We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marily Melis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Marily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

DEEP DIVING INTO BRAND DEVELOPMENT for Berthoud Brewing.

The process started with a robust brand questionnaire, followed by a lengthy deep dive review session and brand examination. Brewers have described this process as “marriage counseling meets brand intervention, but fun—with drinks”. Whatever you call it, we’ve yet to hold a deep dive that wasn’t feisty and challenging at times, hilarious and inappropriate at others. And as with all of our other experiences, the stakeholders walked away having learned much about each other, and with a greater sense of common ground and direction than before for their company.

We use the takeaways from these sessions and subsequent reviews to build what we refer to as a Brand Architecture. It’s a cohesive document that provides a true reflection of a brand’s identity by defining authentic and ownable assets, including audience segments, brand mission, pillars, positioning, and communication – one that provides confidence and a clear path forward for decision making at every level.

Using the freshly cemented brand architecture as a guide, we began creating the visual fundamentals for the Berthoud Brewing brand. We made it clear our intention wasn’t to create something we thought was just cool: Our role was to bring to life the identity they had in their hearts and minds, and help differentiate them in the crowded marketplace.

The resulting suite of logos and initial set of cans evoked family stories, and accentuated elements of local lore already found in the names of their beers. Brewery employees and taproom regulars alike embraced the new designs.

Complementing the new logos and cans, we worked with Berthoud to create a go-to-market retail and sales toolkit. Understanding the multitude of challenges, responsibilities and distractions distributors and retailers face every day, we developed a clear, concise set of tools that:

By unifying and simplifying the elements, we’re making every step of the sales process easier for everyone involved. With their new packaging and POS reflecting the brand’s throwback nature and Americana vibe, consumers and retailers alike gravitated to Berthoud in record numbers.

“We saw an immediate impact. The first quarter after the relaunch our rate of sale jumped in existing accounts and our total points of distribution were up 25%,” Berthoud’s momentum has continued into this spring, with record numbers in what is traditionally a slower period in the craft beer sales cycle.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As an engaging and energetic personality Marily has directed and been the spokesperson for over 200 product videos and photoshoots for dozens of brands. Growing up on a small ranch in Grand Lake, Colorado instilled a strong sense of community and tenacity to survive in the mountains, ya gotta have grit. With my small town upbringing, I still managed to travel a ton as I studied abroad, did around the world trip and most recently took my 7-month-old daughter around New Zealand via van for a month. I am a sporty outdoorsy gal who loves to dance and explore.

I was always an active outdoorsy kid with a knack for marketing. My lemonade stands had books for sale, handmade business cards, I got PR in the local paper and networked with the neighbors beforehand to get more business. I was always a worker, I manage to save for a car and bought one when I was only 14 years old, my mum drove it before I could. My love for the outdoors and need for creative outlets lead me to many adventurous jobs. First mate on a yacht, horse yoga guide, hunting camp cook, ski patroller, outdoor DIVA, outdoor industry marketing director and most recently co-owner of a marketing and PR company, Turn It Up Media.

I am a roll up your sleeves, get down to the nitty gritty kinda gal. I love to be behind the scenes or in front of the camera. My favorite projects are based in the outdoors and usually include branding, sponsorships, video, and social media outreach, which is why I found my niche in the outdoor industry. Having been involved with brands like Sierra Designs, Kelty, ultra running brand Ultimate Direction and the hunting brand Slumberjack most recently. I am down-to-earth and approachable yet professional and dedicated.

Currently having my own company allows me to put all my skills together to help bring brands to life! With Turn It Up Media we help BUILD, TELL & YELL out your brand story.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Show up and follow through, and do what you say you’ll do. Ya gotta get out there – showing up is half the battle and never be above the task. Schlepping gear and long hours are a rite of passage – when you get into annual budget meetings and 3-year strategic planning you’ll long for a day in the shipping room.

Look up – smile – be aware – and show up!

How’d you meet your business partner?

My partner and the co-founder of Turn It Up – also happens to be my husband. We met doing what we both do best – hustling brands! He was the Oskar Blues marketing guy and I was the outdoor DIVAS marketing maven. We hosted events for ladies and he supplied the bevies. The first time we meet was at a DRAG show fundraiser – we were both busy and doing our thangs which is why we were attracted to each other. Authenticity speaks louder than words. We make it work by keeping a distance between brands and projects, separate church and state -lol. We try not to step on each others toes but still lean on each other for inspiration and advice. It seems to be working, going into our 8th year of marriage and 4th year of business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.turnitup.marketing/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marilymacd/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TurnItUpMedia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/turn-it-up-media/