Laurie Cruz

Social Creative Consultant

Andreessen Horowitz (Freelance)

July 2025-Sept 2025

This contract marked a turning point for me personally — it pulled me out of my independent sabbatical and reignited my curiosity about industries that aren’t traditionally considered “sexy” to talk about. It also deepened my drive to create meaningful social work that can uplift smaller, less spotlighted mission-based companies and give them the same resonance, appeal, and love as the major entertainment brands I’ve worked with in the past.

As a freelance consultant for Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), I supported the firm during a pivotal rebrand, helping refine the overall look, feel, and voice of its social presence across both institutional channels and individual executive accounts on Instagram, X, and LinkedIn. My work spanned developing sector-specific creative campaigns(crypto, AI, biotech, consumer tech) as well as playbooks for partner thought leadership, ensuring the firm’s presence aligned with its evolving identity while staying consistent and engaging.

Independent Sabbatical

San Francisco, CA

Dec 2024 — June 2025

Pursued a lifelong passion for health and wellness by training and learning from top certified coaches and immersing myself in San Francisco’s fitness community.

My responsibilities include:

• Earned dual certifications (NASM-CPT and NSCA-CPT), because apparently “reading for fun” can also involve anatomy textbooks and kettlebells.

• Helped build and grow a local personal training gym, proving that scaling a real community sometimes starts with moving actual squat racks.

• Studied advanced program design under the mentorship of Stéphane Cazeault at KILO and Tommy Armenta at DIAKADI, learning that writing workouts isn’t so different from writing campaigns — both hinge on rhythm, structure, and progression.

• Completed CHEK Institute Level 1, where I discovered the mind–body connection is less buzzword and more blueprint for focus, creativity, and long-term performance.

• Treated the sabbatical as a hands-on creative lab — experimenting with how discipline, recovery, and physical training can sharpen imagination and create balance outside of work.

Director of Social, Interim

The Martin Agency

Aug 2023- Dec 2024

My responsibilities include:

• • Led and trained the social department’s largest team yet of 10 (SMMs, strategists, content creators, community and social analysts) - elevating creative briefs, social playbooks, always-on tactics, tentpole activations, and evergreen strategies, expanding from 5 to 8 accounts

• • Integrated in Analytics team to Social department - introducing Sprinklr strategies and ad budget methodologies to integrate more competitive social audience analysis via Creator IQ and Helixa

• • Executed end-to-end media rollout for Solo Stove’s 1st brand stunt, Snoop Goes Smokeless - resulting in 19B impressions, a 500% increase in organic search, 167% increase on Google, and a 365% boost in email subscriptions, reducing customer acquisition costs by 22%, and earning 2 Webbys, making it the most successful activation to date

• • Developed a modular insight-driven, cross-functional team process to execute rapid-response activations within 24 hours - launching the Daily Dig system, reducing campaign turnaround time by 88% and increasing new follower growth by 35% across all accounts within 3 months

• • Integrated and improved use for Marketing Automation tools like Sprinklr, Creator IQ, and Helixa into the social team’s workflow cutting overhead expenses by 30% with new analytics approach

• • Crafted creative risk guidelines with TikTok Trust and Safety partner - reducing content violations by 80% within 2 months, securing legal compliance on 100% of campaigns by end of fiscal year

Social Creative + Strategy Lead

Kamp Grizzly

Clients: Adidas, HBOMax, AppleTV+, Shopify, BigFace

Sept 2021 — Aug 2023

My responsibilities include:

• • Acted as founding social lead working with C-Suite for global clients (Netflix, Uber, Meta, HBO, and adidas) to liaise, manage and evolve Global Brand Marketing platforms and evergreen campaigns —developing up 70% of new regional-to-global social business within first year

• • Led Jimmy Butler’s @BigFaceBrand brand launch in 1 month - executing on GTM strategy, media planning, audience design, creative resourcing, design briefing, copywriting, and SEO across IG and TikTok (leading to 700M+ engagements and 85% follower increase without media budget, saving $400K+ in paid media costs)

• • Collaborated with Creative, Production, Partnerships XFN teams to define platform-first workflow, ensuring subject matter expertise and alignment across multiple high-impact initiatives, resulting in a 55% reduction in production costs by streamlining workflows and increasing XFN efficiency.

Senior Social Media Manager, Global Business Operations

Meta

@InstagramforBusiness @FacebookforBusiness

Jul 2020 - Sept 2021

My responsibilities include:

• Controlled 9-figure global media budget and strategy, scaling a $12M budget ground-up for 5 channels (>20M followers) driving a 125% increase in engagement and surpassing HQTs/ROAs by 11x within 4 months

• Developed and implemented customer-centric journeys for @FacebookForBusiness and @InstagramForBusiness - streamlining regional-to-global campaigns—cutting time-to-market by 15% and establishing consistent brand messaging across all target markets in 5 months

• Managed global editorial calendar and developed customer journeys - achieving growth on FB reach 98x, IG reach by 519x, surpassing yearly follower growth goal by 125% in 6 months

• Curated 15+ content franchises through developing individualized mixed media planning - earning 99X more engagement and 20X more reach than previous organic strategy alone in 8 months

• Translated complex products, business goals, and company priorities into impactful roll-out that drove ROI.

Consumer Marketing Strategist

Sprinklr

Clients: Uber, UberEats, NVIDIA

Aug 2015 - Feb 2020

My responsibilities include:

• • Crafted and scaled 1st Global Social Marketing boosting and media buying program to grow engagement >180% for Uber during pre-IPO - devising driver/marketplace-first messaging platforms for new audiences • Coached team of 60+ marketing managers on how to craft audience profiles from global to regional level - resulting in >30% YoY increase in engagement globally to engage with Uber’s 10M followers on Social.

• • Established and tested channel publishing/reporting best practices for brands at 5M+ followers (Uber, NVIDIA, and Expedia) - founding multiple-year relationships with creative teams

• • Presented influencer partnerships workshop program at Global Summit - providing strategic recommendations for content creation and distribution effectively to reach target audiences

• • Defined key audiences monthly by demographic, profile, language, and interest via listening tools to inform better publishing - increasing organic traffic by 41% within 3 months