Embedded Brand Lead

Your company outgrew its brand. The product is better than the website. The sales deck is better than the booth. Every new hire builds slides from a different template. Nobody on the leadership team owns how the company looks, so everybody does.

I fix that from the inside. I join your leadership meetings, not your vendor list. One person owns everything the brand touches, and the person who sells the work is the person who does it.

Who it’s for

• Founders with funding and no identity. Command Zero came in with a $10M round, SOC 2 and an RSAC Innovation Sandbox Top 10 finish. They had no brand.
• Multi-location operators where every site does its own thing. Nautical Boat Club runs 28 locations.
• Leadership teams who need senior creative judgment but not a $250K+ full-time hire or a $50K-a-month agency.

What changes

• Five months from zero brand to a full identity and website on the RSAC show floor for Command Zero.
• +125% in form submissions and phone calls after Nautical Boat Club’s rebuilt site launched.
• One standard across web, sales, events, social and video. Decisions stop waiting on the next agency kickoff.

What’s included

One owner for the whole system. In practice that means:

• Brand identity systems: logo, type, color and the rules behind them.
• Websites and digital: the site, landing pages and the tracking that proves they work.
• Brand rollout: signs, interiors, stationery and booths at every location.
• Sales and campaign materials: decks, ads, email and social for the pipeline.
• Merch and packaging: apparel and boxes your team and customers keep.

How it runs

Research. I sit in on leadership meetings, interview stakeholders and read the numbers first: analytics, heatmaps, sales notes, competitor ads. Data takes the ego out of the room.

Create. I build the system once, then apply it everywhere the brand shows up. Your team gets templates they can run without me in the room.

Results. We measure what the brand is supposed to move: inquiries, booked calls, sell-through, show-floor conversations. Then we keep it closed.

“Andy embedded with us like a co-founder, not a contractor. He pushed where we needed to be pushed, and the brand he built does work the rest of our team would otherwise have to do. Smartest brand investment we’ve made.”
— Erdem Menges, VP of Product Marketing, Command Zero

Selected work

Questions

What is a fractional creative director?

Senior creative leadership on a part-time retainer instead of a full-time hire or an agency. You get one person who owns the brand across every channel and sits with the leadership team.

How many companies do you work with at once?

A small number at a time. I stay for years, not sprints. Nautical Boat Club has been a client since 2022.

Do you replace our marketing team?

No. I give your team a system and the judgment calls they shouldn’t have to make alone. They ship faster because the standard is already set.

Where are you based?

Austin, Texas, above the only gas dock on Lake Austin. I work with teams across the country.