Behind the scenes of Brighteyes Creative is Marketing Director Ally Piper and her savvy team of talented creative professionals who are among the best and brightest.
Ally Piper, Marketing Director
Years ago, Ally’s great-grandmother Marion nicknamed her “Brighteyes,” because the wide-eyed child marveled at the world around her and was always on the lookout for the next big thing. True to her childhood nickname, Ally sees her clients’ needs with a fresh perspective and an eye on the future.
For 10 years, Ally has been on the ground floor running and managing the marketing for successful 6- and 7-figure business and nonprofits. Often serving as a “department of one” and wearing lots of different hats – from designing marketing materials to developing marketing campaigns to writing copy and planning events, Ally has been called a “unique blend of highly creative marketing guru and clear-headed manager of budgets and timeframes.” She helps clients tune-up their marketing and turn napkin notes into marketing plans that bring the big picture into focus with achievable steps and results.
Ally does her best work when she is engaging many different players and leveraging strategic connections in order to help organizations get their message heard. An award-winning event planner, Ally has planned events for 40 to 400 that engage community members, support fundraising efforts, and get the media’s attention.
She has been interviewed by the American Marketing Association and has been a featured speaker on telesummits on local marketing tactics. She regularly consults with small business owners and nonprofits on how to bring online and local marketing techniques together to create a powerful integrated plan.
Before founding Brighteyes Creative LLC in 2007, Ally sharpened her integrated marketing skills working at nonprofit organizations in agriculture, higher education, and the arts. Trained in journalism and English at the University of New Hampshire, she also holds a graduate certificate in marketing from Southern New Hampshire University.
After a number of years of writing nothing other than press releases, Ally now blogs regularly about marketing at BrightIdeasForBiz.com and is in the process of writing her first book.
Lisa McDonell, Marketing Assistant & Tech Wiz
Lisa has over 10 years administrative experience working for one of the largest and most profitable companies worldwide. Her career includes time as Executive Assistant to the Vice President and as Team Leader for the Project Control Office, where she became adept at managing a team of Project Administrators, scheduling, and controlling multimillion dollar project financials.
Lisa holds a degree in applied design from Toronto’s Ryerson University, which gives her a unique edge as a Marketing Assistant. She is able to combine her extensive admin experience with her design skills to provide slick WordPress websites, stylish marketing materials, newsletters, sales pages, and small business branding strategies.
Nora Richardson, Brand Identity Designer
With over 15 years of experience creating effective branding strategies, Nora has an equally experienced eye for detailed and purposeful graphic design: from logos to packaging, advertising to website design – and everything in between. Nora’s dual-sided experience in both branding and graphic design allows for superior-quality brand components that enhance visibility, create an emotional response from ideal clients, and strengthen foundations for business growth. Nora has designed for a range of businesses, from small to Fortune 500 companies, including Kahlúa, Olympics, Northwest Airlines, and Water Missions International.
Take it from Nora: “The difference between a graphic designer and a brand identity designer is simple: the graphic designer only provides what they think may be right for the company, while the brand identity designer knows what is best for the brand, and therefore the best option for the big picture: continuous company growth.”
Read Nora’s blog about branding, The Branding Spot, to get tips on how to brand extraordinaire.
Josh Piper, Web Guy
Josh transferred his business finance and management skills, developed over 10 years in the residential construction industry, to Brighteyes Creative in 2009. A builder both physically and virtually, Josh is our resident Web Guy and a pro at tweaking code. He helps test the websites we build ensuring they work on ALL major browsers and platforms and is the guy behind the scenes maintaining our clients websites after they launch. And yes, he is Ally’s husband and they are crazy enough to have been working together for all but 6 months of their married life.
Cary Schuler Hull, Editor
Everyone needs a good editor and Cary is ours! She launched her editing career in Redbook magazine’s fiction department. She owned and operated a subscription-based weekly newspaper covering seven towns along the Connecticut shoreline. After 10 years, Cary sold it to the Journal Register Company. She now edits cookbooks, travel guides, and how-to books for a variety of publishers. She also promotes nonprofits, as well as a nursery and garden center in Connecticut, where she still resides.
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