Ben Gotto Smith
Two Decades of Creative Campaigns
Introduction to Future Story
Principal Ben Gotto Smith has over twenty years of creative yet commercially-accountable consumer brand marketing experience; starting as a strategic planner, moving into public relations, then events, experiential and social media, now fully integrated communications with an earned media heartbeat.
He is currently helping clients look for COVID’s silver lining and UK brands unlock the challenging Australian market.
Services for brands and agencies
- Creative PR campaigns
- Crisis management planning and execution
- Event and experiential concepts, production and amplification
- Influencer engagement
- Retail activations
- SEO optimisation
- Social media integration
- Stakeholder communications
- Strategic planning
- Talent negotiation, management and leverage
Current Clients at Future Story
Drinks, design, hospitality, tourism & retail
Drinks, apps, property, design, tourism & retail
- Warner’s Distillery – all Australian sales & marketing for England’s leading craft gin
- Hickson House Distillery & Hickson Road Gin – Sydney’s newest distillery, premium spirits brand, bar & kitchen
- Scrub Daddy & The Pink stuff – cult cleaning products – PR & influencer outreach
- Meli Studio – interior design – aged care issues management & thought leadership – PR
- T25 – Australia’s top 25 bartenders
Plus ‘white label’ creative, insights & strategic consultancy to top-tier UK & Australian comms agencies
Zonin Prosecco Brand Relaunch
At Dialogue PR & Communications
- Back to back media & consumer immersive launch experiences
- Media cooking masterclass at Sydney Seafood School with Giovanni Pilu
- Consumer ‘aperitivo hour’ themed party at Watson’s Bay Boutique Hotel
- Both hosted by visiting winemaker Francesco Zonin
- 49 articles reached over 4.3m plus hundreds of high-reach social posts
Social // Publicity // Event // Celebrity // F&B
Taubmans Paint
At Dialogue PR & Communications
- Media launch lunch for Taubmans flagship Endure range
- Boxer & ballerina concept embodied the product’s ‘beautiful & tough’ USP
- Recreated a tough boxing gym (& boxer), juxtaposed with beautiful theming (& ballerina), with backdrop by street artist @mulgatheartist
- Generated 100+ articles & posts reaching over 15m
Social // Publicity // Experiential // Collab // Paint
White Knight Paint
At Dialogue PR & Communications
- Vonnie the ‘Van collaboration with The Block’s Michael & Carlene
- Talent-produced and amplified video series showcasing a vintage caravan makeover to demonstrate a broad range of product applications
- Generated 40+ articles and posts reaching over 18m
- Unprecedented % of completed paid video views
Social // Publicity // Content // Paid // Collab // DIY
5* Balinese Hotels & Villas
At Future Story
- Outsourced Marketing Director services
- International media relations, influencer contras, Trip Advisor reputation management, SEO optimisation, organic and paid social content
- Tracking digital audience conversions & segmentation in Google Analytics
Social // Publicity // NPD // Paid // SEO // Hotels
Westpac Bush Nippers
At Maverick
- Grassroots community outreach program for Australia’s leading bank to reconnect with their rural heartland
- Country-wide in-branch painting and photo competition
- Winners trained with Grant Hackett at Coogee SLSC
In-branch // Celebrity // Sponsorship // CSR // Finance
Jacques Cider for Heineken UK
At Exposure
- The Jacques Townhouse – London’s first pop-up hotel as the experiential heart of an integrated but PR-led cider campaign
- £1.75m (Metrica audited) editorial AVE
- ATL, media partnership & reader event with Grazia
- Sophie Ellis-Bextor curating and headlining
- Trade partner and blogger previews
Social // Publicity // Content // Paid // Celebrity // Events // F&B
Rizla for Imperial Tobacco
At Exposure
- Broadened the established Rizla Arena festival program to a more mainstream
audience whilst retaining musical credibility - ‘Rizlacator’ augmented-reality festival tent & friend finder GPS app
- Curated by old-school legend Grandmaster Flash, chart-topping Hot Chip & newcomer Toddla T
- Crisis management of consumer, corporate and digital reputation using a bespoke risk/reward model
- Advised Imperial Tobacco on future-proofing global social media policy to prepare for markets darkening
Social // Publicity // Content // Collab // Festivals // Music
Johnnie Walker ‘Local to Lord’s’
for Diageo Australia
At Splendid Communications
- 360-degree digital-skewed national campaign to recruit two consumers as brand ambassadors
- Sending them overland from their local Melbourne pub to Lord’s Cricket Ground, taking cricket for the first time into nine Asian nations, Blogging, Facebooking and producing digital webisodes along the way
Sponsorship // Grassroots // Social // Content // Sports // F&B
Westfield Bondi Junction
At Hausmann
- ‘Cereal Dating’ Valentine’s promo to drive Woolworths traffic
- Fashion Plate photo exhibit & Grazia magazines supplement to boost fashion creds
- ‘Valet Barking’ dog walking service to showcase personal services
PR // Celebrity // In-store // Events // Media Partnership // Retail
Thank you