I produce photography that
Hello, my name is
MICHAEL COLLINS.
I produce photography that builds businesses.
I’m passionate about building great brands and growing businesses with photography. Before becoming Creative Manager at ThinkGeek.com, I led the photo team for 9 years. I established the photo studio from the ground up to handle the demands of a fast-growing and highly cyclical e-commerce business.
By leveraging creativity and data, we’ve been able to make photography a significant driver of growth. Strong photography has helped to propel ThinkGeek from $37 million a year in revenue when I was hired to over $140 million.
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PRODUCTS PHOTOGRAPHED
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REVENUE GENERATED
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INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS (3 YRS)
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RAISED ON KICKSTARTER
Brands
I have experience partnering with and producing marketing content for leading brands.
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Data Analysis & Optimization
While leading the creative team at ThinkGeek, I have built tools to provide real-time insight into my department’s work. Dynamic workload dashboards help us to optimize our workflows and give us an accurate picture of projects currently in the pipeline. During my time on the photo team, I took the initiative to send monthly and annual reports to stakeholders highlighting major projects and quantifying the volume and velocity of my team’s work.
Unifying a Growing Brand
In 2015, ThinkGeek was acquired by GameStop and in a matter of months we began to open physical retail stores. I proposed that we create a brand book to ensure a consistent brand experience online and in stores. We formed a team and created a document that is now used across the organization.
Building a Brand on Instagram
After several years of seeing ThinkGeek’s Instagram account go virtually unused, a coworker and I asked if we could take over the account. In three years we took it from 11,600 followers to 239,000. We increased engagement at an even faster pace, achieving more than 1,000% growth. We were able to take advantage of a fast-growing platform to build community and meaningfully connect with our fans.
Kickstarting a Passion Project
I was a member of the marketing team that helped a friend launch the MiniMuseum Kickstarter project. The project raised $1.2 million (goal: $38k), making it one of the top 50 Kickstarter projects to date. The project attracted press from dozens of news outlets, including the Washington Post, Gizmodo, and Fast Company. With two subsequent releases, we’ve raised a total of $3.3 million on Kickstarter.6
Project Portfolio
Social & Advertising Creative
