Mike Schutz
SENIOR COPYWRITER / CREATIVE DIRECTOR/ CONTENT STRATEGIST
San Francisco, CA
Focus:
Copywriting, creative direction, and content strategy for digital and traditional marketing, advertising, social media channels, long and short content, online advertising, websites, print, event materials, customer profiling and journey planning, as well as in-product and app UX/UI copy.
Experience:
Freelance CD / Sr. Copywriter – San Francisco, CA 9/23 – Current
I consulted, concepted, then selected the best words, putting them in the most persuasive order, for Delphia.com, Microsoft, Norton LifeLock, TinyWins Agency, and Wish.com.
* Insight: If you’re writing for a wide variety of products like an AI portal, a tarot card generator, a video holo-suite, an online security shield, and a chicken helmet, ideas naturally start to cross-pollinate—like using a holographic chicken to demonstrate an AI assistant you’ve tasked to generate tarot card readings based on a hackability scan of your computer. Brilliant, yes?!
Copy Team Lead / ACD/ Sr. Copywriter – Rocket Money/Truebill, San Francisco, CA 9/21 – 9/23
Managing a team of writers, along with concepting, writing, and creative direction for the marketing and growth team. Projects included digital video, social media advertising, TikTok spots, OOH billboards, NYC Penn Station advertising takeover, TV spots, fortune cookies, NBA courtside advertising, subway/bus ads. You name it, I did it for this slick all-in-one personal finance app.
* Insight: When your tech darling startup company is acquired by a corporate behemoth, they tell you things won’t change. But then their 175-page company culture book shows up in the mail and it makes you wonder if they’ve suddenly crossed the line between “culture” and “cult”.
Freelance ACD/Sr. Copywriter – San Francisco, CA 6/20 – 8/21
During the global pandemic I helped many agencies and companies with their copywriting needs from my couch. Client work ranged from power tools to migraine medication. Not a good idea to mix the two however, in life or in writing.
* Insight: I fear people won’t be able to recognize their coworkers when everyone returns to the office due to the pervasive use of the Zoom face enhancer feature.
Freelance Sr. Copywriter – Wells Fargo, San Francisco, CA 7/19 – 6/20
I was part of the Wells Fargo in-house creative marketing agency, focused on rebranding the entire customer experience, including: emails, online advertising, web pages, printed materials, and in-branch signage.
* Insight: The best way for a copywriter to tame a bank’s Legal and Compliance department is by using the words “may,” “might,” “can,” and “could”.
Sr. Copywriter/Content Strategist – Bynder, San Mateo, CA 7/18 – 6/19
Lead writer for a digital asset management SaaS company. Projects included digital advertising, email, social, content, website, video, and more.
* Insight: When you work at a company with multiple offices, the topic employees obsess over more than any other is comparing the quality, quantity, and variety of snacks between offices.
Editorial Director – SmugMug, Mountain View, CA 3/15 – 2/18
Creative copy chief for a photography enthusiast online storage, display, and sales company. Projects included absolutely everything from branding, marketing, and social, to content films, and in-product/ in-app copy.
* Insight: Nothing good can come from 12 people debating which three words should be on the CTA button.
Sr. Copywriter – eBay Enterprise Marketing, San Francisco, CA 4/13– 2/15
Clients: Levi’s/Dockers, Wells Fargo, Ebay, PayPal, and StubHub
* Insight: You must challenge clients who want to send out seven emails to the same person that say the exact same thing.
Freelance ACD / Sr. Copywriter – Northern California 1/12 – 12/12
Clients: Runyon Salzman & Einhorn, Speck Products (Cell phone and computer cases), Outbid.com, and Treat.com (Division of Tiny Prints - Online greeting cards).
* Insight: In a bizarre twist of fate, most tech companies have incredibly dysfunctional websites.
ACD /Sr. Copywriter – Riezebos Holzbaur Design, SF, CA 1/11 – 12/11
Clients: Ancestry.com, SF Travel, SF Air Quality Management, and City of Palo Alto.
* Insight: Two-hour photo shoots on container ships turn into six because there’s only one way on and one way off the boat.
ACD / Sr. Copywriter – OrangeRoc, Honolulu, HI 6/07 – 12/10
Clients: Hawaii International Film Festival, The Fairmont Orchid (Luxury Hotel), C4 Waterman (Stand Up Paddle Surfing), Kilimanjaro Rifles, Retina Institute of Hawaii.
* Insight: Working with diva celebrities is exponentially easier than getting penguins to “smile” on cue.
Copywriter – Hendrix Miyasaki Shin Advertising, Honolulu, HI 4/05 – 5/07
Clients: Windward Mall, Royal Hawaiian Movers, AIG Hawaii Insurance, Central Pacific Bank, Hawaiian Host (Chocolates), Clear the Smoke.org, Foodland, Hawaiian Isles Coffee.
* Insight: Never challenge a 450 lb. Samoan furniture mover to a Spam-eating contest during a photo shoot. You will lose.
Education
The Creative Circus, Atlanta, GA, Graduate of Copywriting Program
After two exciting years, a bad case of mono, a crazy roommate who worshiped the devil and driving the craziness of Atlanta’s streets in a car that could not go in reverse, I graduated with an awesome book and newfound love for chicken-and-waffles. Yum!
St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, B.A. in Art History
Betty White is making it all up. There is no town called St. Olaf, only a college. Although, her descriptive anecdotes from The Golden Girls bear an uncanny resemblance to actual people and happenings on campus.
Contacts
Talk: 808-223-9961
Type: mschutzee@gmail.com
*All the insights are true. Feel free to ask me about any of them during the interview.