copywriter / creative director / ecd / social architect / purveyor of fine foods*
*four truths and a lie. I don’t purvey anything.
As an award-winning Executive Creative Director I create work that builds ideas that drive attention, headlines and results.
At The Martin Agency I helped redefine how social works for brands, creating agile, idea-driven teams alongside traditional creatives, that all move at the speed of culture.
The result? Sharper creative that lives where audiences actually are, in the feeds, driving some of the industry’s most celebrated work.
With 20+ years leading some of the most awarded creative teams in advertising, I’ve seamlessly embraced AI as another powerful tool for faster iteration, sharper insight and bigger and bolder ideas. .
I love data. It’s how I turn instincts into impact.
I’m a creative mind who believes the best ideas live where business problems meet playful originality.
Richmond based
Portland polished
New York grown
Texas bred
here are some things i like in no particular order. talking about queso a lot. MCU. overly priced denim. Stranger Things. record collecting. Goodwill Industries. coke classic. brass tchotchkes. peewee’s playhouse.
some things
i’ve ecd’d
along the way
TERMINIX - THE ONLY WAY TO NIX IT
Show me your finest bug account, good sir!
(It’s the ones you least expect that lead you to your funniest work I’ve noticed.)
Role - ECD
LegalShield
Some laws are stupid. Like really stupid. In this campaign you’ll see just how stupid they can get. Good thing there’s LegalShield.
Role - ECD
See more here.
OLD NAVY WRITTEN BY THE INTERNET
Old Navy has always stood for access. We were in the concepting stages of the next big campaign when the team shared a Tik Tok with me in which a 16-year-old lit up the internet with speculation that a song he was playing was going to be the next big Old Navy spot. The comment section went crazy providing stage direction for us, complete with “Dads. Dancing. Everywhere".” and “slo-mo family jumping in the air.”
There’s your spot, I said.
The internet doth provide.
Role - ECD
AXE
Increased brand affinity with Gen Z audience like a hella lot, bruh.
Role - ECD
CHOBANI OAT MILK
Oat milk - weird and hard to find. Right?
Well not anymore. Thanks to Chobani, now it’s delicious and everywhere!
We made dozens of spots, including 30s, 15s, and the best six second commercials I’ve ever been a part of making. Then, to prove a point, ran them everywhere.
Role - ECD
SCIENCE MOMS
To slow down the inevitable demise of our planet we made something funny. Never underestimate the power of comedy to punctuate the ugly truth.
Role - ECD
some things
i’ve cd’d
and/or cw’d
the fellas needed an intervention.
No dogs were harmed. But this guy is pretty SICK!
She was viral…when viral wasn’t cool.
I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for these candy ads.
This spot is entirely in French. At first glance it feels like one thing. But in actually it’s something entirely different. We ran it without subtitles on the Grammy’s and people raced to the internet seeking answers.
No actors were harmed.
We wanted to appeal to female shoppers so we flipped the script on the usual male tropes.
We created a giant obstacle course filled with foam (to launch a foam body wash,) where 22 people competed for one crown. Millions of people watched.
We created a “not so distant” future where Gamers are considered peak humanity. This is the first of many in an ongoing campaign.
We found moments where people tweeted about the greatness of Old Spice and made artifacts of their huge future success and actually mailed the artifacts to those people IRL. It’s still one of my favorite things I ever worked on. Creating immersive worlds with IRL touch points is a passion.
Perhaps the easiest thing i’ve ever written were these clichés.
Appealing to women with humor? What? No. Women don’t like to laugh. Don’t be dumb. Actually scratch that. These spots got lots of laughs. Some from women!
Why yes. That is Randall Park and Timothy Simons before they were famous.
To launch invisible spray deodorant, we wrote and made a two hour full length (invisible) feature movie. This was a stupid, act of love.
We created giant sticks of deodorant to mop up sweat during time outs.
I did lots of Facebook before Facebook was meta.
We made VR rigs to allow some folks with MS to relive their passions once again.
We created a giant animatronic squid that fans could control on Twitch over the course of three days, culminating in the marriage of a squid and a human on day 3. Millions tuned in.
When it comes to the Skittles brand, I literally wrote the book.
(click the rainbow if you want to read the book. )
Deep cuts for anyone who has scrolled this deep in the cuts.
keep scrolling for a list of people
i’ve called boss
gerry graf, john hunt, dan wieden, jason bagley, craig allen, eric silver, susan hoffman, greg hahn, tony granger, mark fitzloff, eric baldwin, and luke sullivan.
want my bio? well you asked for it so here it is…
Ashley Marshall has been an ECD at The Martin Agency for over five years, where she has lead teams to make some of the most talked about work for brands, including Axe, Old Navy, Carmax, GEICO, Scott’s Miracle Gro, and General Mills.
Over the past year she has also lead the charge in architecting Martin’s unique to the industry social structure, successfully de-siloing social and imbedding it into the creative process for brands, leading to some of the most talked about social activations of the year.
Previously she held the position of creative director at Wieden + Kennedy, where she lead teams to create iconic work for Old Spice, Samsung, Facebook, Herbal Essences and Secret.
Her career began as a copywriter at Chiat Day in 2002, where she helped create the still running Blank the Rainbow campaign for Skittles.
Her work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, One Show, One Show Interactive, London International, Andy Awards, D&AD, Clios, Facebook Studio Awards, Webby’s, Shorties, Art Directors Club, Local ADDY and National ADDY Awards and she was a 2022 recipient of Campaign Magazine’s Female Frontier Award. She’s been asked to judge for several awards shows, including Cannes, Adage and One Show.
She graduated from The University of North Texas in 2000 and Creative Circus in 2002 and believes strongly in the power of strategic insights + creativity to solve our biggest business challenges with work that gets talked about.
Want an insight into how I think, lead and what inspires me to create?
Spend two minutes with me here.
Spend five minutes with me here.
Get your podcast on with me here.
Watch me discuss Astonishing Pursuits with Jason Bagley here.