Adam Swartout

As Director of Creative Strategy, I utilize my instinct for marketing strategies to communicate a vision with expertise and authority. This role requires the ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and welcome the autonomy to make essential decisions for the business. Key objectives consist of interfacing with creative production teams, establishing & implementing strategic and tactical communications, driving brand strategy, and transforming our marketing efforts from a traditional model to a digital one. In addition, I work with organizational leaders to uncover breakthrough customer insights and identify high-impact opportunities for developing innovative approaches to shape the business evolution and its brands as I provide a critical voice in a fast-growing organization.

• Completely overhauled the LKQ Pick Your Part website to enhance the UI/UX, digital securities, and SEO content within the first six months of the position. 
• Increased website acquisitions by organic search by over 800%, direct over 1,000%, referrals over 700%, and social over 800%.
• Successfully implemented an effective SEM marketing strategy that places our ads within the top 5 national car buyers such as Carvana, Carmax, and Peddle.  
• Reduced over $3M in wasteful marketing spend by focusing on meaningful solutions that drive ROI and reduce spending. 
• Reimagined the marketing strategy for the business and successfully built the foundation for a digital marketing-focused effort for the B2C retail segment of LKQ Corporation.

Appointed to lead the corporate and North American marketing functions through a turnaround and assumed the majority of responsibilities & accountabilities previously held by the Vice President of Marketing reporting directly to the CEO and Sr. Vice Presidents, respectively. We developed marketing strategies by studying the industry's current state and tracking changes in our supply and demand by identifying our customers' current and future needs. Manage and develop company marketing programs to help drive revenue growth in key focus areas outlined by Senior Executive staff. Work with the senior sales team to develop support tools such as sales programs and initiatives, communication tools, advertisements, promotional activities for internal and external customers. In late 2018 we took ownership of LKQ Corporations Social Media and Web content and strategies to provide a single branding message and clear voice. Manage the activities of the Marketing Department with accountability for goals and objectives.

• Contribute to marketing effectiveness by identifying short-term and long-range issues that must address, providing information and commentary pertinent to deliberations, recommending options and courses of action, implementing directives.
• Obtain market share by developing marketing plans and programs for key focus areas and products by directing promotional support.
• Maintain relations with customers by organizing and developing specific customer- relations programs; determining company presence at conventions, annual meetings, and trade events.
• Influence product sales by determining and evaluating current and future market trends.
• Achieve financial objectives set by Senior Executives by preparing an annual budget, scheduling expenditures, analyzing variances, initiating corrective actions.
• Complete Marketing Department operational requirements by scheduling and assigning employees; following up on work results.
• Maintain LKQ Marketing staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees.
• Maintain LKQ Marketing staff job results by counseling and disciplining employees; plan, monitoring, and appraising job results.
• Develop LKQ Marketing staff by providing information, educational opportunities, and experiential growth opportunities.
• Maintain professional and technical knowledge by attending industry trade events, reviewing professional publications, and establishing personal networks.
• Contribute to the LKQ Marketing team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.

Direct and manage all aspects of the brand, design, and messaging for the business needs. Oversee support team of Marketing Assistants in handling requests for collateral materials and being a program administration on a national level.

• Successfully developed, established, and maintained the corporate brand identity and all the subsidiary brands of LKQ with a consistent logo, design, and messaging. As a result, the LKQ brand is now easily recognized throughout the industry due to the brand standards I put in place. 
• Oversee a marketing staff of 5 people to direct workflow, meet schedules and ensure customer satisfaction.
• Provide support for 420+ locations internationally with design, layout, printing, and mailing marketing collateral materials, including flyers, advertisements, forms, signage, vehicle wraps, and more. 
• Successfully developed and created all content and marketing plans for marketing programs to help increase sales, typically generating over $100 million in sales per program.
• Conduct market research via email campaigns, surveys, and customer interviews to find current trends and ways to implement them into our yearly marketing schedule, enabling the company to target specific market segments and increase revenue in those segments.
• Coordinate, create, and produce all show elements for events, including displays, signage, videos, sound, lighting, and show schedules. Shows consisted of the annual national trade shows such as SEMA, AAPEX, and NACE and internal events such as our National Managers Meeting and SalesMaster/President's Club, held annually.
• As Sr. Marketing Manager, I also maintained all my previous responsibilities as the company's only Graphic Designer until we were given the budget to add headcount in 2014.

As sole designer for LKQ Corporation, I was responsible for maintaining brand standards and creating all content for locations and leadership to use. I also worked with vendors and publishers to leverage our design needs as the company continued to grow.

• Graphic Design (Layouts/Concepts)
• Location and Parts shoots (Photography/Videography)
• Illustrations
• Photo Manipulation
• Video Production
• Motion Graphics 
• Image Compression
• Head the designs for new branding campaigns

Beckman Coulter is a manufacturer of medical instrumentation. As a Multimedia Specialist, I was responsible for the following:

• Produce and edit videos for events such as national sales meetings, branding campaigns, websites, and trade shows
• Graphic design layouts/concepts utilized in video production
• Location shoots (Video & Photography)
• Motion graphics/animation 
• Photo manipulation
• Image and video compression
• Cataloged/Indexed digital media to streamline workflow and increase in-process productivity
• Reduced in-house spending by $10,000 per project by providing short lead times and extensive video production experience
• Overall savings of $500,000 during employment

Studied traditional art such as drawing, painting, ceramics, graphic design, typography, photography, lithography, and illustration.  Focused my education around art history, design theory, and art education.

Main area of focus was Architecture however I became more interested in the Fine Arts and Graphic Design which ultimately lead me to change majors and schools.