The Communicator

A Q & A with Professor Michelle Sullivan

By Sofia Lee 

Professor Michelle Sullivan of Boston University is a leader in the advertising and branding of alcoholic drinks. As a graduate of BU’s College of Communications, Sullivan’s career has been marked by dedication, resilience, and creativity, skills that she believes are necessary for success in the advertising industry.

With a 17-year tenure in brand management at the Boston Beer Company, Sullivan not only worked on advertising, and owned and earned media for iconic brands like Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard, she spearheaded all marketing for Twisted Tea, and played a pivotal role in launching Truly Hard Seltzer.

Sullivan’s 23-year-long career has earned her numerous accolades, including the prestigious 2015 Distinguished Alumni honor from COM. In her current role as a professor of the practice in Mass Communication, the director of the Advertising Program at COM, and the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, she continues to shape the future of advertising in the classroom.

Sullivan is also the founder of Sullivan Marketing & Communications (SM&C), a full-service marketing, communications, and government affairs agency that has crafted campaigns for companies such as Loverboy and Athletic Brewing Co.

Sullivan has a B.S. in Mass Communication from Boston University and attended the Harvard Extension School for Consumer Marketing. She resides in Windham, N.H., with her son, and tries to balance a thriving professional career with a fulfilling personal life. 

Q: With various roles available in advertising, what attracted you to the position of an account executive? 

A: What attracted me the most was the ability to do many different things. Not only are you working with clients directly but also with the different departments. Management is easy and hard because you’re the one department that touches everything. I think sometimes students have the perception that the lines are drawn black and white and we don’t really step over them but that’s not really true. You’re working and collaborating with copy, project management, production, or strategy, and in doing that, you get to work closely with these people. Candidly, you get to do some of the work yourself. 

Q: You dedicated a substantial portion of your career to Boston Beer Company. Is it common in the advertising industry for professionals to have a long tenure at a single company? Looking back on your time at Boston Beer, did you find fulfillment in your role?

A: No, it isn’t common. I never would’ve expected that I would’ve stayed that long. I’m still kind of surprised that I did. I had the opportunity to do a lot of different jobs and work on a bunch of different brands within the safety of the same company which is why I did stay so long. I was able to run the Twisted Tea brand and launch and run the Truly brand. I definitely would not have stayed if it were 17 years doing the same job on Sam Adams. I think I got there at a great time when the company was growing and there was so much opportunity to grow with the company. If you were somebody who was ambitious, took initiative, and performed well, you could put your hand up and say, “I want to do that.”  The leadership was very good at identifying talent and greenlighting them to do things that they were interested. I was doing things I could’ve never imagined doing all throughout my tenure there, which was the reason that I stayed. 

Q: Reflecting on your career, did you prefer a role in brand strategy or as an account executive? 

A: Definitely the strategy role. When I was working in management, I felt like I was more of an influencer trying to influence clients and my colleagues on what to do and what not to do. When I got onto the client side and was in more of a brand strategy and management role, I had more control. You always have more control on the client side, but I think even within a company, the brand team is accountable for the success or the failures of the brand. If the packaging doesn’t work, that’s on you. If the product doesn’t work, that’s on you. There is a lot of accountability and responsibility, which leads to you having a lot of control and decision-making.

Q: Can you tell me about your favorite campaign that you’ve had the opportunity to work on and why? 

A: Sam Adams because it was the one I worked on the longest and the first brand I worked on at Boston Beer. Part of what I loved about it was I could clearly understand what the founder’s vision was and I worked so closely with him for such a long time that I actually was able to see it be fulfilled. Even when I, and a lot of other people, said that this was a long shot to actually happen,  he said, “I want to revolutionize and completely change the beer industry. I want to create a craft beer segment that has respect and nobility like people have towards wine, fine spirits or food.” At the time, craft beer didn’t exist and respect for beer didn’t exist in America. Ah, the bad old days.

The work that we did and the campaigns that we created really did change an entire industry and changed a lot of people’s lives as a result. When I started working in the craft beer category, there were just over 100 breweries in the US and there’s close to 10,000 now. That is a result of the craft beer revolution and building the consumer demand for that that started with the Sam Adams brand team that I worked on.