Craig Wanous has come on board to provide strategic counsel and leadership to DKY’s Outdoor Group, which includes work with long-time client Winnebago. Wanous has extensive senior leadership experience in marketing and innovation, with a track record of driving business growth across a diverse range of industry categories.
“Craig brings tremendous experience to the DKY team, including senior marketing and innovation roles with several powerhouse, consumer brands,” said Joe Peterson, vice president of Account Services and partner at DKY. “He will help elevate our agency’s work with Winnebago and expand our agency’s work in the outdoor recreation category.”
As a seasoned thought leader in marketing, Wanous is credited with launching new brands, rebuilding tired ones, and developing strong cross-functional teams. Wanous got his start in the sporting goods/active lifestyle category through strategic marketing roles with JanSport and Switch-It rollerblades. Coupling these professional experiences with a passion for the outdoors and physical activity, Wanous is energized about leading and building DKY’s outdoor book of business.
In his last role, Wanous was responsible for marketing and digital communications at MGK, a global leader of insect control. A few highlights in this position included growing the B2C gardening businesses through new positioning, driving digital media campaigns, enhancing the eCommerce sales channel strategy, and building the strategic foundation for a successful product launch in the highly competitive ant category. At the enterprise level, Wanous helped elevate MGK’s digital marketing efforts by strengthening the content strategy, evolving the online experience and hiring new talent.
Prior to MGK, Wanous helped grow brands across food, baby hygiene, and sporting goods categories for more than 23 years. For six of those years, Wanous was a director for Schwan’s consumer brands division. He started by rebuilding the declining Red Baron pizza brand and then lead innovation for the division to drive long-term growth and market share across multiple distribution channels. Wanous also helped grow the parent-approved Huggies brand and launch new products as the director of brand management.
Serving a wide range of industries on the corporate side, Wanous has an impressive toolbox to draw from to support DKY’s clients. Wanous was attracted to DKY’s values-driven mission and the opportunity to grow the agency’s work in the outdoor recreation space. As a University of St. Thomas alum, Wanous earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing.
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