Columbia Machine, Inc. is a world leader of factory automation solutions based out of Vancouver WA. Founded in 1937, Columbia started as a manufacturer of concrete block making equipment and later expanded into the palletizing and robotic palletizing industries.

COLUMBIA MACHINE

EXPERIENCE

Position
Multimedia Coordinator

Jan 22 - Sep 22

Position
Marketing Manager

Sep 22 - Present

I started at Columbia Machine in January of 2022 as the Multimedia Coordinator. In that position, I was responsible for graphic design, filming, video editing/production, social media posting, file management, website maintenance, web page creation, and more. In that position, I was introduced to the corporate world, began taking business trips to film customer plants, and started building my knowledge of the concrete and manufacturing industry. I quickly learned Columbia Machine is a unique company. Columbia was founded in 1937 in Vancouver, Washington, as a concrete production equipment manufacturer. After finding great success in this business, Columbia expanded into many areas of the factory automation industry. These include palletizing, robotic palletizing, bagging, conveyors, concrete wet presses, and more. Thanks to this diversity in product offering and continued growth efforts, Columbia has amassed a global footprint with locations around the world and has solidified itself as a world leader in factory automation equipment. Most of the different areas of Columbia’s business operate as separate entities under the Columbia name, and some have their own marketing departments, but not all.

Thus, when I got promoted to Marketing Manager after 9 months with the company, I became responsible for leading marketing efforts for four different Columbia entities: Corporate, Concrete Products, Columbia PSI (Bagging), and Columbia Wil El Mil (Wet Pressing). This presented many challenges and opportunities to grow my skills in unexpected ways. As Marketing Manager, I lead all marketing efforts for these entities by creating campaign strategies, spearheading new website and app development projects, planning and executing trade show exhibits, and taking part in industry association meetings to give Columbia a voice in industry-wide decision-making.

The experience I’ve gained at Columbia has been invaluable in furthering my career and growing my skillset in marketing and as a manager. Below are many examples of the various projects I’ve created or oversaw in my time with the company.

MARKETING MANAGER

TRADE SHOWS

  • World of Concrete 2024

    With the help of my talented marketing team, we designed a striking back-lit booth for this show. World of Concrete in Las Vegas is a staple for Columbia Machine. The Concrete Products Division exhibits at it annually. It is a valuable opportunity to reconnect with existing customers and network with potential new customers.

  • Early booth concept render.

  • Precast Show 2024

    My team and I designed a 20x30 open-concept booth for this show. This show required us to represent four separate entities of Columbia Machine in a single booth design. We accomplished this with a “pillar design” where each pillar of the booth represented a different entity with highlight videos and respective brochures. We also showcased three types of concrete molds in the booth.

  • Early booth concept render

  • UK Concrete Show 2024

    The UK Concrete Show booth presented some challenges in the form of representing a recent acquisition of Columbia Machine, Columbia Wil El Mil and Poland-based entity Techmatik. Being a small booth, we utilized a singular back wall to highlight each brand with free-standing TVs showing supporting video content for each.

  • Back-wall graphics.

  • World of Concrete 2023

    The 2023 World of Concrete booth had a much more simplistic design. It’s easy to see the natural progression towards more striking and eye-catching design when comparing this to the 2024 show’s booth.

  • Early booth concept render.

  • Precast Show 2023

    At the Precast Show 2023 we went for an open-concept booth to display a functioning concrete mixer and demonstration machine for Columbia’s vibration technology.

  • Early booth concept render.

  • UK Concrete Show 2023

    The 2023 UK Concrete show featured an earlier version of the booth graphics used for the 2024 show. This show is fairly small and booth designs tend to be more minimalistic. With my team, we were able to find creative solutions to showcase different entities of Columbia Machine.

  • Back-wall graphics.

  • Precast Show 2022

    Another more open-concept booth design for the 2022 Precast show. This year we showcased a block-making machine and bag placer.

  • Early booth concept render.

VIRTUAL PLANT TOURS

OREGON BLOCK

Oregon Block and Paver Manufacturing is a family-owned and operated concrete block production facility based in Prineville, Oregon. Their plant consists almost solely of Columbia machines. This video was filmed and edited by only a two-man team: myself and my Multimedia Coordinator. Most of the filming for this video was done in one single day and edited over the course of the following weeks.

RCP Block & Brick

Oregon Block & Brick is also a family-owned and operated production facility based in Otay Mesa, California. They have three full Columbia production lines running in a single plant. This video was one of my first projects when I started as a Multimedia Coordinator at Columbia Machine and was fully filmed and edited by me. At the time of filming this video, the third and newest production plant was not yet complete. This video was shown at the 2022 National Concrete Masonry Association annual meeting as a virtual plant tour. Near the end of the video, we showed glimpses of the new production line to come and a time-lapse of the installation. The virtual plant tour was followed by a live look of the new plant at the annual meeting.

Social Media & Branding ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Social Media & Branding ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

FEED DRAWER PUBLICATION

The Feed Drawer is Columbia Machine’s corporate informational publication. It has been published since 1955 to both customers and the Columbia team. Highlights of the Feed Drawer include customer profiles, company timelines, technology updates, company news, tech tips for maintaining machines, press releases, and upcoming trade show schedules. Volume 65 was published in 2022 giving the featured article to RCP Block & Brick Plant alongside the promotion of the plant tour video and can be viewed below!

(View in two-page view)

PRINT AND DIGITAL ADVERTISING

In my position as Multimedia Coordinator, I was responsible for the creation of all print and digital advertising materials and brochures. This included half-page, full-page, and 2-page spreads in CPi magazine. It also included artwork for sponsorship opportunities at trade shows or association meetings, such as floor/ table clings. Finally, it included brochures and cutsheets outlining the capabilities and features of our products. Once I moved into the position of Marketing Manager, I rehired for the coordinator and took a more supervisory role in ad creation. Click the link below to see more examples!

MY BRANDING APPROACH

Maintain brand consistency and honor Columbia Machine’s heritage while modernizing design and strategy to impress today’s customers.

Check out below for examples of social media posts, brand guidelines, print & digital brochures, advertisements, and more!

CORPOrate brand guide

When I first started at Columbia Machine, the Brand Guidelines document was a mere six pages. It explained only the bare bones basics of Columbia’s branding such as colors and fonts. After taking over as Marketing Manager, I greatly expanded this document to explain the company’s branding standards in far greater depth.

Below is a draft from 2023. This was a living document and constantly edited and added to.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Columbia’s primary social media platforms are LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Similar to advertising, I started at Columbia responsible for creating social media content and moved into the role of supervisor and content planner as the Marketing Manager. Much of Columbia’s social media strategy revolves around customer plant tours, trade shows, and association meetings. Plant tours prove to be some of the most effective marketing content for Columbia by providing detailed looks at recent production lines and are often showcased at trade shows and association events. Some examples of plant tours can be seen above and other examples of various social media posts can be seen by clicking the link below!

STANDARD PRODUCTS CATALOG

The standard products catalog had been in the works for some time before I started at Columbia Machine. While Columbia always strives to tailor products directly to each customer’s needs, we saw great value in creating an informational catalog highlighting the benefits and features of our standard offerings. I’m happy to say that with the help of my team, we were able to get this project over the finish line and create a catalog that is as aesthetically pleasing as it is informative. The complete catalog can be viewed by clicking the link below!

COLUMBIA APP ✦

COLUMBIA APP ✦

The Columbia app is designed to store and share all marketing content for all Columbia divisions. It is for internal use only and allows users to view photos, videos, and PDFs and send them to customers via email.

I spearheaded the creation of this app with the help of a third-party developer. The app was designed to make it convenient for our sales team to access all marketing materials and show them to customers. Some notable features include offline viewing for use when visiting more remote customer plants. We ensured that each division was separated in the menu, allowing each to be downloaded individually to cut down on storage use. The app also includes a “Playlist” feature, which gives the ability to select any number of files and put them into a separate list to show off at an event or email to a customer. Using Firebase and Flamelink, we created the ability to add and rearrange content on the fly. A refresh button on the side menu of the app allowed any new content to be quickly downloaded.

App tutorial videos showing off the features can be viewed below!

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

As Columbia acquired additional entities throughout my time with the company, it was necessary to create new and updated sites. Packaging Systems International (PSI) was the first of these new entities to receive an updated site. We also saw this as an opportunity to give all existing sites a facelift. Working with a third-party developer, I led decision-making with our existing divisions in the creation of the Columbia PSI. The creation of this site was designed to set the standard for the existing site updates and all sites going forward.

With the new site, we put a much larger emphasis on highlighting our capabilities and making it as easy as possible for our customers to navigate to the equipment capable of fufilling their needs.