Kara Smith, award-winning creative leader

I love what I do. That’s me in a nutshell.

Growing up, I wanted to fill my all my time with creativity; drawing, painting, building, problem solving. My wild imagination found it’s outlet in the fast, inspiring, ever-changing world of Marketing (Creative.)

Through years of experience in retail, CPG and Financials, I’ve grown from “highly-valuable doer” to “highly-valuable leader.” I’ve been the creative steward of some of Canada’s top brands, including NOFRILLS, President’s Choice, Real Canadian Superstore, and BOX. I won awards for creative and performance, I changed the way enterprise revenue is generated, I built a brand that’s a PR magnet for innovation, and smart, ownable creative.

It’s hard to distill a career of accomplishments into a few sentences or case studies, and truthfully, sometimes work moves so fast I forget to capture the moment for my portfolio. I’m a seasoned empathetic leader and exceptional brand creator. I’m a curator (and retainer) of exceptional talent and an innovative out-of-box thinker. I’m incredibly proud of my work – captured or not – and that of the my immensely talented team.

Standout success

EXCEPTIONAL BRAND CREATOR
Conceptualized and executed a complete brand overhaul for the NOFRILLS grocery banner: Brand voice, digital shelf and paid ads, in-store signage, social presence, radio and TV. NOFRILLS has become a PR magnet for innovation, smart ownable creative, best-in-enterprise social, and consistent sales over-performance.

CURATOR OF EXCEPTIONAL TALENT
Built a NOFRILLS Centre of Creative Excellence with expert talent resulting in all creative work coming in-house from external agencies (2022). I re-strategized and led my team to execute KPI-driven creative with considerable cost savings and consistent sales over-performance.

INNOVATOR AND OUT-OF-BOX-THINKER
Created a new way to generate revenue enterprise wide. Pitched and executed a social campaign so successful, it became the catalyst for an enterprise-wide vendor social program, selling tiered social packages to vendors for significant revenue.

Reliable disciplines

TEAM LEADERSHIP (Led 10 FT & contract workers, in-office hybrid & remote)
Proven leader that builds high-performing teams through trust, collaboration, and solution-minded KPIs. Leads with passion that energizes the team to over-deliver against expectations, resulting in high employee engagement and job satisfaction.

CREATIVE EXPERTISE AND EXECUTION
Provide creative strategy, direction, and brand-first, channel-appropriate influence. Motivate team to innovate through a customer-first strategic lens.

CLIENT AND COLLEAGUE WHISPERING
Foster lasting relationships with clients and colleagues, and be perceived as a credible, trusted advisor. Appropriately balance client desires, business requirements, data, marketing strategies, budgets and time. Find common ground when evaluating creative or differing strategic opinions.

But don’t take my word for it

  • Available upon request.

  • Available upon request.