Caley graduated from the University of Virginia, after majoring in marketing with a minor in what used to be called Management Information Systems. She immediately headed to NYC and account management. She worked at lots of agencies that were merged and purged into oblivion. Luckily, the brands she worked on have stood the test of time. Brands like Colgate, Interstate Bakeries, and Cover Girl.

 

After one too many subway rides, Caley decided to become a Californian and headed to San Francisco. She traded hiking up Columbus Avenue for hiking up Mount Tam and running marathons. She also traded meeting reports for consumer research and strategy becoming an account planner.

 

While in San Francisco, Caley worked at JWT and Katsin/Loeb for clients Sprint, Cellular One, Kraft, CAPCOM and Kaiser Permanente. She takes great pride in the fact that she helped to launch “Resident Evil”, an extremely successful entertainment franchise. She also dabbled on Spiderman games and the Street Fighter series. Caley attended the very first E3 convention but made the mistake of giving up caffeine during the trip. A video game convention and “detox” don’t mix.

 

Caley landed back on the East Coast, leading planning on Trident and Halls at JWT. She got a call about moving south to Richmond. While uncertain about dealing with hot summers after lovely San Francisco fog, Caley jumped at the chance to work at the Martin Agency. While a Group Planning Director, she led teams on Kellogg, Olympus, US Trust, Chase and the Ad Council project for Homeland Security. She also became a major contributor to the agency’s new business efforts.

 

She “changed seats at the table” and moved back into Account Management to take on a bigger role in new business, working on successful pitches for Wal-Mart and Burt’s Bees.

 

Caley was a guest speaker at the then VCU Adcenter a number of times, but really got to know the program and students as an adjunct professor for the strategy track. When she realized that she enjoyed the challenge of “sparring” with students as much as strategizing with clients, she signed on as a full time professor. The classroom experience at Brandcenter is not dissimilar from a new business pitch — 2 to 3 times a week. Caley really gets a kick out of working with student teams on “live” side projects for agencies and clients. Caley has worked with student teams on projects for Goodwill Industries, Audi of America, AKQA, C-K, TeamOne, and Naked.

 

Caley worked with the Strategy class of 2009 to launch Cultural Standpoints, the Brandcenter’s 1st ever strategy magazine. It features student-researched and written articles on a wide variety of cultural topics and is published every spring.

 

Caley started her own company, Cantrell Mining, but never seems to have time to advertise it, although she has done work for the Virginia Lottery, The Speciality Group, Connor’s Heroes and The Steward School.