Marcus Collins

Marcus Collins is a marketing expert, award-winning advertiser, former Head of Digital Strategy for Beyoncé, and a Marketing Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. His work helps bridge the academic-practitioner gap for both degree-seeking students and business executives. Over the last decade, Marcus has helped “blue-chip” brands (like McDonald’s, Google, AB-InBev) navigate the challenges of digital transformation to create contagious marketing ideas that extend across both the online and offline worlds of “social.”

Throughout his career, Marcus has been acknowledged for his strategic and creative contributions as an advertiser (Advertising Age’s 40 Under 40 recipient, Clio award winner) where he launched such notable campaigns as “Cliff Paul” for State Farm, the Made In America Music Festival for Budweiser, ”Hello Brooklyn” for the Brooklyn Nets, and the Eggo + Netflix’s Stranger Things conquest.

Marcus has always been a “square peg in a round hole.” Growing up as a black kid in Detroit who swam competitively, studied engineering, spent his summers at band camp, and loved the Monkees as much as he loved A Tribe Called Quest. The result of this experience taught him how to observe cultural codes and develop an empathic muscle. His years of training and work experience have since strengthened these innate abilities into an actionable practice that allows him to translate culture for brands and translate brands for culture.

Prior to his tenure in advertising, Marcus worked in music and tech as a startup co-founder (Muse Recordings) then led iTunes + Nike sport music initiatives at Apple (iTunes Partner Marketing) before running digital strategy for Beyoncé.

Marcus is an alumnus of the University of Michigan (BSE in Materials Science Engineering and MBA with an emphasis in Strategic Brand Marketing) and a doctoral candidate at Temple University. But most importantly, he is Alex’s husband and Georgia & Ivy’s father.