Episode 71
Brand Story Podcast

Crafting the Right Marketing Mix

featuring Gina Michnowicz

CEO and Chief Creative Officer of The Craftsman Agency

Gina Michnowicz, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of The Craftsman Agency, talks about the integrated marketing campaign process and customer experience with our president, Steve Gilman.

Being creative means having the courage to take risks. It means rolling with the punches, pivoting when needed, and evolving your ideas to create an end result that resonates with your audience. Just ask Gina, whose Clio award-winning campaign for the hit Disney film Cruella pivoted from featuring a life-size chocolate model to mini chocolate creations that showcased the fashion of the film.

In this episode of Brand Story, Gina offers her insights into creating integrated marketing campaigns for top brands such as Disney and Cisco. She shares what it’s like to be creative in the fast-paced world of marketing, where immediate social media reactions can make or break a campaign, and how every touchpoint impacts the customer experience.

About the Guest

Gina Michnowicz

CEO and Chief Creative Officer of The Craftsman Agency

Gina is the founder, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer of The Craftsman Agency, where she and her team create experiential marketing and immersive storytelling for brands. She’s a Clio Award Winner and has done incredible work for clients like Disney, 20th Century Studios, Paramount, Cisco, and many more. Gina has also co-authored a book called “Business Bliss or Co-Founder Chaos”, a must-read for anyone considering starting a business with a partner or a family member.

Quickfire Q&A

You have a passion for customer experience as a competitive advantage - can you speak to that?

Gina: Customer experience is something that impacts your brand aura, for good or bad, more than people give it credit for. And it doesn’t have to be a physical experience. It’s dealing with people from a customer experience like, how you do outreach to them, how your website works, how easy you make everything. Customer experience is so important because it does keep you coming back.

What would you name this chapter of your life?

Gina: I’ll call it the magical era. I feel like I get up and I get to do this job that I love. I’m always asked, “When do you think you’re going to retire?” and I’m like, honestly, if I’m still having fun and I’m still doing the kinds of campaigns I’m doing now, it’s going to be a long time.

If you could give your younger self any advice, what would it be?

Gina: I would have told myself to not be so hard on myself. If I had a misstep or a failure, I would just flog myself for weeks. I can be a bit of a perfectionist so I think that I was just way too hard on myself and it honestly really impacted my confidence.

About The Host

Steve Gilman

As the President of Gravity Group, Steve is passionate about helping brands reach their goals through honest, creative marketing and powerful brand stories.

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