KRISTEN O'NEILL

As the Chief Copywriter for Warner Bros. Interactive Marketing, I cooked up copy & original content for social media, apps and all manner of digital marketing campaigns for these movies and more:

■ Gravity, Her, The Great Gatsby, Godzilla, The LEGO Movie, Man of Steel, The Candidate, The Hobbit trilogy, Blended and 300: Rise of an Empire.

As the Director of Communications for Warner Bros. Marketing & Publicity, I served as the head writer/editor for a studio that released 20+ movies a year.

■ Over 125 movies during my tour of duty, including the Harry Potter franchise, the Matrix trilogy and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins.

■ Oversaw a team of four writers responsible for creating press releases, production notes, titling, strategy, speeches, talking points and Academy Award campaign material.

■ For your consideration: Oscar winning campaigns Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, The Aviator, Training Day and Syriana.

The smattering of samples to your left represents a small fraction of the work I've described above. If you would like to dig in deeper or see a specific campaign/element, please holler at me. 

You can also peep more samples on my SOCIAL page. 

‘Twas a privilege to serve as Senior Content Strategist to Governor John Hickenlooper.

As the Gov’s head speechwriter and the voice of his social media:

■ We increased the Gov’s social media following 260% + boosted engagement from single digits to mid-hundreds on average, thousands on the regular.

■ Hick’s 2016 State of the State address was hailed as his best ever.

■ I led a team of policy advisors/writers that crafted multiple sets of remarks and presentations per day, on myriad, often nuanced topics, under stress-tastic deadlines. 

You can see more examples of my work with the Gov on these pages:

SPEECHES / SOCIAL / BRAND

I grew up in Silicon Valley and spent a summer working in the Compatibility department of a struggling PC company called Wyse Computers. 

I came back to tech as a wordsmith, most recently for Galvanize, a tech education startup. 

As Senior Copywriter/Deputy Editorial Director, I hereby:

■ Created branded print + video content for Galvanize blog and social channels.

■ Concepted marketing + brand awareness campaigns.

■ Wrote copy for all manner of digital + traditional marketing materials.      (Out of Home, email marketing, radio/Spotify/podcast ad copy, paid social & mobile geo-targeting, website copy, print collateral, video scripts…you get the picture.)

Beyond Galvanize: scroll down to see some other tech-related stuff I've done.

To me, what makes good social is what makes good music: equal parts voice, math, mix, and flow.

As the senior content strategist and voice of Governor John Hickenlooper’s social media, I took over his promising but haphazardly-tended Twitter account, a Facebook page without a pulse, and built his Instagram from scratch.

With help from my trusty wingmen, we increased the Gov’s social media following 260% and boosted engagement from single digits to mid-hundreds on average, thousands on the regular.

You can see more of my social media work for the Gov on my BRAND and DIGITAL pages.

As the chief copywriter for Warner Bros. Interactive Marketing, I collaborated with studio execs and creative agencies in making all manner of social and digital content to engage movie fans and put proverbial butts in seats.

You can see more of my WB social stuff on my MOVIES page.

A friend of mine has been lamenting the digital marketing buzzwords of the day. The one that’s making her skin crawl the most is “bespoke content.”

Shhhh...don’t tell her that’s something I do.

I’m just old enough to remember when asking about your “brand” meant “What brand of ______ do you buy/wear/use?”

Now we have brand ambassadors. Brand managers*. Branding agencies.

Consider me your brand wordsmith. The architect and/or curator of your brand voice.

From movies to startups, products to people, I create content and campaigns that further your brand.

Heck, I can even make workers’ compensation insurance sound less tedious than it really is.

Let’s talk about how I can help you grow your brand before the definition of that word changes again.

*Not to be confused with brand inspectors. (Hello agriculture!)

Every audience. Every event.

No matter the occasion or the size of the crowd, giving a speech is an opportunity.

To make an impression. Make an impact. Make your point.

Whether you’re speaking on your home turf or in hostile territory, I can help you seize that opportunity and make the most of it.

I’ll capture your voice and help you hone it – on paper and in your delivery.

I’ll create a narrative that captures the crowd and carries them with you, ensuring your story – and your message – resonates with them long after you’ve left the stage.

As the head speechwriter for Governor John Hickenlooper, I oversaw a team that prepared remarks for the Gov’s average of 6-8 speaking engagements per day.

Various lengths, myriad topics, across a range of audiences in Colorado, nationally and around the world.

Before and since, I’ve written speeches for studio heads, CEOs and movie stars.

I’ve also written some killer toasts, and a slew of jokes for a local celebrity roast.

If you’re poised to speak publicly...let’s chat privately about your speechifyin’ goals, and how I can help you achieve them.

In college, I became an accidental journalist. My tour of duty with Premiere magazine began with an internship and culminated with me serving as Associate Editor – writing cover stories, features, and the magazine’s most popular column, in addition editing the “front of the book” every month.  

As a result, I became a better storyteller-reporter-editor-communicator.

Those skills have served me well as I’ve applied and honed them to marketing, messaging, and the the creation of content across all kinds of industries and platforms.  

Every project I take on comes down this: What’s the story? 

And what's the best, most compelling, most effective way to tell it?

There’s a lot of chatter about Millennials placing greater value on experiences than possessions.

No matter how old you are or what you’ve been labeled by the media, cherishing experiences over things seems like a roadmap to a life well-lived.

Some of the work I do isn’t so much about a product or a service or a person or an idea; it’s about the experience. Encouraging people to seek experiences beyond the everyday and make the most of them.

Sometimes it’s about capturing the moment. The feeling.

And sometimes, like in the case of Super Bowl XLIX, it’s about giving folks a reason to care.

A typical assignment as chief copywriter for Warner Bros. Interactive Marketing:

WB EXEC: KO, we need you to write some scripts. You know that new Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore romantic comedy we’ve got coming out in May?

KO: Blended?

WB EXEC: Bingo! We want to get some viral stuff going in Brazil. Adam is huge in Brazil, and the World Cup is happening there. So we need you to write some short promo scripts for Adam & Drew to hype the movie during the World Cup.

KO: Cool! I’m on it.

WB EXEC: Oh and one more thing. The promos need to be about soccer.

KO: Even though the movie has nothing to do with soccer?

WB EXEC: Bingo!

KO: Alrighty. Adam-Drew-soccer scripts coming right up!

I had the pleasure of working for Merritt + Grace on this campaign aimed at young women at risk of having premature births. 

As the copywriter, it was my job to distill a lot of heady information into relatable messaging and compelling calls to action across a variety of formats. 

Technically, I've never written about cats. Unless you count this paragraph. And a marketing story that mentioned a stunt cat in one of the Harry Potter films. Oh, and I referenced cat videos in Governor Hickenlooper's 2016 State of the State address. 

After cruising through a bunch of my writing samples, you deserve a little feline entertainment.

Cats, amirite?