DIANE GAGNÉ – SENIOR COPYWRITER – EXTENDED-PLAY RESUMÉ
416 433 5585 | dianegagne11@gmail.com
Please note: My book is being revamped to include new pieces, all of them digital. Please keep that in mind if you have a look: new.dianegagne.info
WELCOME!
Hello, and thank you for coming by. I’m an award-winning digital writer with a great deal of experience under my belt. I’ve written for every touchpoint throughout the customer journey – within full-on digital campaigns to direct-mail buckslips – and for almost every vertical. I’ve done plenty of CRM, so I value how to arrive at human connection.
Here’s what else really matters to me:
• Beautiful, unexpected ideas
• Clear concepts
• Open, unreserved collaboration
• A strategy that makes sense
• Insights, insights, insights
• Having fun and laughing a lot
• Superior results from all the above
Oh, and one other thing: wherever you’re coming from – B2B, B2C, or B2B2C – I’ve been there too so I get it.
Websites • Landing pages • Online broadcast • Banners • Social • SMS • eCommerce • Radio writing and directing • TV • Direct mail • Print • Transit • OOH • and of course, buckslips!
EXPERIENCE AND CLIENTS
Senior copywriter: 2022/2023, Critical Mass
• Creating email campaigns, websites, landing pages, and SMS to attract travelers from everywhere to explore various destinations everywhere
• Writing email campaigns, web, and landing pages, and SMS to acquire new Airbnb hosts and retain existing ones
Senior freelance copywriter: 2021/2022/2023/2024, BMO Bank of Montreal
• Executing digital campaigns for Global Asset Management, Private Wealth, and various Products and Services
Senior freelance copywriter/editor: 2018/2021, RBC Royal Bank
• Creating and editing digital pieces for the Wealth Management side of the bank
Senior Copywriter: 2015 – 2022, Armstrong Partnership
Mastercard (Global, U.S. and Canada) & Mastercard Travel Rewards and Experiences
• Delivering multi-targeted, B2C, B2B, B2B2C and internal campaigns in all channels
• Assisting with building personas
• Turning technical language into Sell Sheets that people will enjoy reading
• Writing and refreshing the Mastercard business site on an ongoing basis until 2020
Merck Animal Healthcare (formerly Boehringer Ingelheim)
• Creating digital and print campaigns for animal shelters, pet stores, and vet clinics
• Assisting with content strategy
Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital, New York
• Creating concepts for their 2020 donor campaign
Tandem Technologies
• Launching an uber-style, black-car service based (and operating in NYC), with a website, an email campaign, and a big event
Post (Honeycomb and Honey Bunches of Oats)
• Creating hyper-targeted video bumpers for Blue Ant Media, YouTube, and Zefr
• Producing a direct mail campaign and other online work
Post (Alpen Muesli, Weetabix, and Honeycomb)
• Refreshing and creating campaigns for Alpen Muesli, Honeycomb, and Weetabix to acquire customers and re-engage old ones with “new-taste”
Senior copywriter (contract/freelance): 2011 – present
• Running a successful freelance business, servicing top agencies and clients in these capacities: pitching new business; assisting with strategy; delivering campaigns from start to.finish for all channels; mentoring; presenting to clients; editing/proofing copy
Freelance clients:
American Express, Ariad, BMO, Brand Factory, Brightworks, BTA, CAMH, Edelman, Investment
Planning Counsel of Canada (Private Wealth), Kenna, Klick Health, MacLAREN MRM, Mount
Sinai Children’s Health MediaCom, Mucho Burrito, newsrooms365 (future of work),
Plantronics (headsets, digital transformation, future of work); POP Shoes, Post,
Scotiabank/Scene+, Sunnybrook Foundation, Tandem (an uber-style black-car service based in
NYC), The Shoe Company/Town Shoes/Designer Shoe Warehouse, TD Bank, The Strategy
Institute, Twist Image, US Communications, Yabbadabbadoo, and VanCity Credit Union
Senior copywriter/Mentor/Group Creative Director/CD: 2004 – 2005 and 2006 – 2011, Cossette Communications, Blitz, Elvis, Toronto/Montreal
Creating direct, digital, and broadcast campaigns and one-offs for numerous clients,
including Air Canada (Aeroplan), Air Miles, Bank of Montreal, Bell Canada/Bell Smart Home
Monitoring, Best Buy, Future Shop, General Mills, GM, McDonald’s, P&G, Shoppers Drug
Mart (Very Important Baby (v.i.b) loyalty program, beautyBOUTIQUE, healthWATCH,
MURALE), Sobeys, and RBC Optimum.
Senior copywriter/Associate Creative Director/Creative Director: 2005 – 2006, McMillan and Associates,
Vancouver/San Francisco
• Omega Frontline Apparel, Oracle, Sophos, Symantec
Senior copywriter/Mentor: 2002 – 2004: Cossette Communications/Blitz
• Air Miles, Bank of Montreal, Bell Canada, General Motors (Saab), Grey Power Insurance, Habitat for Humanity, Princess Margaret Hospital, P&G, Shoppers Drug Mart
Previous: Chiat/Day, Grey Canada, Wunderman Cato Johnson, and Young and Rubicam.
• AT&T, Grey Power Insurance, Microsoft, Nissan (Infiniti), Petro Canada, Petro-Points, TD Bank
LOOK, SHINY, SHINY
Canadian Marketing Awards (seven Golds, two Silvers), Luerzer’s Archive (‘Best of’ x 2), Echo
Awards (two CRM Golds), Applied Arts, Strategy Magazine (Canada’s Top 100 Copywriters),
The Advertising & Design Club of Canada: (two Silvers). I’ve also been a judge at the Canadian
Marketing Awards several times.
EDUCATION
Glendon College (York University’s French campus); Bachelor of Translation,
English to French (extensive studies in grammar), Toronto
York University, BFA, (Visual Art/Art History), Toronto
Note: To accelerate obtaining my degree in translation, I transferred some credits
from my BFA. My BFA transcripts may reflect this.
WHEN I’M NOT WRITING
I like to walk with my Wheaten Terrier Banjo, make art, spin on a bike, camp in the
backcountry, and obsess about fashion. And obsess about fashion.