Mike Garrison

Brands aren’t built by logos. They’re built by souls - founders with vision, teams who care, customers who believe. Every voice, every story, every bit of passion matters. My work honors those souls and weaves them into something that moves people and markets. I build belief through strategy that blends insight, instinct, and culture—helping brands find clarity, coherence, and conviction. What I do: • Brand positioning & narrative development • Audience and cultural insights (qual + quant) • Messaging frameworks that scale • Campaign and content strategy • Executive and internal storytelling • Fractional strategy + brand leadership The framework: Belief. Bridge. Bedrock. What you stand for. How you show up. What holds it together. From stealth-stage startups to legacy giants, I help brands evolve, reconnect, and actually convert—without the branding theater.

Led a 15-person cross-functional team across Research, Strategy, Creative, Digital, Content and Measurement to drive integrated brand and marketing strategy. Developed and implemented a strategic planning process rooted in Brand Archetypes, KPI-driven alignment, and a Strategic Planning Funnel (Insight → Strategy → Activation). Strengthened new business performance and long-term client relationships by leading with insight, strategic clarity, and cross-functional alignment. Fostered collaboration across departments, shaping a unified strategic approach that enhanced internal workflows and improved external campaign performance. Operationalized research and planning as a core function, embedding it into brand strategy, media, client onboarding, and performance measurement—driving agency-wide alignment and value creation.

Built and led the Planning & Insights function, scaling the team from 2 to 5 and embedding human-centric strategy into operations across departments. Developed a strategic planning model grounded in human truths, brand objectives, and KPIs—contributing to a 70% pitch win rate and 25% lift in campaign effectiveness. Connected consumer need states to creative and media planning, enhancing message resonance and cross-functional alignment. Integrated performance measurement across all major campaigns, improving ROI tracking and internal accountability. Streamlined campaign planning timelines by 30%, improving execution speed and reducing inter-team friction. Maintained 85% YoY client retention, strengthening account partnerships through insight-driven clarity and strategy leadership.

(Formerly CEB Iconoculture Consumer Insights) Led the Media, Entertainment, and Technology vertical, overseeing strategy for key accounts and owning the full research and insight pipeline. Directed end-to-end trend development, translating cultural shifts and consumer behaviors into actionable strategic guidance for Fortune 500 clients. Delivered 100+ strategic presentations and workshops, influencing brand positioning, innovation roadmaps, and content strategies. Owned and managed the team’s research toolset and tech stack, overseeing vendor relationships, tool selection, and annual budgeting. Developed proprietary methodologies to analyze emerging patterns in digital consumption, mediae cosystems, and tech behaviors. Drove account growth by 15–20% YoY through consultative leadership and narrative-driven insight strategy. Partnered cross-functionally with analysts and creatives to produce thought leadership, syndicated insights, and trend-driven deliverables adopted enterprise-wide.

Led primary research efforts across linear and non-linear platforms, managing up to 10 concurrent projects supporting programming, brand, and digital. Informed programming and brand development through custom qualitative and quantitative research, contributing to a 15% lift in audience retention for tested pilots and concepts. Reduced content iteration cycles by 25% by introducing early-stage consumer validation and audience insight checkpoints. Oversaw third-party vendor partnerships, ensuring 95%+ on-time delivery and maintaining high internal satisfaction scores across cross-functional teams. Synthesized research findings into actionable storytelling, enabling clearer decision-making for show development, marketing campaigns, and brand activations.

Led development and execution of high-profile industry benchmark studies for media and technology clients, overseeing survey design, methodology fusion, analysis, and insight delivery. Fused quantitative and qualitative methods to build nuanced consumer profiles and forecast market behavior. Delivered insight-rich presentations to senior stakeholders, transforming complex data into visually compelling and actionable stories. Produced a flagship study featured in Variety and Ad Age and other industry media, reinforcing Nielsen’s thought leadership and expanding industry influence.

Created and scaled MTV’s first consumer insights position focused on gaming, identifying a strategic whitespace and building the function from the ground up. Brought the consumer voice into multi-platform programming and marketing, partnering with teams across television, digital, integrated marketing, and business development. Designed and executed custom research to inform platform expansion, show development, and brand strategy across Gen Y and early Millennial audiences. Delivered insight reports and strategic guidance to leadership, shaping decisions on content development and emerging media. Helped solidify MTV’s cultural relevance through research-driven storytelling and platform innovation during a critical period of digital transformation.