Pamela Norton Shelpuk
Activate, Inc.
www.activatebrands.com
Over the past 20 years, Pam has consistently proven herself as a savvy marketing veteran with the unique ability and vision to see her clients’ full potential. Her in-depth knowledge of sales and marketing was developed while working with some of the best known companies in the world, including United Airlines, AT&T, Delta Airlines, IBM and American Express. Her extensive career has seen her launch an internet services company and two strategic branding agencies.
But all of these experiences left her longing for a new way to engage today’s consumers. Like other prominent advertising innovators, Pam had also noticed a change in how consumers were relating with brands. Product, price, placement and promotion were no longer enough to remain relevant in the evolving marketplace. The idea of "purpose" needed to be engrained into the core of a company and its brand's proposition if they wanted to reach their goals and achieve greater profitability. It was this notion of adding purpose to a brand's integrated marketing strategy and engaging and listening to customers through social media channels that gave birth to an idea she called ‘Activate.’
Today, Pam speaks, tweets and blogs as a thought leader on how ‘social sharing’ compels all brands to be alert to their social responsibility. She is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and a Board Member for both the Colorado American Marketing Association and The Boys & Girls Club of Colorado. Pam holds a BS degree in Business from Regis College in Denver and spent several years studying International Relations at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan. She loves sushi, Jane Austen, her two children and is trying really, really hard to love camping for her wonderful, understanding husband.
As a fourth-generation resident, Pamela Norton-Shelpuk’s ultimate dream is to see Denver known as a city of giving. While that’s unfolding, she’s ‘leading with purpose’ as the principal of Activate, a socially conscious interactive marketing agency. Using the Internet as their base, Activate utilizes key marketing creative strategies to propel brands — and give back to the community in the process. Activate is fully engaged in the underlying passion that drives its clients’ businesses. It is a fundamental component of how they work. Activate partners with social-minded businesses and organizations to find and express the purpose behind their brands to create positive change for people, companies and communities. Naturally, Activate has a socially conscious team in place to assist in their conscious brand building. These are people who are willing to help with anything from providing school lunches to funding athletic programs. Often, they are able to integrate their core beliefs into projects at Activate. To go further, Activate provides a unique way for her team to give to the causes that are close to their hearts — and even their clients.
Activate views its clients as investors in our company and team. And when they invest in Activate, 5 percent of that investment goes back to a charitable organization of her team's choosing. Bicycle Colorado is just one of the many organizations who received such a gift. And it was used to purchase bikes for students who needed them in the inner city. Our philosophy is that they have made an investment in our company and team, so we will give back to something that supports their mission — we want to help continue the cycle of giving and being an active part of our community. In April 2011 the Make Mine a Million $ Business (M3) program sponsored by American Express awarded Pamela Norton-Shelpuk for her achievements with Activate. They selected her as an awardee from a varied group of women entrepreneurs that spanned 15 states.
