Making Scotch Tape Cool at 3M

Brandi Machus ‘16 is a storyteller. As marketing supervisor on the Scotch brand at 3M, she loves the challenge of creating a compelling narrative: a story that “makes tape cool.”

Machus found her courses at St. Thomas to be a "perfect blend" of business, philosophy and creativity. She learned alongside all types of thinkers: from the highly analytical to marketers like herself. “Having left and right brain thinkers in class taught me how to communicate with people who don't always think or operate how I do,” she said.

Machus is a Marketing Communications Supervisor at 3M, a global science company based in St. Paul. With 91,000 employees world-wide, communication can make or break a good story. Her skills were put to the test early on when pitching a national back-to-school campaign on 3M's Scotch brand.

"How can we make tape cool and really deliver in a purposeful way?" was the million dollar question posed to her team. At a busy time of year of ads being thrown left and right at families, breaking through the noise was a difficult but exciting challenge.

Machus flew out to Los Angeles to help manage a digital video as part of their 360 Scotch campaign. “The 360 campaign was one of my first projects when I started at 3M,” Machus said. “Now a year in, it’s been fun to see all that work rise to the surface.”

Dealing with lightning-fast pivots is all part of her job in marketing. Her work keeps her on her toes every day -- but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Sometimes it feels like marketing and advertising changes every five seconds,” Machus admitted. “So for my team, it’s finding a balance to maintain the equity of a heritage brand [Scotch]... but still finding fresh modern ways to share that brand messaging with the world.”

While 3M provides a whole new set of corporate challenges from her previous agency life, Machus is grateful that St. Thomas helped prepare her to roll with the punches.

“I now have this system of people: students, faculty and professors that I can tap into or lean into at any given time. St. Thomas has been a great eco-system for my career.”