STACIE LYDIA
Brand & Performance Marketing Lead | Integrated Strategy
I build brand platforms rooted in culture, and I measure them by what they deliver: awareness, acquisition, and revenue. Over two decades I've led campaigns for Tylenol, Aveeno, PNC Bank, and Pepsi, including Tylenol's sixth rebrand in its history and Aveeno Baby's Eczema Equality platform, shortlisted at Cannes Lions.
My approach is simple. Start with consumer and cultural insight, turn it into strategy, then lead cross-functional teams across creative, media, CRM, and analytics to deliver on brand and on budget. I've done it in-house and agency-side, across healthcare, financial services, and CPG.
Culture sits at the center of my work because culturally fluent brands earn a place in people's lives. I have spent as much energy building strong teams and strong brands. One doesn't happen without the other.
BRANDS I HAVE WORKED WITH
CV
April 2025 - Current
VP, GROUP ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: TD Bank, Pernod Ricard, Northwestern Mutual, New Business
UNIWORLD GROUP, INC (UWG) - Denver, CO (remote)
Own integrated brand strategy across four consumer and financial services brands, from positioning through media activation and performance reporting. Beat revenue and growth targets by 10% across Northwestern Mutual and Pernod Ricard. Won three new business pitches in six months, adding $2M+ in revenue. Restored a struggling account to near double-digit profitability by realigning staffing and integrating AI into how the team works. Lead a team of 8 and report quarterly to senior leadership.
June 2024 - March 2025
VP, BRAND LEAD: UCHealth, Surest, Optum
BARKLEYOKRP - Denver, CO
Owned full-funnel brand and media strategy for UCHealth, growing patient acquisition and brand awareness across paid, owned, and earned channels. Developed and tested brand value propositions across B2B and B2C audiences for Surest and Optum, work that fed media, lifecycle marketing, and sales enablement.
November 2022 - May 2024
GROUP ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: PNC Bank, Visa, Pepsi, The Home Depot
WALTON ISAACSON ADVERTISING - Los Angeles, CA (remote in Denver)
Led PNC Bank's integrated brand campaign for the Black consumer, delivering a 20-point lift in site traffic and awareness. Directed Pepsi Dig In Day, doubling engagement and impressions year over year and lifting site traffic 79%. Launched The Home Depot's Retool Your School platform, funding HBCU campus grants across digital, social, influencer, and events. Shaped Visa's brand partnership strategy.
October 2021 - November 2022
SENIOR BRAND DIRECTOR: Crocs, Community First Organization
FORTNIGHT COLLECTIVE ADVERTISING - Boulder, CO
Led brand strategy and campaign execution for Crocs, delivering on time and on budget through cross-functional team leadership. Exceeded agency target profit margins by 8% on average across accounts.
September 2020 - October 2021
VP, BRAND LEAD: Johnson & Johnson (Kenvue)
DONER ADVERTISING - Detroit, MI
Led the sixth Tylenol rebrand in brand history, spanning communications architecture, brand identity, and an international integrated campaign. Launched Tylenol's new website and digital shelf strategy across Amazon and Walmart. Created Aveeno Baby's Eczema Equality platform, shortlisted at Cannes Lions. Earned a mid-year client procurement score of 4.8 out of 5 against a 3.6 partner-agency average.
Awards: Cannes Shortlist Aveeno Baby
January 2018 - April 2020
BRAND & MARKETING DIRECTOR
PINNACOL ASSURANCE - Denver, CO
Reported directly to the CMO. Led enterprise brand and marketing strategy for Colorado's largest workers' compensation carrier. Grew application leads nearly 40% year over year. Lifted brand awareness 10+ points through a multi-channel campaign across traditional, digital, social, events, and community partnerships. Repositioned the brand through a full refresh: positioning research, platform development, brand identity, and style guide.
February 2014 - November 2017
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: SCL Health (Intermountain Health)
HLK ADVERTISING AGENCY - Denver, CO
Partnered with the agency owner to open the Denver office. Grew SCL Health brand performance nearly 5 points in the Denver region through a multi-million-dollar integrated program. Beat new primary care patient appointment goals 10%+ year over year.
April 2011 - February 2014
ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR: Procter & Gamble
THE INTEGER GROUP - Denver, CO
Drove a 20% U.S. sales increase on the P&G and Rite Aid Olympic program through customized in-store displays and an integrated marketing plan. Won the Design of the Times Award for Innovation for Clairol Nice 'n Easy Foam Hair Color.
Awards: Design of the Times Award for Innovation for P&G Clairol
January 2002 - April 2010
MANAGEMENT SUPERVISOR: Jeep, Walmart
GLOBALHUE - Southfield, MI
Led multicultural brand strategy and campaign development across broadcast, digital, event, and retail. Grew U.S. Navy scope of work 50%+ with a new event strategy and marketing platform. Managed annual budgets over $8M. Awards: Urban Wheel, Caddy, and Latin Marketing.
Awards: Urban Wheel Awards, Caddy Awards, Latin Marketing Award
Culturally fluent brands earn a place in people's lives
Most brand work gets judged on whether it is consistent. Consistency is table stakes. The harder question is whether anyone would notice if the brand disappeared.
The brands people miss are the ones that understood something true about the moment they were speaking into. Aveeno Baby's Eczema Equality worked because parents of children with darker skin had been looking at eczema education for years without seeing their kids in any of it. That was not a creative idea. It was a fact sitting in plain sight that nobody had built anything around.
The same was true of Pepsi Dig In Day. Support for Black-owned restaurants was not a message to broadcast. It was something communities were already doing, and the job was to amplify it through the people they trusted rather than through advertising.
This is what is meant by cultural fluency. Not borrowing from culture, which audiences see through immediately, but understanding what is happening in people's lives well enough that the brand has something useful to add. Useful is the word that matters. A brand can entertain and be forgotten. A brand that solves something gets kept. That is as true for a pain reliever as it is for a bank, and it is why insight work is not a phase at the front of a project. It is the whole thesis, and everything downstream either holds it up or gives it away.
The commercial case is straightforward. Brands that earn a place in people's lives cost less to grow, because people bring them up on their own. Awareness you have to buy every quarter is not the same asset as awareness people carry for you.
That is the work I want to keep doing.
— Stacie Lydia
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