Magnetic strategy and story for brands that want to move people and move business.

ABOUT

I’m Josie Ellerbee (L-R-B), award-winning strategist, researcher, writer, and trusted sounding board for brand and business leaders. I help brands find themselves and their people. Over the years I’ve learned the best ideas live in the space between what people say, and what they actually do. With that lens I’ve helped save Red Lobster from bankruptcy, worked with Nike to reach reluctant runners, sparked national conversations for Coca-Cola, and more.

POV

I believe brands are living, evolving systems that should be iterative: grounded in clarity but responsive to where audience, culture, and opportunity are headed next.

SPECIALITIES

Whether you’re navigating a crisis, needing to grow, or hoping to transform how people see a brand, I bring cultural intelligence and strategic frameworks to unlock clarity for challenges that don’t have obvious answers.

  • Brand Strategy, Positioning & Narrative Development

  • Audience Research & Insight Hunting

  • Marketing Plans & Strategies

  • Briefs, Big Ideas, Content & Campaign Planning

  • Strategy Training & Development

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Testimonials

  • “Josie is brilliant! She is curious, asks the right questions, thinks through branding under an inclusive, holistic and consumer-driven approach. She is collaborative in the best sense of the word: working with her is a true interwoven partnership, one in which she is beyond 100% invested in, aimed towards the best, most kick-ass, compelling outcome. Working with Josie brought us into one team, regardless of company names, creative functions or silos. She is a positive force, a heartfelt leader, and helps bring lightness into the complexities of brand strategy.”

    Fe Amarante, Design Leadership at The Hershey Company

  • "Josie is the kind of strategist every creative and client dreams of: sharp, intuitive, unflinchingly thoughtful, and deeply invested in the work. She brings cultural intelligence and business clarity in equal measure, and she makes everyone around her better. Whether we were building campaigns from the ground up or navigating complex brand challenges, Josie brought insight, empathy, and just smart thinking. She has a gift for distilling the complicated into something clear and meaningful. For connecting the dots in ways others can’t see yet. And for being the calm, confident force that keeps the work, and the team, moving forward. I can't recommend her enough. Any client would be lucky to work with her."

    Jenna Berg, Brand Leadership at G6 Hospitality (Motel 6)

  • “Josie has it all. She is extremely sharp, fun to work with, articulate, confident, energetic, collaborative, a hard worker, a fast but thorough worker, and is great at putting a strategy together from scratch. She’ll bring a valuable insight to the table, but not an attitude. If you get the chance to work with her, you will be lucky. She’s fantastic.”

    Gene Willis, Brand Leadership at Wieden+Kennedy

  • “Josie is a collaborative, ingenious master strategist who tirelessly does not just the creative thing but the right thing. She has a way of seeing the whole picture and what needs to be done, and partnering with everyone in the room to make sure the project becomes all it can be. Her drive and enthusiasm and 24/7 dedication were just a part of why she was so popular around the halls of Crispin Porter. No one is better than Josie when it comes to listening, strategizing and guiding brands toward their better selves.”

    Kathy Hepinstall, Creative Leadership at Crispin Porter Bogusky

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