Innovation Seal Team (American Express)

I had the pleasure to be a part of a very unique innovation team within Ogilvy for American Express. Our team was designed to shift how we build and care for the American Express brand—beyond communication—to a new way of behaving.

2016 was the year for action, and in that spirit we made inroads to modernize our role as agency partner, in order to better serve American Express as a client. Given American Express’ peerless heritage within its category, this was a huge opportunity in disguise, the right climate for growth and innovation.

That year we incubated and socialized 8 innovations for American Express. These ideas ranged from platform level ideas spanning across the business portfolio, to reaching the future of the workforce and an untapped audience, to tackling the country’s $1.3 trillion dollar student debt issue. Two of our ideas were pitched to American Express's CEO, and one received his permission, excitement, and funding going into 2017.

Our Innovation Seal Team delivered conversion on investment resulting in over $1MM in innovative development and transformational scope continuing into 2017.