Having spent four years on the swimming and diving team at LSU, Elle Schmidt knows a thing or two about endurance. And it’s a skill that’s helped her handle the intensity of major marketing campaigns in her professional career.
Schmidt
As senior account manager for the New Orleans strategic communications firm Spears Group, Schmidt has developed and executed integrated campaigns for high-profile clients including the National Basketball Association, the New Orleans City Council and Landis Construction.
“This industry is all about being able to push yourself, adapt and be there for your clients and teammates no matter what — very similar to my experience as a (division one) athlete at LSU,” she said. “And I think that experience, in large part, has allowed me to be successful in this industry.”
Schmidt’s endurance was put to the test in March 2020, when she was tasked with helping launch the New Orleans Business Alliance’s Gig Economy Relief Fund at the start of the COVID-19 crisis. In just a few short days, Schmidt’s team created a comprehensive web page to support applications, a suite of branded informational assets, press materials and other resources to facilitate the fund’s announcement. Those efforts allowed the New Orleans Business Alliance to become the state’s first entity to set up a direct relief effort to assist with the COVID-19 economic crisis, and the work became Schmidt’s proudest career accomplishment.
“This campaign required around-the-clock communications and outreach, but it was so successful,” she said.
The relief fund surpassed $335,000 in its first week and surpassed its total initial fundraising goal of $500,000 in its first month. The team’s efforts also helped more than double the Business Alliance’s initial goal by the time the campaign concluded in June, bringing the organization’s direct relief efforts to over $1.4 million. Schmidt helped secure nearly 70 local, regional and national direct media placements for the Business Alliance related to the Relief Fund.
Spears’ work on the project earned her multiple local and national marketing awards, including two Silver Anvil Awards, the industry’s highest honor, from the local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
“For me, seeing the messages of gratitude that flooded in from New Orleans residents and families as a result of the support they received from this and various other initiatives I helped lead this past year was extremely powerful,” Schmidt said.
A “work hard, play hard” mentality has guided Schmidt throughout her career and laid the groundwork for her accomplishments. In 2019, the Ad Club of New Orleans named her Agency Account Service Person of the Year. And Spears made Schmidt the firm’s in-house social media expert, overseeing all strategy development and execution for clients to support major initiatives and day-to-day management to ensure strong results.
“As anyone who knows me can attest, I try to never take myself too seriously or let what’s going on in my professional life carry over and negatively impact my personal life, and I think that’s been a big key to my success over the years.”
Source: https://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2021/12/27/book-of-lists-newsmaker-advertising-elle-schmidt/