“Success is not just about talent, it’s about hard work, perseverance and a willingness to learn and evolve. It’s about embracing change and staying true to your passion and creativity” -Scott Woodward

Says the man who gave Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation widespread recognition and who started the Ray-Ban craze following the release of the Men in Black movie, in which Will Smith conspicuously wore the sunglasses for the majority of the movie. With a distinguished career that led to the founding of his own creative company, SEW Branded, Scott Woodward is now a marketing, public relations, and branding instructor at The New School at Parson’s School of Design in New York City.

Scott Woodward, a brand marketing guru with a thirty-year creative brand marketing career, has made a reputation for himself in the industry. This groundbreaking brand tie-in with films reinvented how brand and movie tie-ins were imagined, becoming the industry model that is still used today with the James Bond series. During his tenure as CMO of Movado Group, he introduced the Concord watch campaign, “Be late, time is a luxury,” which redefined time as the real luxury, rather than the watch itself. Interestingly, the advertisements showed then-model Melania Knauss, who would go on to become a divisive first lady of the United States, and Melania Trump.

Scott started his career at Chevron’s marketing training program, where he was actively involved in the company’s multimillion-dollar rebranding effort. At Ray-Ban, he combined this experience and his interest in fashion and entertainment, where he eventually rose to become the company’s first global head of image marketing, leading the globalization of its advertising, public relations, retail, and design.  He was successful in bringing disparate regional images together to create a true unified global power brand with iconic black and white fashion-forward campaigns for the world-renowned sunglass with a rich history in Aviation and Hollywood.

He and his team developed one of the first global brand and film integrations with Men-in-Black by incorporating Ray-Ban sunglasses and cutting movie footage starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones into a campaign spot for the film and brand.

Scott was later hired by Calvin Klein where he excelled as a global marketing executive and was a part of their exciting retail growth of the Calvin Klein bridge brand, building retail outlets around Euro, with the first cK retail store in Tel Aviv.  The position was made possible to his creative marketing and globalization of the Ray-Ban brand image, where he created the first flagship store as part of the brand’s Olympic sponsorship-winning store of the year, prevailing over Disney.

This Cause Marketer and Style Guy is also a professor in Parsons the New School for Design’s marketing program. In the opinion of one of his students,

“Scott not only teaches his material well, but he is also extremely inspirational. His modules are designed in a way that was enriching but also engaging for all students. He uses examples and assignments to help students develop an understanding of the material. I would definitively take this class again and recommend everyone to take the class.”

Woodward’s career has gone full circle since beginning his teaching position at Parson’s in September 2021. He now contributes to the curriculum of the school he once wished to attend as an adjunct professor, guiding and teaching young aspiring creatives to thrive in a world that he has so effortlessly dominated with his fresh approach to differentiating, innovating, and rethinking how consumers react to brands.

Scott has also always integrated his brand campaigns with cause-marketing and purpose-driven components as an early advocate with AmfAR for AIDS research paring it with the luxury Concord Watch’s rebrand, Be Late, Time is a Luxury. He also worked with Bausch & Lomb to produce its 2008 Pink advertising campaign for its Renu solution brand, with the purpose of raising funds for the battle against breast cancer with one of its main female demographics.

Additionally, he was the brains behind the Clio award-winning One Direction anti-bullying campaign as the pop phenomenon’s encore to their Pepsi spot with Drew Brees and the first-ever Kindness Campaign with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation the year before.

A Lifelong New Yorker Scott frequently makes media appearances as a creative and image authority,  including a stint on Life & Style opposite Kimora Lee Simmons. He earned a BA from Saint Leo University, an MBA from Loyola University, and attended Villanova University.

It is difficult to find marketing experts and pop-culture arbiters like Scott Woodward in today’s environment who not only has the business knowledge and perspective but is also exceptionally creative in how he applies his marketing knowledge and expertise after making significant contributions to both the entertainment and fashion industries. He’s a natural at deciphering the Zeitgeist.

He is currently working on the newly launched New York International Fashion Film Festival as a judge and the newest Board Advisor for Pneuma, a proprietary technology that engineers living, photosynthesizing fibers that can capture carbon emissions and restore our symbiotic relationship with the planet with applications in apparel, furniture & home design. In addition, his firm, SEW Branded, is working with a rising men’s luxury fashion label to create its fall 2023 digital 360-degree brand image.