Blue Wheel - Marketer of the Year

Company: Blue Wheel, Birmingham, MI
Company Description: Blue Wheel is a new breed of agency. Our advanced digital marketing, content production and Amazon Advertising solutions help to build your brand and scale your ecommerce business.
Nomination Category: Marketing Organization / Professional Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Marketer of the Year

Nomination Title: Nick Bond

Nick Bond has worked in digital advertising for 7 years. Since then, he's worked with over 100 brands in various capacities —from digital advertising to business consulting. At every digital agency he's worked at, he has quickly transitioned into strategy roles; currently, he is the Director of Account Strategy at Blue Wheel, where he puts his stamp on each client that Blue Wheel partners with. His focus is how to best benefit the client as an agency partner and how to drive more success by doing what the client values.

Using the mindset of both a business owner and consumer, Nick is able to use data storytelling to justify business decisions on both the advertising and client sides. Rather than just running ads, Nick values partnering with brands to support their overall business goals.

Over the course of his career, he's touched nearly ever facet of marketing and advertising. Nick has done almost everything —SEO, email marketing, web development/UX, funnel optimization, paid search, paid social, affilaite marketing, and out-of-home. He is truly a full-service marketer. This vast array of experiences allows him to form holistic strategies that take into account the actual implementation.

Since 2019, Nick has built strategies for major beauty and wellness brands, including Oribe, Bliss, Caudalie, Grande Cosmetics, Body Compelte RX, and XMONDO. Across all of our ecommerce clients, we saw a 240% increase in total managed revenue. This speaks to Nick's ability to grow our existing client base as well as take on new accounts of all shapes and sizes in order to grow our agency.

Oribe surpassed their annual revenue goal by $2M. Nick's overall strategy for the client increased efficency with a moderate year-over-year budget increase. After increasing their budget 31%, Oribe saw a 41% increase in ROAS efficiency.

Nick's work with Bliss took a different approach —reducing budget while increasing ROAS efficiency honing in on key success drivers like affiliate marketing and social advertising. After a 24% budget decrease year over year, Bliss saw a 261% increase in ROAS efficiency!

But Nick is more than just an advertiser. With Body Complete RX, Nick and his team managed their macro and micro influencer marketing on social media. In the same vain, Banila Co's social strategy was overseen by Nick and implemented by his team —increasing Banilla's social followers by 45k and social engagerment by over 100% in 2020.

Nick's work with Holden, a high-end clothing brand, encompassed their business as a whole. He took into account profitability, margins, and inventory when crafting his strategies, and his work with the brand got them to reach 144% growth year over year that allowed them to get acquired.

2020 was a hard year for brands in a variety of verticals —and Nick's clients were no exception. Rather than sticking with the status quo or just maintaining, Nick pivoted the strategy for each of his clients. This mindset earned him a promotion at Blue Wheel from Senior Account Manager to Director of Account Strategy.

In addition, Nick takes the mindset of both the business owner and consumer into account in all decision making. He always asks, "What are we doing and why?" and uses data storytelling to justify higher-level business decisions as well as advertising efforts. Whether he's inquiring why a brand is pushing a specific product, strategizing how to sell it, or target audiences for advertising efforts, Nick is wearing multiple hats that allow him to offer a strategy that benefits both the consumer and the business.

"Nick really understands business first and foremost, which makes him an extremely powerful marketer," says Jon McGraw, Nick's direct supervisor and 2019 Marketer of the Year. "He takes into account KPIs and metrics that make a business succeed — profitability, margins, and inventory — that a lot of marketers miss but help us build a more cohesive strategy."

We have provided case studies for many of our clients that Nick has assisted with strategies. He directly managed Caudalie, Holden Outerwear, and Body Complete RX during his time as a Senior Account Manager, and he led the teams who managed Erno Laszlo, Grande Cosmetics, and XMONDO as the Director of Account Strategy.

Nikki Eisenberg, Director of Digital Marketing and E-commerce at Caudalie, speaks highly of the work Nick has done for the brand: "Nick’s agility & adaptability to our changing needs in this past trying year has made Nick a pleasure to work with, plus the ability to deliver results. Nick’s result-driven strategies, when paired with his passion for the brands & products he works on, is what has made Nick a fantastic, dedicated Account Manager and therefore an extension to our team."

Eitan Reshef, President of Blue Wheel, echoes these sentiments. "Nick's acumen and strategic vision in the world of digital marketing is only matched by his incredible work ethic, communication, and integrity," says Reshef. "Talk to any client or teammate that he works with and you will be bombarded with examples of his success in not only driving results, but also keeping an eye on what's next."

Also included is a case study from Marketing Supply Company, where Nick served as Account Director for 2 years. His work with PawnGuru showcases his abilities as an implementor for SEO, content, email marketing, and social media strategies.