New York City Metropolitan Area
Strategic Communications and Marketing Executive. Crisis Counselor. Helping Leaders Build Brand Equity, Drive Growth, and Navigate Complex Challenges Seasoned executive and student of leadership with decades of success developing and implementing comprehensive business strategies and leading change. I am a public relations, marketing and interpersonal communications expert who supports senior leaders, enhances organizational reputation, drives stakeholder engagement and delivers significant revenue growth. My career has focused on mission-driven organizations, especially higher education institutions. I guide executives and their teams to develop powerful insights about themselves and their context which enable them to increase effectiveness and deliver transformational results. I design and implement strategies that rally stakeholders around shared goals, leverage data and analytics, convey powerful brand narratives, and align messaging across complex organizations. My approach combines strategic thinking with innovative tactics and strong execution. Competencies -Communications Strategy -Leading People -Producing Results -Branding & Positioning -Crisis Communications -Reputation Management -Executive Communications Support -Change Leadership -Organization Design and Development -Facilitation and Training Getting Results for Employers -Counselor to 13 CEOs, supporting them to achieve transformative goals and boost organizational performance -Guiding leaders through career-threatening crisis situations -Building high performing teams that achieved extraordinary results in branding, news media relations, social media, websites and paid advertising channels -Implementing dashboards, data analytics and AI-based tools -Designing and directing integrated public advocacy campaigns that created $100 million in new revenue for one employer and fended off state budget cuts of $60 million for another -Driving revenue growth to record levels across multiple organizations -Winning national awards for public relations campaigns and digital initiatives Why Organizations Choose to Work With Me CEOs and senior leaders turn to me to help them bring their visions to life, amplify their voices, drive transformation and navigate challenging situations. I'm recognized for providing good counsel, developing talent, managing multimillion-dollar budgets, and delivering measurable results under pressure. Learn more at https://www.josephabrennan.com/
Chief communications and marketing officer for New Jersey's premier public serving institution. As the first VP to lead comms/marketing, I have created a national caliber function. We built a powerful and distinctive brand, innovated student recruitment marketing, introduced responsible use of AI, expanded our data analytics capacity, increased visibility regionally and nationally, and maintained trust during emergencies and crises through transparent communication. Reporting directly to the president, I manage the consolidated university-wide advertising and printing budgets and serve as a confidential advisor to senior leaders. I am especially proud to support an amazing team of highly talented and dedicated professionals who provide a full array of integrated communication services, including marketing research, communications planning, news media relations, paid advertising, content creation, print purchasing, graphic design, photo/video, website governance and curation, and social media. These professionals have produced national caliber results. With my amazing team we have: - Helped produce record enrollment - Conducted a strategic refresh of the University's brand - Enhanced student recruitment marketing, contributing to the University's largest enrollment ever. - Integrated market research into the central communications/marketing office, and provided data and strategic counsel to inform new program development. - Built the Office's first integrated dashboard of marketing and public relations metrics, and used it to increase our impact. - Tripled earned news coverage, including substantial gains in national news placements. - Created substantial growth in social media followers and produced engagement rates that consistently exceed national benchmarks, including a 60% engagement rate on TikTok. - Managed communications for COVID, deaths on campus and other high-risk situations.
Strategically rebuilt communications and marketing function as a fractional CMO/CCO reporting directly to the president. Repositioned the brand, overhauled website, developed staff capabilities, and contributed to institutional strategy as a partner to executive leadership.
Chief public relations and marketing officer for major public research university with 17,300 students. Responsible for brand strategy, institutional messaging and issues management. Reported directly to president and works closely with provost and other senior executives. Oversaw units responsible for news media relations, internal communications, web development, social media, photo/video and marketing services. Expanded media relations coverage, revamped employee communications, overhauled website, and developed new marketing strategies and creative, helping turnaround an enrollment slump. Successfully managed a nationally-visible crisis caused by false allegations of racial violence. As a Clinical Professor of Business, I developed and taught a course in Services Marketing to MBA students. As a Special Assistant to the President, I developed a branding and positioning strategy and supporting materials for the university's flagship college, the School of Public Health, and helped a new dean get established.
Chief communications officer for 30,000-student public research university. Responsible for branding and positioning, institutional messaging, public relations, marketing, media relations and issues management. Accomplishments include: developing and implementing comprehensive strategic communication plan, strengthening the institutional brand, launching multi-channel brand advertising program, expanding use of social media, increasing regional and national media coverage, reorganizing institutional communications programs and staff, and managing message strategy for high-profile, sensitive issues.
Chief marketing and public relations officer. Led university branding and institution-wide comunications strategies and programs. Directed a team of 30+ centralized communication professionals who created research-based marketing and PR plans, conduct news media relations, and provide creative services, including editorial, design and web production. Oversaw public radio station WBFO-FM. Founded and chaired institutional issues management committee. Accomplishments included: combining two separate departments into one proactive strategic team, increasing national and global media coverage, re-inventing employee communications, establishing an institutional brand and core messages, leading an institution-wide web transformation, launching an issues management program, innovating emergency communications, expanding the use of social media and managing the transition of the public radio station to a community non-profit, netting the university $4 million.