Just one year after being promoted to account director, digital at High Road, Kara Carnduff has proven she can help win new business and make it grow.
In January 2015, 3M was looking for a new content marketing approach that would drive conversions for Scotch-Brite, ScotchBlue, Filtrete and Command. High Road developed a concept called “Home Made Proud,” which brought together the four brands under one website—a content hub for home décor ideas and DIY inspiration.
Carnduff, a five-year “High Roader” whose current role focuses on content development, website development and social strategy for clients, helped High Road win the business. She took part in brainstorming sessions and developed tactics that would bring the idea to life.
Upon winning the business, Carnduff led the research team, oversaw the development of the website, and built the brand voice and style guide from scratch. The site launched in November 2015, and in the first few months saw 40% of the traffic the brand pages typically see, “which is amazing for a new site that no one’s heard of,” says Carnduff, 28. The site also has a .5% click-through rate on the “buy now” button, which links directly to a 3M product on a partner ecommerce site.
Carnduff helped double the 3M budget in just 12 months, and she continues to grow the mandate. She looks for ways to help evolve the site, such as working with influencer partners to try out 3M products, and has developed new activation tactics such as implementing a newsletter strategy.
For First National, Carnduff oversaw the re-launch of its corporate website—a complex project since the mortgage lender has many different audiences: consumers, brokers, commercial real estate owners and investors. Carnduff led content planning and gathered feedback from the various stakeholders.
A key metric for First National is newsletter subscriptions, and the launch of the new site led to a 400% increase in monthly subscribers. In its first month, FirstNational.ca also saw a 5% increase in pageviews across the entire site, and a 45% increase in visits to its commercial section.
Carnduff has since helped to expand First National’s mandate to include video and photography content, additional web support, measurement work and social media monitoring.
Adrienne Connell, senior vice-president of digital strategy at High Road, says Carnduff is good at listening to clients and picking up on their cues. “She sees opportunities where we might be able to introduce them to a new service or capability that they don’t normally use us for,” says Connell. “She proactively brings forward ideas on how we can help, so that helps expand the scope of work we do with clients.”
When she started out in public relations, Carnduff says she didn’t know digital marketing was a career option. When she was given a role on the digital marketing team at High Road, she felt like she lucked out. “I feel like my passion was kind of handed to me on a silver platter,” she says.
Carnduff received her journalism degree from Carlton University, but by fourth year, decided she would pursue corporate communications as a career. Following a stint as a communications officer for the Department of National Defense in Ottawa, she joined High Road as an account executive in 2011. Carnduff handled media relations for the Telus account, and after just three months, was offered a position on the digital strategy team. In 2012, she was Carnduff was promoted to account supervisor, and in 2014, became a senior consultant. In October 2015, she was promoted to account director, digital.
Outside of work, one of the best experiences of Carnduff’s life was being a “behind-the-scenes broadcaster” for curling during the Sochi Olympics. Carnduff, an active curler for most of her life, dictated to the production crew what shots to capture, the big moments and the exciting things happening in the stands. The production was seen around the world, with different countries picking up the feed.
“I’m a storyteller by trade—that’s pretty much what we do as communicators—so that really came in handy,” she says.
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