Sarah Townes
Sarah Townes is currently the Chief
Marketing and Innovation Officer at Experience Columbus and the Greater
Columbus Sports Commission, where she is responsible for all aspects of
marketing, digital, public relations and partnerships. Townes provides strategic
direction in collaboration with sales, services, tourism sales and membership,
and works to steward the organization’s role and perception in Greater
Columbus.
Townes has over 20 years of
marketing leadership experience with a range of brands, including Aveda,
Caribou Coffee, Kellogg’s Cereals, Gander Mountain, Marshall Field’s, Mall of
America, Sears Holdings Corporation, Tresemmé Hair Care, Walt Disney Parks and
Resorts, and many more.
Townes has spearheaded brand and
re-brand strategies, agency relationship management, creative development,
production, omni-channel media strategy, CRM, digital innovation, social media,
public relations and strategic partnerships to exceed business growth
trajectories.
A graduate from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in advertising, Townes’ prior
campaign work has earned numerous awards, including being named to the Columbus
CEO’s Future 50 Class (2022), two MarComm Platinum Awards, SGB 40 Under 40 Class
of 2016, two Effie Awards, a Webby Award from The International Academy of
Digital Arts and Sciences and three Silver Anvils from the Public Relations
Society of America.