GAVIN TELLS STORIES
swinging words with feeling
01 me
I tell stories. It's what I do.
I shouldn’t be surprised. My parents were both journalists--they met in 1958 while covering a Minneapolis murder trial. At first, I wrote things for myself & my school yearbook. Then it was songs & poems, lots of those. Then it was heavy-handed critical & culture writing. I was young. I tried hard, maybe too hard.
I spent four years learning how to cut out the fat & write with force at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Journalism. I spent my important post-college years in the Chapel Hill music community, cementing the clear set of ethics--the code for living--that my parents had instilled in me. That would continue to inform everything I did, at work & at home.
I started writing for proper magazines & newspapers as well as brands like IBM. I worked at an ad agency. I learned how marketing works, warts & all.
When social media was born, so too was the second phase of my career. I loved the honesty brands had to show--particularly in the beginning--and the dialogue that replaced the familiar, tired patter of a brand monologue. I ended up spending 10 years as Global Social Creative Lead & Brand Newsroom architect for Lenovo, the largest PC company in the world. I got to make unscripted videos & grow vibrant online communities. I got to build a brand voice from the ground up. I loved it but, over time, algorithms dulled the joy. So I left.
I went to work at Brand Innovators & got to fix my gaze on a broader storytelling horizon. No brand was off limits. I got to tell stories about brand purpose, disruptive creative campaigns, workplace gender issues and--when we entered a dark new era--the ways brands were shining a light in a time of pandemic. Best of all, I still got to put the voices of real people (BI’s community of brand marketers) at the center of everything I did.
I'm still a writer at heart, and writing continues to be at the heart of everything I do. If you find yourself in need of inspiration & help in any of the following areas, let’s talk:
Writing & Editing
Social Media Creative
Video, Podcasting & Online Meeting Hosting
Content Marketing & Strategy
Corporate & Crisis Comms
Employee Advocacy & Community-Building
--G
