Hi, I'm Ashten.

The story behind the strategy

I don't just create campaigns—I architect cultural moments that transform how people connect with brands. With over 15 years of experience spanning global tech giants like Meta, Dropbox, and Microsoft, I've mastered the art of turning brand stories into unforgettable experiences.
My superpower? Blending strategic thinking with hands-on creative execution. While most marketers are either strategic or creative, I'm both. This rare combination has helped me generate 4.8M+ impressions per event, increase diversity hiring by 28%, and achieve 83% adoption rates for new brand launches.
From launching stealth startups to creating viral VR events, I specialize in building marketing functions from scratch and scaling them into powerhouse brand engines. When there's no playbook, just vision and ambition—that's where I thrive.
Current Focus: Leading breakthrough brand strategies for emerging companies and challenger brands through my consultancy, Insert Cool Name Here, while pushing the boundaries of what experiential marketing can achieve in 2025.

The Resume

Strategic integrated marketing professional with 10+ years of experience developing cohesive messaging strategies, managing external partnerships, and executing multi-channel campaigns across technology and advertising industries. Proven track record of driving partner ecosystem growth through experiential event marketing, content creation, and cross-functional collaboration. Expert in managing creative agencies, vendor relationships, and building compelling brand narratives that drive awareness, engagement, and conversion. Specialized in developing strategic partnerships that deliver measurable business impact and revenue growth.

founder & principal strategist

insert cool name here

May 2025 - Present

Startup & Challenger Brand Expertise: Founded creative consultancy specializing in breakthrough brand strategies for emerging companies and challenger brands seeking market disruption
Visionary Leadership: Secured multi-contract partnerships delivering transformative brand positioning and go-to-market strategies for high-growth startups and established challengers
Creative Innovation: Developed bold brand experiences for luxury and lifestyle brands including MCM Worldwide, creating cultural moments that elevated brand perception and market position
Growth-Focused Results: Built comprehensive marketing strategies that drove measurable business impact while establishing brands as category leaders and cultural innovators
Team Leadership: Managed cross-functional creative teams and external partners to execute visionary campaigns that pushed creative boundaries and delivered exceptional ROI

Fractional chief marketing officer

upfront marital technologies

April 2024 - July 2025
Led cross-functional teams to build a full brand identity, integrated marketing strategy, organic and paid social media strategy, content development, and creative marketing development for an early-stage startup. Developed 0-1 brand product build and set up new marketing function, leading to an 83% adoption rate over 6 months.

Spearheaded the go-to-market strategy for a stealth dating tech startup, focusing on building a scalable and high-impact brand strategy.
Led brand positioning, messaging, and integrated marketing efforts to establish the platform as a premier destination for Black professionals seeking intentional relationships.
Developed and executed lead generation campaigns, leveraging digital, influencer, and experiential marketing to drive user acquisition.
Created strategic partnerships and engagement initiatives to elevate community trust and brand equity.
Oversaw content strategy, ensuring alignment with the startup's vision of fostering meaningful connections and emotional wellness.

Senior global marketing manager

Microsoft (contract)

May 2024 - February 2025
Led a team to rebuild and manage the careers website, ensuring consistent messaging and driving traffic and visibility for open roles. Ensured Microsoft careers utilized UI/UX best practices and aligned with the current EVP branding.

Created processes and procedures for global career site management.
Successfully created and executed a global recruitment marketing function.
Implemented training and toolkits for employee advocacy and social media use.
Sourced and implemented full funnel candidate tracking for recruitment marketing campaigns.
Created benchmarks and scorecards for recruitment marketing full-funnel reporting.
Developed and published employee-generated video widgets and interactive media components for the global career website.
Wrote, edited, and published internal, external, and career site employer brand communications globally.

Talent brand go-to-market lead

Dropbox

April 2022 - May 2024
Managed careers website, ensuring consistent messaging and driving traffic and visibility for open roles. Ensured Dropbox jobs show up in the right place at the right time to the right talent.

Successfully led the vision and creative direction for all talent brand, employer brand programs, initiatives, and campaigns. Saw a 10% increase in the flow of candidate quality at the top of the funnel year over year due to strategic adjustments in ad spend and placement, as well as the implementation of a robust content marketing strategy.
Led new Employee Value Proposition research and development with stakeholders across the company. Drove activation of new Employee Value Proposition across geographies and channels.
Owned recruitment and marketing strategy and budget. Drove strategic development and implementation of recruitment marketing strategy to decrease ad spend by 20% on LinkedIn and 10% across all other channels, which exceeded reach, engagement, and click-through rates by 20% on average across all digital channels.
Sourced and implemented full funnel candidate tracking for recruitment marketing campaigns.
Created, produced, launched, and executed Dropbox-owned and operated event franchise, “The Drop,” and positioned Dropbox as an ideal employer, resulting in each event garnering 4.8M impressions on average, 100% NPS from attendees, 80% talent community opt-in rate, and 1-3 offer accepts for roles across the company.
Created and launched an overarching recruiting events strategy, which successfully engaged Dropbox volunteers for each event, and worked on employee engagement, diverse talent attraction, and brand awareness.
Drove strategic initiatives focused on cultivating strong partnerships with external diversity organizations to produce the best recruiting outcomes for our full-funnel strategy that helped us exceed annual diversity hiring goals by 28% in the last year.
Developed a location-based recruiting and sourcing strategy to support Talent Acquisition teams in partnership with our Global Talent Insights Team, which resulted in more globally distributed hiring and an 8% increase in hiring talent density.

Integrated Marketing Manager - Global

Meta (facebook)

November 2021 - April 2022
Advised and collaborated with teams on go-to-market global diversity Employer Brand creative content and asset strategy. Provided global diversity-owned and operated event strategy and marketing strategy for 2022 and 2023.

Pitched, planned, created, and published a “Life at Meta” Instagram reel for the “Show Us Your Parental Leave” trend that became the year’s highest-performing piece of content for the channel.
Created and implemented Global Diversity Recruiting Events and Integrated Marketing Strategy based on global recruiting market data.
Created guidelines and processes for creative agency management and virtual reality event execution.
Planned, executed, and marketed a first-of-its-kind global diversity event with a discussion held in virtual reality and broadcast live to Facebook and LinkedIn ,resulting in five times the benchmarks for RSVPs, attendance, and event views; 100% of attendee surveys marked that the event improved their perception of the company while breaking records with 2.5 million impressions.

SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER - EMPLOYER BRAND SOCIAL & CREATIVE 2021

EMPLOYER BRAND MANAGER - DIVERSITY, PROJECTS, & RECRUITING 2018 - 2021

Website Designer 2016 - 2018

hosting Web Pro 2016

hosting Specialist 2015 - 2016

Godaddy

March 2015 - October 2021
Researched, identified, and developed relationships with external talent attraction partners (diversity organizations, networking organizations, meetups, and thought partners)

Created and executed global campaigns for employer review and reputation sites that increased the company's Glassdoor score from 3.4 to 3.9.
Participated in the development and execution of a global recruitment marketing strategy.
Developed and executed a recruiting events program aligned with talent acquisition hiring forecasts, focused on areas such as diversity and tech hiring.
Researched events, and managed event logistics and attendees while creating unique event experiences and utilizing Applicant Tracking System (ATS) tools to develop and track event KPIs.
Drove internal interest and participation in employer branding initiatives by partnering with internal communications stakeholders to produce quarterly informational push campaigns to engage the employee population regularly through initiatives and contests.
Helped to scale up the department to match rapidly growing global company needs. Implemented global diversity training for all Talent Acquisition teams and hiring managers in new international regions, as well as, regularly cadenced news and information about ongoing global goals, programs, and initiatives
Managed award submissions for local office “Best Places to Work” and “Diversity Awards” globally to build brand awareness as a top tech employer which resulted in receiving Best Places to Work awards for Seattle, Phoenix, Austin, Sunnyvale, and Cambridge; Top Places to Work awards for the global company; and Arizona Best Places to Work 5 consecutive years.

Software
Tools
skills

Creating Cultural Connection
I believe the best marketing doesn't interrupt culture—it contributes to it. Whether I'm designing an event experience or crafting social content, I'm always asking: "How does this add value to someone's life beyond just promoting our brand?"

Building Inclusive Experiences
Diversity and inclusion aren't just values for me—they're strategic imperatives. My work consistently focuses on creating marketing that authentically represents and attracts diverse talent and audiences. It's not about checking boxes; it's about recognizing that inclusive marketing is simply better marketing.

Bridging Strategy and Execution
Too many strategies live in PowerPoint decks and never see the real world. I get my hands dirty with every project because I believe you can't create great experiences from behind a desk. From editing videos to designing event spaces to writing social copy, I do the work—and that makes the strategy better.

Measuring What Matters
Every campaign I create is built on clear KPIs and measurable outcomes. Creativity without accountability is just art. But creativity with clear business objectives? That's transformative marketing.

Event Mgmt & Production

People Management

Stage Programming

Project Management

Strategic planning

Content Strategy

Social Media Strategy

Vendor Management

Audience Engagement

Experiential Marketing

Product Marketing

Consumer Marketing

Music Supervision

Influencer & Artist Partnerships

Employer Brand

HTML/CSS

Adobe Experience Manager

WordPress

Virtual Reality

Augmented Reality

Python

React JS

Okta Auth0

SQL

JavaScript

Linux & Windows OS

Adobe Creative Suite

Figma

Final Cut Pro

Frame.io

Canva

Sketch

InDesign

Ableton Live

Pro-Tools

OBS Studio

Riverside FM

Google Analytics

Tableau

Workday

Greenhouse

Eightfold

Hubspot

Sprinklr

Hootsuite

Culture HQ

iCIMS

Sprout Social

Contact

Ready to create something extraordinary? Let's talk about how we can transform your brand story into cultural moments that drive real business results.

Looking for collaboration?

INSERT IDEA HERE

Forum Ave
Pflugerville, TX

Marine Dr
Chicago, IL

info@hub.com

Available for freelance in Aug 2025

send a message

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