GRIMES
VP, Global Marketing & Brand Strategy
Taylor
Grimes
Make something genuinely useful to culture and culture will grow your business for you.
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VP, Global Marketing & Brand Strategy
Make something genuinely useful to culture and culture will grow your business for you.
I'm a brand strategist and marketer who helps global companies with distinct brand positioning, creativity, and growth. I call it Cultural Utility. The act of making brands that feel useful to culture.
I lead global brand strategy and marketing communications at Goodyear Rubber & Tire Company, overseeing a portfolio that spans consumer, commercial, retail, and corporate brands.
I believe relevance and creativity are the most powerful drivers of brand growth. That belief, along with a deep curiosity about people, shapes every strategy, campaign, and decision I lead.
I've previously held senior roles across brand, integrated marketing, and business development. Currently based in Richmond, VA.
Leadership roles across Fortune 500 companies, holding companies, and creative shops — each chapter driven by one goal: building famously creative brands.
Global brand strategy and marketing communications lead. Oversee the agency relationship with Publicis and manage a team of 10 direct reports across three continents. In year one, led a full brand repositioning for both Goodyear and Cooper, including design refresh and brand guidelines. Launched the first 360 integrated campaign in 5 years including partnerships with Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, driving both brand preference and purchase intent.
Responsible for setting and enforcing the agency's strategic POV, identifying emerging opportunities and improving the quality of work. Built and maintained strong, consultative relationships with clients like Netflix and Five Guys, driving record organic growth in 2024. Modernized process, grew a team offering refreshed service offerings like social and brand partnerships resulting in triple digit growth through wins with clients like Domino's and Gametime.
Developed and executed targeted new business strategies resulting in record-breaking revenue growth for two consecutive years, positioning the agency as a leader in the industry. Managed pitch teams with a strategic and creative approach that drove an average win rate over 70% compared to the industry average of 30%. Reinforced the agency's reputation through high profile client wins and impactful campaigns, leading to "Agency of the Year" honors for three consecutive years.
From 2006 to 2020 I worked across creative companies and holding companies in roles focused on media, integrated marketing and communications strategy. In this time I was able to build strategic platforms, brand partnerships and cultural relevance for some of the most famous global brands in the world, including Xbox, Taco Bell, and Oreo.
From TV to Tension Maps.
The TV spot for our first Goodyear campaign completely broke with category norms and used our heritage, place in culture and a famous Dre song to send a message. We always have, we still do, and we always will.
Building off the new global brand POV and values, we worked with internal and external creative and design partners to give the Goodyear brand a new, more refined look.
Cooper is a smaller brand, but big change meant potentially upsetting loyal commercial partners. We leaned heavily on the brand's heritage to create a design system that looks nothing like anything else in the category.
The brief for Taco Mode was simple. Make the ride home as exciting as the night out. We partnered with Lyft to build a seamless (and unforgettable) experience in-app and in-car.
What if you could drop a record on a cookie? Well, with a small enough record player and the power of lasers, you can. We partnered with Wiz Khalifa to drop a single only playable on the ridges of Oreos available at stores nationwide.
An example of a process I designed called High Value Subculture. Starting with audiences that contributed to the most revenue, we identified the subcultures they loved where the brand could add the most value (aka Cultural Utility). AXE and gaming was a no-brainer, and the execution was highly valued by gamers. That same year, AXE had its first positive sales quarter in 10 years.
While at the Martin Agency, I developed a tool called the Tension Map to help brands better understand where they could be useful. Based on the consumer journey, the Tension Map focuses on pain points, turning places where consumers typically walk away into opportunities to create value & cultural utility. We published the Sustainability Tension Map as a thought leadership piece to demonstrate this new approach to cultural brand building.
Podcasts, press, and a few things worth reading.
Goodyear Brand Strategy
Brand Strategy & Career Advice
Where I've studied and what I keep going back to learn.
Focused on media, communications and storytelling — the foundation for everything that came after.
Lived and worked in Accra as part of the inaugural cohort. Embedded at Karrington Limited, a local ad agency, working on Coca-Cola and Guinness. An early lesson in how culture shapes what a brand can and can't say.
Let's build
something
useful.