Michael J. Ray

M.J.RAY - Creative the "Write" Way for a variety of clients including The Hamilton Collection, Green Onion Creative, Media Horizons, Direct Wines, The Bradford Exchange, Belvoir Publishing (medical newsletters), Business & Legal Reports, MemberWorks (credit card enhancement programs), America Online, non-profit theater groups, others.

Wrote print ads and radio scripts for home furnishings and catalog outlet stores.

Wrote all media for publisher of children's book clubs (Nickelodeon Dr. Seuss Disney VeggieTales), continuity programs and collectibles. Successfully launched Barbie Book Club resulting in 8.7% pull beat 10-year control by 46% by creating "One in a Million" customer-retention DM wrote banner ads for Scooby-Doo product resulting in 11,000+ orders in one week crafted CRM prototypes for all front- and back-end marketing communications

Hired to create harder selling promotion as corporate direction shifted to more marketing-driven focus for publisher of 7 different special-interest magazines, and books.

Wrote response- and order-generating promotions for such products as Weekly Reader, Child Development Toys, and programs branded by Family Circle, McCall's and Country Living. Promoted twice to Manager supervising other writers and support staff. Received President's Award for Excellence.

Wrote sales copy for business-to-business marketer of office and computer supplies, dental "paper" products and greeting cards. Wrote for 7 different catalogs. Awarded " One Standard Excellence Award" for excellence within the Pitney Bowes corporation.

Full service advertising agency working on industrial, business-to-business and high-tech accounts. Included ads, direct mail, radio and promotional brochures.

Consisted primarily of copywriting experience within the creative department working on a variety of packaged goods accounts.

Created one-man advertising department that wrote copy, designed layout and mechanicals for monthly self-mailers for electronics engineering company. Worked with typographers, photographers and printers to meet scheduled deadlines.

As Creative lead, was part of management team for fine collectibles company that improved promotional response rate resulting in a 27% sales boost and increase in ticket and net take within 1-1/2 years, while meeting or exceeding creative success goals. * Challenged team of writers, designers and photographer to transform "product- descriptive" promotions to "marketing-driven" through new formats, approaches and DM techniques * Concepted and oversaw 350+ new house-file and acquisition promotions annually, including licensed programs for NFL, MLB, NCAA, Precious Moments, Thomas Kinkade, NASCAR, Disney and other noted artists and licensors * Introduced new approach to causal-driven collectibles, including an Alzheimer themed program that doubled response rate and improved net take * Transitioned writers and designers to work as a team to create better selling stories as opposed to a production-oriented component mindset READER'S DIGEST rmerly Reiman Publications)