiential websites, bespoke online communities, advergaming, mobile BREW application development, 3D modeling and animation, and motion graphics.

Served as the primary account manager and producer on multiple, concurrent, six-figure projects for clients Team Red Bull, CBS Mobile, Amp’d Mobile, Kyocera Wireless, QualComm, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney World, Paramount Pictures, and the Shoah Foundation.

Directed each client’s interactive marketing initiative from creative brief to final delivery. Developed and maintained on-going brand strategy, wrote and directed pitch proposals and responses to RFP, led presentations to clients, as well as capabilities presentations to potential clients. Team Project Manager for all client’s projects from pricing and contracting, through documentation, build, and final delivery.

US producer for the Asia Pacific Region managing multiple, seasonal web campaigns from advertising brief, through development and localization, pan-Asian deployment, and continent-wide launch. Worked with design agencies in San Francisco, New York, London, and Amsterdam in coordination with Nike digital teams in seven Asian countries to design, build and translate quarterly updates for multiple brand categories. Was the primary project manager for multiple regional projects, including serving as regional lead for the global Nike 'Speed' campaign for the 2004 Olympic games. Maintained project timelines, wrote weekly reports, wrote briefs for the design agencies, and produced all product and on-model photography shoots for fall women's campaign in Asia.

Producer/Project Manager for the Oregon Nikkei Oral History Project. Produced a 30 segment video oral history of Japanese Americans in Oregon for a community historical society. Coordinated the training and scheduling of a team of twelve interviewers, a videography crew, transcription services, and a number of portrait photographers. Also produced the writing and direction of broadcast programming for local PBS, cable access, and public school programs.