technology, marketing & branding management team

Scott Zosel, Chief Creative Officer

Scott Zosel leads our creative solutions for clients. Scott has over two decades of experience helping a variety of technology companies tackle the most demanding marketing and branding challenges. Besides his proven experience as copywriter, designer and strategic planner, his most valuable expertise is the ability to quickly understand the most complicated business products or services, and create customer centric communications strategies that drive revenue.

Scott’s all about results, too, having successfully led the creation of the following campaigns:

Shavlik Technologies – Helped transform this successful IT consulting firm into the #1 supplier of Computer Security Patch Management Software. Combining a re-branded website with a variety of web and print lead generation strategies, Shavlik grew from $1.8 million in sales to nearly $15 million in a period of less than 10 months.

Sage – Designed and executed a series of Coop Direct Mail programs that generated more than 10,000 leads in the first year for the world's #1 manufacturer of PC based accounting software.

Widen Enterprises – Helped transform this leader in the graphic arts industry into a viable player in the growing marketplace for ASP digital asset management services.

Appian Bridge –Branded a line of software products designed to help financial companies easily facilitate B2B ecommerce between importers, exporters, forwarders and banks involved in the international trade process.

John McKay, Chief Marketing and Brand Strategist

John McKay is a marketing, business and financial executive with more than 20 years of management and marketing consulting experience. Among his career highlights, Mr. McKay acted as VP for an East Coast publishing firm where he helped develop 12 B2B magazines. He expanded the breadth of his marketing skill sets as VP of Business Development for Cohn-Thompson Marketing in Boston. Here Mr. McKay was named an equity shareholder after growing the company from $250,000 in fee incomes to $1.5 million in two years. In 1995 he left to become co-founder of a Boston advertising, pr and brand strategy firm. Within five years, the company grew to nearly 50 people and $35 million in advertising billings.

Allianz Group then engaged Mr. McKay to build a marketing communications department and develop a first-time branding strategy campaign in the United States. Acting as the firm's spokesperson in the USA, Mr. McKay oversaw a $25 million budget and a 60-person marketing team while managing all media relations and branding activities. In addition, Mr. McKay worked directly with the PGA Tour on developing a national branding campaign for Allianz Group and was a catalyst in developing the Allianz Championship Tour and other sponsorship events.

Since founding McKay Strategic Advisors in 2004, the company has added senior consultants to who are committed to driving a client’s business forward with a proven branding process, while building a high-performance marketing communications group to implement a client’s core strategy.

John personally oversees all client engagements and is actively involved in all aspects of day-to-day operations.

Tim Simmons, Global Branding Specialist

Based in Madrid, Spain, Tim Simmons is a former strategist and creative director at the worldwide branding consultancy FutureBrand, earning numerous industry awards and gathering extensive corporate experience working for a long list of brands including giants such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Kodak, Levi's, 3M, Toyota, Citibank, Abby National, Deutsche Bank, Telefónica and Terra. In addition he has extensive experience with international clients such as Santander, Abbey National, Deutsche Bank, Crédito Italiano, Banco Atlántico, Crédit du Nord, Barclays, ING, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Bank, and CitiBank.

As a Global Branding Specialist, one of Tim’s greatest with McKay Strategic is a complete understanding the various business and social cultures as they impact the creation and implementation of new brands and messaging on a global scale, in various language and dialects.

An expert in the new and rapidly growing area of nation branding, Tim currently directs a project focused on Spanish export brands promoted by the Association of Spanish Brands, the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade and the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce. This pioneering and innovative project involves the creation of a Brand Architecture for Spanish brands, which will later support a national brand initiative.