Matt Samson

Current

• Vice President at GolinHarris

Past

• Senior Marketing Communications Strategist at GolinHarris
• Professional Actor at SAG, AFTRA, AEA
• Legal Marketing Assistant at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP

• Co-Founder at LIVE|The Elvi Rannala Foundation for Cancer Research
• Senior Account Executive/Account Supervisor at Golin Harris

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Education

• Lehigh University - College of Business and Economics

Connections

48 connections

Industry

Public Relations and Communications

Matt Samson’s Summary

Award-winning, senior marketing communications strategist with proven track record in creating and executing winning campaigns to help build brands and protect and enhance corporate image.

Matt Samson’s Specialties:

PR program development, integrated communications planning, brand building, issues and change management, event marketing, new product launches, media relations, community relations, crisis communications, budget management and team leadership responsibilities.

Matt Samson’s Experience

• Vice President

  GolinHarris

  (Public Company; IPG; Public Relations and Communications industry)

  July 2009 — Present (7 months)

• Senior Marketing Communications Strategist

  GolinHarris

  (Public Company; IPG; Public Relations and Communications industry)

  October 2007 — June 2009 (1 year 9 months)

  Led strategic communications efforts for the launch of the Zicam "Cold & Flu Mobile Application"
  
  • Secured AP feature story, "The Phone that Feel the Flu Before
  You Do," which lead to wide-spread coverage yielding more than
  249,000,000 impressions.
  
  Press Secretary on controversial CA statewide ballot initiative campaign
  
  • Led all media relations efforts and secured opposition
  endorsements from the majority of statewide daily newspapers
  
  • Responsible for helping to plan, develop and execute overall
  communications strategy and led all media relations efforts.
  
  Led agency side PR account teams for Yahoo! News & Elections, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Real Estate and Yahoo! Autos
  
  • Developed overall PR plan for Yahoo! News & Elections that led to
  ongoing, wide-spread coverage throughout the presidential primary
  season and election cycle, positioning Yahoo! News as the online
  leader for news content.

• Professional Actor

  SAG, AFTRA, AEA

  (Public Relations and Communications industry)

  November 1999 — October 2007 (8 years )

  Professional actor, member of SAG, AFTRA and AEA professional unions with extensive stage, TV and film work.

• Legal Marketing Assistant

  Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP

  (Partnership; Law Practice industry)

  August 2001 — August 2002 (1 year 1 month)

  At boutique anti-trust law firm, responsible for extensive legal research, brief preparation, creation of visual presentations and marketing materials, and trial preparation for prominent cases.

• Co-Founder

  LIVE|The Elvi Rannala Foundation for Cancer Research

  (Public Relations and Communications industry)

  December 1997 — July 2002 (4 years 8 months)

  Co-founded LIVE with childhood friend, Erik Rannala, in memory of his mother. The goal was to empower those affected by cancer, and their families to live their lives to the fullest, while also creating an opportunity for young professionals to be intimately involved in the organization to directly see and feel the effects of their work.

• Senior Account Executive/Account Supervisor

  Golin Harris

  (Public Relations and Communications industry)

  January 1995 — February 1998 (3 years 2 months)

Matt Samson’s Education

• Lehigh University - College of Business and Economics

  Bachelor of Science , Marketing , 1990 — 1994

  Activities and Societies:

  Student Life Leadership Award - Awarded by University President, May, 1994

Additional Information

Matt Samson’s Honors:

Silver Anvil, Public Relations Society of America, “The New Look of Gerber”

Golden Trumpet, Publicity Club of Chicago, “The New Wienermobile”

Golden Trumpet, Publicity Club of Chicago, “Jim Beam’s 200th Anniversary”

Golden Trumpet, Publicity Club of Chicago, “The New Look of Gerber”

GolinHarris “Hog Wild” Award (employee-of-the-month) - three times

Matt Samson’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch