Chuck founded RUPTUREstudio with the intent of helping brands find a different way to form deeper bonds with their audiences, by leveraging culture. It has always been his belief and guiding spirit that he was in the culture business, whether he was working at dRush/Deutsch, helping Courvoisier strike gold and “Pass the Courvoisier”. It was his motivating force while at Def Jam working on the latest grass roots campaign for your favorite platinum artist, and especially when creating national experience campaigns for HBO to promote Oz and Sex and The City.
Recently, understanding the budget minded culture of WalMart shoppers when developing digital strategy at R/GA, was key in developing digital experiences that make impact, as was helping R/GA understand sports culture and the significance of the uniform for Nike, as a freelancer. As a strategist at Wieden + Kennedy tapping into and continuing the cultural legacy of Jordan Brand was of major importance. Of equal significance, was mining the rich history of New York street basketball to develop consumer insights and strategy for Nike Basketball. When launching the SPARQ training system, it was important to travel to Canada to learn the importance of hockey culture on the national psyche for Nike Canada.
Getting an introduction to British culture and communications planning at hot shop Naked, where he developed global communications strategy for Coca-Cola, and traveled the world launching Far Coast cafes, was career changing. Understanding local insights and culture was imperative to activate the cafes in far-flung locales like Oslo, Singapore and Toronto – Coke’s first freestanding stores anywhere in the world. Additionally at Naked he dove into design culture on Target, mobile and youth culture on Virgin Mobile and street culture with Lugz shoes.
Youth Culture served as the impetus to open his prior consultancy, Mindbridge Media, Inc, where he developed research, strategy platforms and ideas for agencies like Wieden and Kennedy, US Concepts and Malbon Brothers Farms, and brands like Nike, New Balance, Scion, Mountain Dew, Hennessey, and Chelsea Football Club.
At dRush/Deutsch his entertainment-marketing unit leveraged influencers, trends and popular culture to develop innovative, non-traditional marketing strategy and activations for Courvoisier. Having an innate understanding of hip-hop culture and unleashing those insights, helped activate the creation of P Diddy and Busta Rhymes’ song “Pass the Courvoisier”, which was nominated for a grammy, and placed the brand at the center of popular culture, while generating a 30% global sales spike at years end. Working for Russell Simmons under his Rush Communications umbrella, instilled this sense of cultural mission in him at the start of his career, while developing concepts, and programs for Def Jam Records, Def Comedy Jam, 360 Hip Hop and Def Poetry Jam, Phat Farm and Baby Phat.
Specialties: He specializes in driving brand growth, by finding insights and developing ideas that leverage the connection points between brands, emerging culture, trends and people. It is his passion and what drives him to help his client’s brands win.