SL
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Open · Director · VP Marketing

I build the moments
brands grow in.

Eighteen years turning stadiums, festivals, and store shelves into growth for the brands people love. I led PepsiCo's brand and activation strategy across the South Division: Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, NBA and MLB All-Star, the NHL Winter Classic, and a portfolio that runs from Pepsi and Gatorade to Lipton and Starry. Insight first, then a platform, then a moment worth showing up for.

Based Orlando, FL · Open to relocation
Focus Brand · Sports Partnerships
Education Two master's · Two bachelor's
SL
Salman Lewis
Brand & Activation Marketing
Pepsi Bevie Award 2025
Best Experiential Activation · Super Bowl LIX
360+ Brand activations
across sports, music & retail
11 Pro teams & properties
activated for PepsiCo
0
Years in brand & activation
0MM
Cases driven · Super Bowl LIX
0+
Brand activations executed
$0MM
Partnership budgets managed
The Approach

A brand wins the momentpeople choose to show up for it.

My job is to turn attention into affinity and affinity into cases sold. I start with the data on what people actually drink, watch, and celebrate, build a platform around the occasion, and then make it real in the places people already are: the stadium, the festival, the corner store, the bar.

The lesson I have carried since my first activation is that clarity is the whole game. Name exactly what the moment should be, give every partner the full picture, and own the execution down to the last detail. The difference between a great activation and an expensive one lives in the follow-through.

Salman Lewis Brand & Activation Marketing
Insight to
Activation
to Growth
Insight
Platform
The moment
Growth
Proof In The Percentages

The numbers behind the moments.

Every activation I lead is built to move a number. Here is what the work returned, brand by brand and campaign by campaign.

Heineken × EPL, Newcastle Brown Ale Buffalo Wild Wings, Atlanta · year over year sales
+87%
Anheuser-Busch Georgia portfolio Falcons, Hawks & Live Nation partnerships · volume
+63%
Pernod Ricard casino business National account program · Harrah's, Caesars, MGM, Foxwoods
+60%
Gatorade MLB All-Star program Retail displays, built on Circana insights
+54%
Stella Artois × Kentucky Derby On-site activation & Walmart retail program · Georgia growth
+43%
PepsiCo sports portfolio DataEssential predictive insights across five leagues · total growth
+42%
Lipton brand revival NielsenIQ insight & the T-Pain "Cousin T" campaign
+17%

Other returns from the same playbook: Starry Hoops at +11% volume, Gatorade and Propel up +4.5% and +9% off the All-Star program, and the Football Deserves Pepsi campaign lifting digital usage 7.5x with 143,000+ incremental site visits year over year.

How I Work

From a moment to momentum.

Five steps I run on every brief, whether it is a Super Bowl or a single regional account. The order matters: the data tells me what the moment should be before I ever build it.

01

Consumer Insight

I read the data first. NielsenIQ, Circana, DataEssential, and DrinkTell tell me what people drink, watch, and celebrate, and where the white space is hiding.

02

Brand Strategy

I turn the insight into a platform. Annual operating plans, brand positioning, and the big idea that gives a campaign a reason to exist beyond the logo.

03

Live Activation

Then I make it real: a moment people stand in line for. Super Bowls, All-Star weekends, festivals, and on-premise experiences engineered down to the detail.

04

Channel Amplification

A moment is only as big as where it shows up. Retail and shopper programming carries the idea into stores, bars, and stadiums across entire divisions.

05

Measurable Growth

Finally I tie it back to the number: volume, displays, share, and visits. Cases sold, not just impressions served. That is how I know the moment worked.

Signature Moments

Where it came together.

A few campaigns that show the whole approach in one place: a hard market, a clear idea, and a number on the other side.

Super Bowl LIX · New Orleans

Turning the toughest market blue.

New Orleans is the hardest market in the country for Pepsi: Coke holds a higher share there than in its own hometown of Atlanta. With the Super Bowl on our division's rotation, I led eighteen months of planning to flip the city for game week, building brand strategy and activation across the full portfolio from Pepsi and Gatorade to Lipton and Frito-Lay.

The centerpiece was the Super Bowl Boil: an invite-only crawfish-boil contest judged by a local restaurateur with eleven restaurants in the city, opened up picnic-style to fans, media, and partners. Around it, I took over grocery, convenience, package, and restaurant accounts across the market, leading legal, PR, brand, ops, frontline sales, government relations, and every agency in the build.

Cases driven 100MM
Recognition Bevie Award
Planning runway 18 months
+17%
Lipton, revived

I rebuilt the Lipton brand on a NielsenIQ insight and amplified it through the T-Pain "Cousin T" campaign and a sharper media plan, returning the brand to double-digit growth.

+54%
Gatorade × MLB All-Star

A point-of-sale and sweepstakes program for the MLB All-Star Game, built on Circana insights, lifted retail displays 54% and grew Gatorade and Propel by 4.5% and 9%.

$1M+
NIL deals negotiated

I negotiated more than a million dollars in NIL deals with athletes and influencers, turning roster talent into real retail and sports engagement.

Experience

Eighteen years in the field.

From field marketing to senior brand strategy, across the biggest names in beverage, sports, and entertainment.

2019 → 2026Atlanta & Orlando

Senior Brand Marketing Manager

PepsiCo · South Division

Led end-to-end brand and activation strategy for the South Division across Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Starry, the Tea portfolio, and the Water portfolio, while running sports marketing for eleven of PepsiCo's properties. Owned the tentpole calendar: Super Bowl LIX, NBA and MLB All-Star, the NHL Winter Classic, and the NHL Stadium Series. Built annual operating plans, managed budgets and agencies, and led the cross-functional teams that turned insight into shelf and on-premise growth.

Super Bowl LIX · 100MM cases Portfolio +42% Lipton +17% 30+ NFL SKUs · +13% shelf 500K+ HBCU tour reach
2018 → 2019Atlanta, GA

Activation Manager

Creative Riff / Diageo

Directed the launch of Cîroc Summer Watermelon across Atlanta and Chicago, owning logistics, point-of-sale, and brand activations with a twenty-person ambassador team. Produced two high-profile kickoff events at the W Hotel Atlanta and in Wrigleyville Chicago to build launch visibility in both markets.

Two-market product launch 20-person ambassador team
2015 → 2018Atlanta, GA

Market Manager

Anheuser-Busch · Georgia

Drove portfolio growth across Georgia by negotiating and activating partnerships with the Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta Hawks, and Live Nation venues for Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, and Stella Artois. Built branded bars at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, ran the Michelob Ultra program at The Masters, and managed a multimillion-dollar activation budget across music, sports, and food platforms while developing the sales team underneath me.

Portfolio +63% Volume +31% Kentucky Derby +43% GA 200K+ festival reach
2012 → 2015Atlanta, GA

On-Premise Manager

Heineken USA

Grew the Heineken portfolio by managing key distributor accounts and a six-figure budget across Heineken, Dos Equis, Tecate, Amstel Light, and Strongbow. Launched five national and local marketing programs with priority accounts and led integrated activations spanning music, film, and sports, from the James Bond Skyfall premiere to the Heineken Art Pyramid at Counterpoint and AC3.

EPL × Newcastle +87% YoY Distribution +85% to goal Portfolio +11% YTD
2009 → 2012New Jersey & Connecticut

Retail Account Specialist

Pernod Ricard · On / Off Premise

Built the national-account casino business through partnerships with Harrah's, Caesars, MGM, Mohegan Sun, and Foxwoods, training staff, hosting brand events, and creating signature cocktail menus. Grew distribution and volume across retail accounts for Absolut, Jameson, Malibu, Glenlivet, and Chivas, and helped develop millions in trade marketing point-of-sale for distributor and retail partners.

Casino business +60% Atlantic City +37% $3MM trade POS
2008Northeast · NJ

Field Marketing Manager

GMR Marketing / MillerCoors

Managed sports and entertainment partnerships for the MillerCoors Sports Marketing team across Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York. Built the Miller Lite Bullpen and Phlite Decks for the Washington Nationals, Baltimore Ravens, and Philadelphia Eagles, ran live-music activations across Live Nation venues, and led large-scale NASCAR activations at Dover and Pocono with VIP hospitality and driver appearances.

$30MM partnerships Portfolio +37% 200+ activations
2007Charlotte, NC

Account Coordinator

Octagon · Bank of America & Sprint Nextel

Started in sponsorship marketing at Octagon, optimizing Bank of America's NFL platform to improve return on investment and building marketing plans that grew local banking activations. On the Sprint Nextel NASCAR account, I ran at-track activations and retail promotions that generated more than 100,000 new consumer leads.

NFL sponsorship platform 100K+ leads · NASCAR
Brands & Properties

The brands I have built for.

Two decades of work across the biggest names in beverage and the biggest stages in sports.

Pepsi
Brand & Activation
Gatorade
All-Star Retail
Mountain Dew
Experiential
Starry
NBA Activation
Lipton
Brand Revival
Stella Artois
Sports & Culinary
Michelob Ultra
The Masters
Heineken
On-Premise
Cîroc
Product Launch
Absolut
National Accounts
Miller Lite
Stadium Activation
Bud Light
Festival Platforms
Properties · Leagues · Moments
Super Bowl LIX NBA All-Star MLB All-Star NHL Winter Classic NHL Stadium Series The Masters Kentucky Derby NFL NBA MLB NHL MLS NASCAR Live Nation Music Midtown
Credentials

Education & toolkit.

Education
MBA, Sport Management University of Central Florida · DeVos
MS, Sport Management University of Central Florida · DeVos
BS, Sport Management Elon University
BA, Communication Elon University
Recognition
Pepsi Beverage & Marketing Award, 2025 Best Experiential Activation · Super Bowl LIX
Pepsi LEAD Leadership Assessment & Development Program
Epsilon Beta Epsilon Business Honor Society
Isabella Cannon Leadership Scholar Elon University
Data & Insights
NielsenIQ Circana DataEssential DrinkTell IRI VIP iDIG
Capabilities
Brand Strategy Experiential Activation Sports Partnerships Trade Marketing Channel Strategy Media Planning Contract Negotiation NIL Deals TIP Certified
Let's Build Something

Let's make the
next moment.

I am looking for a Director or VP marketing role where brand, sports partnerships, and experiential come together. If that sounds like your team, let's talk.

Orlando, FL · Open to relocation nationwide