Overview

Company Summary

Elevation is an integrated branding, advertising, and design shop dedicated to elevating the brands of our clients through creative and strategic excellence. Since 2001, we've been delivering a higher level of thinking and a higher level of execution—so our clients can achieve a higher level of success. Our team of more than 50 communications professionals has proven experience in marketing research, brand strategy, campaign development, media planning and buying, graphic design, content creation, and reporting. There's nothing we love more than a complex marketing challenge, and we've solved them for a range of clients from Fortune 500s to regional nonprofits to bleeding edge start-ups.

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Staff

Total Number of Employees

Office Employees: 51-100
Total US: 51-100
Total Worldwide:

Aaron Doton
Founder, Executive Creative Director
Great creative delivers a strong promise. Aaron knows not only how to communicate that promise—he knows how to make it interesting. He has the ability to understand what lies at the heart of a client’s brand and excels at translating that information into concepts and campaigns that reflect what makes the brand unique. As a creative director, brand strategist and copywriter, Aaron has applied innovative creative solutions to business challenges across just about every vertical. Together with Frank Gilliam, he was named “Advertising Person of the Year” by the Richmond Ad Club in 2010.

Frank Gilliam
Founder, Executive Creative Director
Some people within the creative world believe that the bigger the talent, the bigger the ego. But they’ve obviously never met Frank. He develops striking concepts and designs that bring a client’s message to life. He approaches his work with a strategic point of view—enabling him to create materials that not only look great, but also perform well in the marketplace. And he does it all with a down-to-earth, flexible style that clients find surprisingly refreshing in a creative director. In fact, Graphic Design USA magazine named him a Designer to Watch in 2018.

Stacie Elliott
Chief Operating Officer
A certified public accountant with 20 years of marketing finance experience, Stacie brings insight that goes far beyond estimating and invoicing. Before joining Elevation, Stacie was the CFO for Celeritas Management, where her responsibilities included leadership of the accounting, information technology and human resource functions. She began her career at The Martin Agency in 1995. She held several financial and accounting positions in which she managed the agency’s internal and external financial reporting and accounting operational functions as well as led the financial planning for multiple business lines. In 2004, while serving as the assistant controller for The Martin Agency, Stacie was promoted to Controller of MVPGROUP, the agency’s sports, event and entertainment division. In this role, she supervised financial reporting, human resources, acquisitions, and business management performance before bringing these unique skill sets to Elevation.

C.J. Hawn
Creative Director
C.J. is a talented creative who brings diverse experience to Elevation. Before graduating summa cum laude with a B.F.A from Virginia Commonwealth University in communications arts and design, she earned a B.A. in classics and philosophy from Hollins. She has served as a television producer and copywriter for seven PBS specials, and has developed successful campaigns for Ruby Tuesday, Virginia529, Walmart, Busch Gardens, and LaDiff. She directs, produces and edits custom web videos and supports social media efforts for clients including Smithfield. A true “triple threat,” she art directs, writes and shoots—and her keen eye and mind make significant contributions to each of Elevation’s clients.

Corey Lane
Senior Vice President
Corey is a rare breed of leader: a results-oriented strategist with a knack for big, whitespace thinking. He has managed brand refreshes for organizations like Walmart, Kraft, and TIAA-CREF. He joined Elevation in 2017 after more than ten years with agencies like The Martin Agency, J Walter Thompson, FCB, and Ogilvy.

Kim Moore
Account Director
Kim is the highly organized and strategically-driven leader behind some of the agency's most prolific and longest tenured clients. She excels at listening carefully to her clients’ needs, then working with the Elevation team to ensure those needs are met. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University with a B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations, Kim spent three years
managing marketing for a major real estate developer in Phoenix, Arizona, before joining Elevation.

Hunter Knierim
Account Director
Hunter is the calm in the eye of the storm: a bold, strategic thinker that never loses his poise and focus. With more than two decades of experience as an account manager and an entrepreneur, Hunter has been entrusted with some of the agency’s largest partnerships, and is valued by our clients for his leadership, thoughtfulness, and reliability.

Lesley Bruno
Director of Talent and Culture
As she approached her 20th year as a public relations, communications and marketing professional, Lesley realized she was always the one raising her hand to lead internal strategic planning efforts, team engagement exercises and organizational change discussions. She thus decided to migrate from the marketing desk to the talent desk, led by a strong belief that people are the most important aspect of any organization. In addition to recruiting and onboarding new talent, Lesley works closely with each Elevation team member to help identify and realize their professional goals, maintain work/life balance, and stay connected to one another across a hybrid environment.

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Clients and Brands

Client & Brands	Start Date
Capital One	12-31-2011
Marriott International	01-01-2012
Silgan	04-09-2017
Smithfield Foods Farmer John Farmland Carando Margherita Healthy Ones	05-09-2017
Swedish Match	07-01-2015
Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest	10-01-2013
Venture Richmond	07-01-2006
Virginia Credit Union	12-01-2004
Dodson Pest Control	11-01-2023
Evergreen Enterprises	03-01-2019
OrthoVirginia	01-01-2012
Paymerang	10-01-2016
Paymerang	10-01-2016
Propane Education and Research Council	04-01-2021
Richmond Triangle Players	01-01-2022
sweetFrog	01-01-2023
Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Association	09-01-2023
Virginia Supportive Housing	05-01-2019
Vocal Virginia	02-01-2023
Donate Life Virginia	03-01-2019
Commonwealth Savers (fmrly Virginia529)	07-31-2005

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Billings & Revenue

Billing / Revenue Ranges	Number of Clients

Total Gross Media Placed by this Office

Allocation Percent of Media Placed by this Office
Local Broadcast: 17%
National Broadcast: 3%
Digital: 58%
Print: 4%
Out of Home: 10%
Other: 8%

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Types of Services

Service Offering	Revenue
Advertising - General Market/ Traditional	0
Brand Consulting	0
Business-to-Business	0
Content stategy & development	0
Creative Strategy & Development	0
Data & Analytics	0
Design	0
Digital/Interactive | Search Engine Marketing	0
Direct Marketing	0
Digital/Interactive | Website Development, Hosting, Monitoring	0
Experiential	0
Media Buying	0
Media Planning	0
Social Media	0
Sales Promotion	0
Shopper Marketing	0

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Industry Experience

Agriculture
Appliances
Business Services & office products
Business-to-Business (B2B)
Commercial Vehicles: Trucks/Trucking Services
Consumer Services
Household Supplies
Education
Energy | Electric/Renewable/Alternative
Financial services | Banking - Commercial
Financial services | Banking - Consumer
Financial services | credit cards
Financial services | investments
Food & Beverage | alcoholic beverages
Food & Beverage | food
Government | economic development
Healthcare | Hospitals, Healthcare Facilities, Medical Services
Healthcare | medical products
Home Products | home furnishings
Home Products | Home Improvements (hardware, paint, plumbing, gardening)
Industrial, Manufacturing & chemicals
Multi-Unit / Franchise
Non-profit, associations & public services
Professional Services (accountants, consultants, lawyers)
Real Estate | buildings & construction
Recreation & Sports | hobbies
Restaurants
Retail - In-store
Technology | cloud services
Technology | computer hardware & software
Technology | electronics
Tobacco
Travel | Destinations
Travel | tourism
Travel | hotels & resorts
Entertainment & Culture | amusement parks
Food & Beverage | soft drinks

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