A Look at Simantel, Then and Now and Into the Future
When Jim Simantel hired Pam Aiello years ago, he brought her on board as the agency’s first on-staff writer. But her passion (and degree) lies in making organizations better through training and development – and that just wasn’t a focus at the time. Pam left, and eventually returned to Simantel, where she found her home as a Senior Communication Strategist. To this day her work has impacted generations of Simantelites, clients and even her own family members.
As Senior Communication Strategist, Pam has the creative brainpower to dig into messaging, data and research, glue all the pieces together and integrate them within our clients’ marketing strategy. But while she loves what she does, her Point of Pride doesn’t really have anything to do with her role specifically. It was the way a community project that Simantel worked on impacted her daughter that was such a profound moment in Pam’s career. It was the moment she realized the type of work she does can make a difference.
In this interview, Pam and Misty look back at Pam’s professional development – from the moment she first discovered her knack for training, through all the different companies where her career took her and back to her desk at Simantel, where she’s now been for 25 years. They talk about the time Pam got to work with a team of Simantelites on the City of Peoria’s highly impactful “Don’t Shoot” campaign. Pam would come to realize, through the words her own daughter wrote for a school essay, that she had met a huge personal milestone in working on this campaign: creating something real and tangible that would resonate with future generations for many years to come.
Pam’s story is one that will pull at your heart strings no matter who you are – a marketer, a human, a parent of any generation. You won’t want to miss this very special interview from this season celebrating Simantel’s 40(ish) anniversary. Enjoy!
“I always thought…I’d like [to create] something that lives on. And that endures in some way… something that’s there for generations to see and experience, because I always thought about the work that we do, the advertising and the marketing work as something that was short lived. There’s a particular need at a particular moment…But I never really thought about [how] maybe it actually goes beyond that – until this happened.”
Pam Aiello
Bonus Clip: Pam Narrates Her Story
About Pam Aiello
Pam brings more than 30 years of experience in marketing communications to her role as a Senior Communication Strategist at Simantel. She was hired by Jim Simantel in the 90’s as the agency’s first on-staff writer. Today, she excels at helping clients find the most effective ways to position their brands, working with research to develop brand, marketing and content strategies that help clients achieve their objectives.
Outside of her strategy role, Pam is passionate about putting her extensive instructor and facilitator skillset to use, leading trainings both inside and outside the agency. She holds a master’s degree in Communications with an emphasis on Organization Communications, and has a background teaching at high schools, colleges and a correctional facility. She’s our in-house Enneagram expert and has led trainings on the subject for our employees and clients. As an Enneagram 7 herself, I think you’ll find her to be one of the most optimistic people to be around. Connect with Pam on LinkedIn.