All work done by Mackenzie Singleton in a Freelance capacity, with Barton Branding, or as part of previous firms.

V’s Diner – Orlando, FL – 2018-Present

I founded V’s Diner based on vegan recipes I created in my kitchen. I enlisted the help of some friends and we started doing popups in 2019. We then had a food trailer doing events right up until Covid. During the lockdown, we did meal kits and later that summer started a year long residency at a local bar. We are now getting ready to open our first brick and mortar restaurant in Casselberry.

My approach to V’s Diner was to define the pain points in my own personal journey toward veganism and use that as goals to define the brand and product innovation. Vegan is the fastest growing segment in food of all time and there will continue to be many more people following the same path I’ve become extremely familiar with. Instead of creating another brand targeting vegans, V’s targets a larger market: the vegan curious. Or those on the cusp, which I refer to as cusp vegans.

I created the branding, menu, brand voice, photography, video, etc. around that framework to create a cohesive brand and concept. Something easily accessible for everyone. A minimalistic approach to branding, based very much in the UX theories established by Don Norman. The root idea was that everybody loves diners. Keep the branding simple and let the end users fill in the spaces you create with their own fond diner memories.

I used my previous experience in the restaurant industry to establish online ordering, third party delivery platforms, in-house delivery solutions, social media post scheduling and campaign management, asset production, location advertising, and creating systems for customer service. In addition I ran front of house, handled sourcing, pantry, purchasing, maintenance, cleaning, and even some basic kitchen work.

Links: vsdiner.com | instagram.com/vsvegandiner | facebook.com/vsdiner
Stats: 5,975 followers Instagram | 2.8K likes Facebook | 4.9 rating Facebook (72 Reviews) | 4.8 rating Google (56 Reviews) | 4 Stars Yelp (10 Reviews)

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Barton Branding – Orlando, FL – 2017-Present

In 2017, I returned to full-time freelance and created Barton Branding to be a vehicle to promote my work. At that time, I had a roster of different contractors I could pull into any one project, allowing me to be incredibly flexible and move quickly. Past and present Barton Branding clients include those in the Marketing, Printing, Software, Education, and Restaurant industries. Since 2020, most clients have created in-house departments, many of which I’ve had the opportunity to train.

Links: bartonbranding.com | instagram.com/bartonbranding | facebook.com/bartonbranding

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4 Rivers Smokehouse – Winter Park, FL – 2017-2020

I was initially brought on to do updates for the 4 Rivers website but soon took over as webmaster. I moved into a number of projects in the marketing department as a contractor through Barton Branding.

I streamlined the website, building SEO strategies and new content still in use today to market each of the individual locations including the offsite digital properties of each (Google, Yelp, OLO, Facebook, Instagram). I worked with Google My Business (at the time), Google Search and Display Ads, and both Sponsored Posts and Ads on Facebook and Instagram. I used Google Analytics (GA tags, pre GTM) and SEM Rush to create monthly reports.

I put together a series of questionnaires for the managers at each store to get feedback which was used to create ad schedules. Many locations had a regular two-week cycle based on paychecks, while others near military installations were on a 1st & 15th schedule. Some locations were closer tied to school populations, while others were only lunch hot spots.

We built a plan and calendar for each location that is still in use today. Each location was segmented into different lunch and dinner customer profiles. People who happen to be in the area but might not live there were targeted during specific hours prior to lunch with lunch options. People who live in the area but might not be there physically yet were targeted for pickup dinner ads in the late afternoon.

There were a number of corporate campaigns that ran in all markets which I worked on from ideation in the monthly executive marketing meeting to comparing my metrics against final sales reports at the next meeting.

I would take the campaign goals, create a graphics plan, treatments for video, coordinate the food and location with the in-house team, shoot the video, edit, and post the final videos as part of the campaign complete with tagging to report back later. I even wrote the copy much of the time.

I worked with the vendor in charge of the online ordering system to further develop and market the OLO program for in-store pickup. I worked with third-party delivery platforms to make sure the menus were up to date and we could fill any requests for promo spots.

Links: 4riverssmokehouse.com

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Tharstern Software – Colne, United Kingdom – 2017-2018

Tharstern approached Barton Branding to create a campaign for introducing the UK based MIS Print Software to the US Market. Their plan had been to do interview/bios of US based early adopters.

I sat down with each client and put together a narrative that would resonate with fellow printers who have a large production facility or multiple locations. I then scheduled all the shoots, shot all the video, edited everything, and delivered a turnkey product to the client.

SunDance in Orlando, FL wanted to tell the story of how Tharstern’s MIS had helped them grow to be a major provider. After speaking with the owners, I wrote a script for the interview parts that was used as a voiceover to b-roll video shot at the production facility.

Peczuh in Salt Lake City, Provo, and Price, Utah wanted to share about them prevailing after a failed MIS implementation with another product. With candid interviews and creating the story onsite it became a story about how much the communities they’re a part of means to them and how they’re preparing for the future as the third generation takes over the business.

Links: www.tharstern.com

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SunDance – Creative Marketing Team – Orlando, FL – 2015-2020

In 2015 I joined the SunDance team working on web development, video production, graphic design, and anything else that needed to be done. Most of my work at SunDance was for clients, but I did a large number of projects in-house.

My largest such project was redoing the SunDance website. I worked with the sales and production teams to categorize and curate content into system to maximize SEO results. Each page was turned into a funnel for HubSpot leads. To this day, the site is the largest source of inbound sales leads.

SunDance’s largest clients include most of the largest hotel chains, many restaurant chains, theme parks, colleges, municipalities, and major entertainment properties.

I designed print fulfillment systems, ensuring each customer’s brand standards were achieved around the world (Hard Rock, Hilton, Hyatt). I managed a team as we handled major rebrands (Starwood to Vistana). More than a few times when our clients had issues with their in-house production team, I would step in to take care of their workload until I could create systems for them to return the projects to in-house teams. One of these projects involved coordinating with managers in over a dozen different locations of a hotel chain for a quarterly promotional email that regularly made over $250,000.

I left SunDance in 2017, but stayed on as a contractor regularly doing projects up until 2020.

Links: sundanceusa.com