Alaska · 1996–2010 Outside · 2017–present
Thirty years building revenue for race properties, automotive and enthusiast brands. Two decades of it in Alaska, from a standing start.
The short version
Find where an audience already is, then build the thing that turns it into money.
The categories change. Snowmachine racing, synthetic lubricants, classic British cars, bespoke Land Rovers, consumer electronics. The problem underneath does not, and neither does the fact that enthusiast audiences can tell inside a sentence whether you have ever used the thing.
Most of it closer to the operating end than the advisory end. I have run the race, signed the sponsor, restructured the team, and explained a miss to a board.
Read as a line, not a list
Founded Dogsled.com in 1997, the leading independent sled-dog racing destination of its era, which built the Iditarod's earliest online audience. At GCI, produced some of the first live cameras on the Iditarod trail and on 4th Avenue for Fur Rondy. Before that, agency work, statewide travel and tourism marketing, and Internet Alaska, one of the state's pioneer internet service providers.
The world's longest snowmachine race, 2,000 miles across roadless Alaska, governed by a working nonprofit board. Arrived with $11,000 in the bank and left it in the black with six-figure reserves. Delivered the race's first national television, a one-hour NBC Sports Network documentary, plus first live statewide coverage and record participation. Negotiated a first-of-its-kind BRP and Ski-Doo licensing deal on a co-branded limited-edition sled sold internationally, and grew a local dealer relationship into a corporate Toyota partnership that outlasted the tenure. Moved the race start into downtown Anchorage, which meant getting city government, sponsors, safety officials and a good many traditionalists to all say yes.
Directed all motorsport partnerships, sponsorships and activations, managing 60 percent of the annual marketing budget. Licensing and co-marketing with BF Goodrich, KLIM and ODI produced 40 percent year-over-year growth in channel engagement.
North America's largest classic British car parts retailer, a $48M e-commerce and catalogue business. Drove $18M of revenue growth in 24 months. Rebuilt the marketing stack, the CRM architecture and performance media from the ground up, and led a restructured 40-person team across digital, content, CRM and sales.
Ultra-luxury manufacturer building $300K to $500K bespoke commissions for clients across the United States, the Middle East and Europe. Built the commercial function covering marketing, sales and client experience, and developed the high-touch cultivation practice that ultra-high-net-worth clientele require.
Brand, product positioning and go-to-market for a national consumer and automotive electronics line, directing budgets, agencies and both B2B and B2C channel marketing.
Iron Dog · AMSOIL · ECD · 2010–2025
Created the freestyle exhibition that carried the race brand outside its one week, and gave sponsors an asset that worked in the off-season.
Directed motorsport partnerships across the off-road season, including the BF Goodrich co-marketing programme.
AMSOIL
Placement and activation across desert and short-course racing, run on a budget that was 60 percent of annual marketing spend.
AMSOIL
Built the commercial function at a manufacturer producing $300K to $500K bespoke builds for clients across three continents.
ECD · Project BlancaFour arguments
When marketing and sales disagree about lead quality the instinct is to work out who is right. Usually neither is. They measure different things at different points in the funnel, and both report accurately from where they stand. Until the definitions and the handoff get rebuilt, replacing either leader only resets the clock. I have watched companies spend two years and two marketing directors learning that.
Passion properties concentrate everything into a season and then go quiet. That makes sponsorship a transaction rather than a relationship, and it caps what any partner will pay. At Iron Dog it meant television, a licensed product, a freestyle exhibition and a summer season. The sponsorship numbers moved because the asset had changed.
These audiences know more about the product than the marketing department does, and they can tell within one sentence whether the person writing the copy has ever used the thing. It is why generic performance marketing underdelivers here, and it is also why the category is defensible. Brands that get it right are very hard to displace.
Commercial judgment in these categories comes from operating exposure, not from a deck. Knowing what an activation costs to deliver in a village with no road access changes what you are willing to promise, and it changes what you price. The most useful thing I brought out of Alaska was not a contact list. It was the habit of pricing a promise against what it takes to keep it.
Companies that want this work applied to their own business engage it through Formanté Group. Capabilities, the fixed-price diagnostic, and an honest account of when the fit is wrong.
A reply from me, not an assistant
Boards, search committees, operators and old colleagues all land here. Whatever the reason, a note gets a reply from me rather than from an assistant.
Or book thirty minutes and skip the back and forth.