It's No Fluke

Dan Portrait is Kamp Grizzly’s Chief Creative Officer and founder. Portrait’s artistic upbringing in Portland’s hotbed of subcultures, music and film during the early 90’s helped to shape the young creative’s approach to founding and running Kamp Grizzly, one of the most accredited and forward-thinking creative agencies, known for blurring the lines between advertising and entertainment. Portrait’s natural curiosity and creative outlook has been instrumental in impacting Kamp Grizzly’s DNA and approach to immersive storytelling - no matter the medium. 

The agency boasts a growing portfolio of award-winning branded content and disruptive activations with client partners including adidas North America, Netflix, Amazon, Uber Eats, Moet, Fanatics, and Oakley. Kamp Grizzly received its first Lion at the 2023 Cannes Festival for the Halloween Uber Eats short horror film “Don’t’ Run Out” directed by Dan Trachtenberg starring Keke Palmer. The Kamp Grizzly team is also behind Oakley’s newest multimedia odyssey, Future Genesis, which continues to unfold with an animated fiction film and preview comic drop.

Portrait is based out of Portland, Oregon near the global Kamp Grizzly headquarters.

Nycole Hampton is a results-driven senior marketing leader with two decades of experience in integrated marketing and brand strategy, including 13 years in leadership roles. At her core, she is a builder—of brands, in-house teams, global agency practices, marketing frameworks, content engines, and full-funnel strategies that drive measurable results. 

Throughout her career, Nycole has worked with clients and strategic partners such as ALDI, Air New Zealand, American Airlines, Auntie Anne's, Barefoot Wines, Chicago White Sox, Impossible Foods, Kimpton Hotels, Microsoft, Milk PEP, New Zealand All Blacks, NFL, Rite Aid, Samsung, So Delicious, and USA Rugby.

With her extensive background in integrated and content marketing and early entry into both social media and influencer marketing, Nycole is the perfect person to talk to in the ever-changing marketing landscape. She enjoys leveraging her experience to educate and inspire the next generation of marketers, serving as an adjunct professor, active mentor and speaking at industry events.

The ad that has everyone saying, "whoa."

Lyle Yetman | Co-CCO

The best thing that ever happened to Lyle’s advertising career was not getting hired as an account person at BBDO. He would have sucked at that. Instead, he became a writer. After getting his master’s at the VCU Brandcenter, Lyle left his Boston roots, moved out west, and started his career at BSSP, where he worked on MINI, Chipotle, and El Pollo Loco, created the Priceline Negotiator and made award-winning spots for Google, among others. His work has been recognized by the One Show, Cannes Lions, Clios, Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, and the Effies. At McKinney, he is Co-Chief Creative Officer, overseeing all the work from the Durham and New York offices, including Little Caesars, Puma, Popeyes, and ESPN, where he continues to do award-winning work. He's got a deep and abiding love of telling stories and finding the untapped potential in every brand. After 19 years in the business, he could probably hack it as an account person now. No, he couldn’t. That’s a lie.

Kerry O'Connor | Group Strategy Director

Kerry started her career working in communications for the Navy in Washington, D.C., before deciding to pursue a career in advertising. She attended the VCU Brandcenter where she graduated with an MS in business and a concentration in branding and strategy. Kerry joined McKinney in 2015 and honed her passion for insights on brands like CarMax, Jared, and ESPN. She was promoted to strategy director in 2021 and is creating award-winning work using her strategy smarts on Sherwin-Williams and Little Caesars. Outside of advertising, Kerry is working her way through the NYTimes Cooking archives.

In nearly two decades in the communications field,Amy Widdowson has guided organizations through inflection moments and critical public relations challenges, with work across executive visibility, messaging and storytelling, thought leadership, and crisis management. Prior to her role as VP Communications at Medium, she spent over ten years agency-side in both corporate and public affairs leadership capacities, where she developed strategies for organizations in the technology, consumer goods, and professional services sectors.

We talk about this more in the pod but everyone should be writing about their jobs on the Internet (Medium, obviously) because we all have so much to share. Amy wrote a piece called 'Blogging About Your Job For Fun And (Emotional) Profit.' where she goes into how to do it in a way that is actually interesting and helpful. 

She has also been writing a newsletter on tech, policy, and media (The Morning Missive), where you can find her ranting about everything from housing policy to boneheaded PR stunts.

Growing up in Brooklyn with modest means, Cheryl Toussaint knows first-hand how sports can change the direction of one’s life. After discovering a local track meet by chance at age 12, she ran her first race in a pair of borrowed sneakers and went on to earn the silver medal in the 1972 Olympic Games, even after an early mishap forced her to run with only one shoe! Now, Cheryl has turned her lifelong passion for running (she remains active today, even in her 70’s) and the lessons she learned about courage and perseverance into an ongoing personal mission to empower generations of athletes -- past, present, and future -- to achieve athletic and academic success through theColgate Women's Games.

Preparations are underway to celebrate its milestone 50th season next year. And it was a pleasure to speak with Cheryl about her remarkable journey, the legacy of the program, and how organized sports can shape lives.

Photo credit: DeSean McClinton-Holland

Andy Lambert is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record of building and scaling successful software businesses over the past 12 years. As a founding member of ContentCal, a social media marketing platform, he helped grow the company from inception to acquisition by Adobe Inc. in 2021, raising $10M in funding and serving thousands of customers globally. Andy is passionate about education and sharing knowledge, which led him to author the best-selling book 'SOCIAL 3.0' in 2022. Drawing from his extensive experience, he now advises and consults with businesses, helping them scale and harness the power of social media.

Foram Mehta is a leader in the social impact sector with over 13 years of experience driving initiatives in sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, and youth empowerment. As the Global Partnerships Manager at Women First Digital, Foram has spearheaded innovative solutions to address access gaps in abortion care, contraception, and digital security, particularly in underserved regions like Latin America and Africa.

She specializes in building meaningful partnerships, leveraging technology for social change, and designing scalable programs that challenge the status quo. A passionate advocate for feminist and anti-colonial approaches, Foram is committed to creating equitable and inclusive opportunities for marginalized communities worldwide.

Ally - 2x winner at the 9th Annual Shorty Impact Awards

Labeled a leading voice in the intersection of marketing and technology by Forbes, Keith is the Vice President of Strategy at Linqia, the leading influencer marketing agency for enterprise brands. Keith also co-hosts the renowned Creator Economy Live podcast, is a contributor for Forbes on influencer marketing, and speaks at conferences around the world on the topic of the creator economy.

Keith has developed marketing and influencer strategies for some of the largest brands in the world including Unilever, Anheuser Busch, Kraft, McDonalds, Pepsi and more. Keith lives (and works) in San Francisco, California with his wife and two daughters.

Emma Lehman is an independent podcast producer, investigative journalist, researcher, and scriptwriter. She produced, wrote, and hosted Gooned, a multi-award-winning limited-series investigative podcast about the Troubled Teen Industry, and is also the creator of the Texas Twiggy podcast.

She graduated from UCLA in 2022 with a B.A. in English and minors in Global Studies and Professional Writing.Emma grew up outside of Washington, D.C., and now lives in Los Angeles with a cranky asthmatic cat named Garlic. When she's not making a podcast, she's usually embroidering, roller skating, or eating pickles straight from the jar.

Ashley Mann is a seasoned communications and PR professional with 15 years of expertise in B2B and B2C technology. Her experience spans both agency and startup environments, where she has honed her approach to strategic communications. As co-founder of The Colab, she partners directly with high-growth companies to uncover and amplify their core mission. Ashley brings a unique perspective shaped by extensive experience in consumer and technology sectors, focusing on delivering impactful, mission-driven communications strategies.

Lizzy Harris is a co-founder and Partner at The Colab, the leading anti-agency for B2B and B2C tech companies. Having worked at agencies and in-house over the last 15 years, Lizzy built The Colab with a vision of turning the traditional agency model on its head, with a hyper focus on transparency, communication, and overexceeding metrics. She is passionate about forging authentic partnerships with clients, helping them define their narrative, and driving measurable business outcomes through tailored strategies.