DKY continues growing to bring more value to clients and to meet increasing business needs in the agency’s core sectors of agribusiness, industrial manufacturing, outdoor recreation, and faith-based nonprofits. Over the past four years, DKY has averaged a 16% revenue increase and the staff has grown by 35% in the last 18 months. The agency continues its momentum by adding two new leaders to its Creative and Account Services teams.
Ben Ramsden has been hired as an associate creative director to help expand the agency’s creative portfolio for B2B clients that currently include Donaldson and Solve Industrial Motion Group. Ramsden brings a depth of experience in creative design, marketing, and print journalism to the team’s skillset.
DKY has also added Craig Wanous as a vice president to provide strategic counsel and leadership for the agency’s new Outdoor Group, which includes 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.
Ben Ramsden Brings Creative Muscle to DKY’s B2B Clients
“We’re happy to welcome Ben to the DKY Squirrel Nation,” said Mike Dobies, executive creative director and partner at DKY. “His experience helping organizations elevate their brands through powerful storytelling and innovative design will have a positive impact on DKY clients. Ben is always looking for ways to deliver great creative for clients.”
Backed by 25 years of solid experience in print journalism design and marketing communications, Ramsden adds creative expertise and leadership skills to the DKY team.
Most recently, Ramsden served as a senior creative manager at Arctic Wolf, a fast-growing startup that provides cybersecurity services and solutions to healthcare providers, financial institutions, and government agencies. Ramsden and his team developed a fresh identity and messaging platform through a strategic rebranding process. They also created visual and content guidelines, project management systems and workflows to publish on-brand materials and improve collaboration among internal and external teams.
Prior to Arctic Wolf, Ramsden led the creative department at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal for five years. Under his guise, the team directed the design, photography, illustration and layout of the publication’s weekly issues and additional marketing/advertising materials. Ramsden has also held senior design positions at EPG Media and the Pioneer Press. Additionally, under his own design consultancy, Ramsden Creative, he’s helped small businesses and nonprofits build their brands.
With a desire to move into marketing to grow his skills and versatility, Ramsden is happy he’s landed at DKY, where the focus is on helping clients, brands and people be authentic. As a life-long learner, Ramsden recently received his Certification in Digital Marketing from the University of St. Thomas in January 2021 and earned his Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
Craig Wanous Adds Strategic Marketing Leadership to DKY’s Outdoor Group
“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 building 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 for Wanous 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, he 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 led innovation for the division to drive long-term growth and market share across multiple distribution channels. Wanous also helped expand the parent-approved Huggies brand and launched 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 build the agency’s work in the outdoor recreation category. As a graduate of the University of St. Thomas, Wanous earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing.
About DKY
Based in Eden Prairie, DKY is a brand marketing and advertising agency known for helping brands “Ring True.” For more than 25 years, DKY has been providing strategic marketing and communications services to a wide range of clients in the agribusiness, outdoor recreation, B2B industrial manufacturing and faith-based nonprofit sectors. To learn more about DKY’s services, go to dkyinc.com.
