April Speed is an Ozark-based Creative Director with years of content marketing experience in consumer brand advertising.
Strategically focused on building strong and inspiring brands, she is consistent in delivering effective messaging through social channels and marketing. She leads creative teams in developing highly engaging and entertaining content in the areas of retail, foodservice beverage, packaged goods, and hospitality.
April’s expertise is rooted in strategic storytelling—both visual and written. Skilled in the digital arts, she uses her abilities in brand advertising and journalism to spin a scroll-stopping story in :15 seconds flat.
Want to hear more? Give me a buzz at:
email: aprilspeed@mac.com
linkedin: linkedin.com/in/aprilspeed/
Give me my customizable and mood-altering beverage where I want it most—my car. My specialty drinks are a reflection of who I am, how I feel, and what I aspire to that day. It’s my private sanctuary. My rolling steel cocoon on shock absorbers. My happy place.
American coffee culture has shifted from communal café gatherings to the private retreat of the personal automobile. In 2026, according to the National Coffee Association, a record 59% of all coffee purchases now occur at drive-thrus. Why? Because our cars are an extension of ourselves and we want to enjoy this experience in our own personal bliss-mobiles.
Car time is me time and I’m feeling like something stormy and lavender-y to get me on my way. What’s my favorite drink combo, you ask? You’ll have to wait until I post.
The Brand: Bush’s Garbanzo Beans
Creative Director + Art Direction: April Speed
Photography: Paul Speed Photography
Smash It Up
A hummus recipe series featuring Bush’s Garbanzo Beans – or otherwise known as chickpeas. In this content-rich social media campaign, consumers are encouraged to explore trending cuisine with different kinds of beans.
The Brand: Camp Flea
Creative Director + Proprietor: April Speed
The brand, Camp Flea, is based on my Ozarkian roots, Southern upbringing and my family’s shared love of Table Rock Lake. The antique mall is located in the heart of Ozark, Missouri, and houses over 250 vendors.
As social media manager, I developed the vintage-lifestyle persona and turned it into a modern yet old-school retail experience for all. The evolution happened early on by embracing a social-first marketing strategy and filling it with fun, thought-provoking content. What could be better than simultaneously scrolling AND strolling antiques?
Most of the daily content encourages people to get out, thrift and have some fun. Campy, cool and moody, you’ll find everything from MCM to 70s to turn-of-the-century.
See Camp Flea in action. Visit our Instagram: @campfleaantiquemall
The Brand: Bush’s Beans
Creative Director + Art Director: April Speed
Photography: Paul Speed Studios
The power of the humble bean. My team at the Marlin Connections, a B2B foodservice marketing agency, carefully designed the Bush's Best Beans campaign to evolve the Bush brand across all media. A strong brand heritage and simple pure ingredients have kept Bush's on trend. This branding campaign won multiple awards and grew the bean-love in both foodservice and social media.
As leaders in the foodservice sector, we provided our clients with expertise and unmatched creativity across culinary, digital, content, media and analytics.
Producer + Creative Director: April Speed
Photography: Paul Speed Studios
As a Producer and studio Creative Director for a commercial photography studio, I manage every aspect of production from project leads and bidding to pre-production, sourcing, and hiring. I work closely with my clients and photographers to ensure the best possible captures while staying on time and on budget. Brands that I have had the pleasure of working with at our studio include Starbucks, Tyson Foods, Unilever USA/Global, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Splenda, Blue Bunny and Bush’s Beans.
The 128-year-old barn studio is conveniently located in the Historic River District of Ozark, MO and borders the Bass Pro’s Finley Farms properties.
The Brand: Barnwood Forest, Airbnb
Creative Director + Super Host: April Speed
The barn at Barnwood Forest is one of the few surviving American heritage barn examples in Ozark, Missouri. In 2024, the structure was converted into short-term rentals for overnight guests visiting the area.
As Host and Content Creator, I manage the Airbnb’s social media accounts by filling Instagram, Facebook and site bookings with welcoming content wrapped in a woodsy vibe. The ROI’s have been amazing, and the property is fully booked.
The Brand: The Cabin at Anglers Bend, Airbnb
Content Creator + Super Host: April Speed
Perched on a gently sloping hill overlooking Table Rock Lake, the Cabin at Anglers Bend is a retreat for families to gather, slow down, and plug-in to the sanctuary of lake life.
Once a tiny bait shack, the cabin provided tackle and sundries for the guided Jon Boat tours on the White River prior to the damming of Table Rock Lake in 1957. Although the cabin retains its nostalgic campy atmosphere, it offers many modern comforts and amenities.
Through social platforms and booking sites, it is my duty, as content creator, to capture the charming story of the Cabin and encourage guests to book this magical stay.
Brand: New Wave, A Fictitious Aquarium
Creative Director: April Speed
The following is a mock ‘case study’ of a fantasy aquarium that utilizes a short-form marketing strategy designed to quickly convey a single clear message on social platforms. Basically, wherever your audience hangs out online, short-form content is being consumed.
Accomplished in storytelling, both visual and written—with mad skills in video production, content creation, writing, and graphic design—my experience in consumer advertising really shines through in this sea-kissed digital space.
Art Educator: April Speed
I spent one year teaching art. It was one year of pureness, a cleansing of the mind and soul.
My philosophical approach to art education is both art-focused and student-centered. Art builds critical thinking, dexterity and imagination abilities, which are skills that are needed to be successful in our complex and diverse world. A holistic approach, broad and wide, is where we live during lessons with curiosity in nature as the starting point.
The following is a collection of my students’ art. Let’s start with Dale Chihuly and understanding his abstract saltwater glass formations by applying them to Missouri’s freshwater ecosystems.
Art Educator: April Speed
Project: Mosaic Prayer Wall Iconography
Art Period: Byzantine (330 CE-1453 CE)
The Truth Academy is a hybrid private school located in downtown Springfield, MO. I was honored to be recruited as their art teacher for grades K-12 during the 2021-2022 school year. Most of my art lessons took on a humanities-based approach and incorporated art history along with examples of the musical period of the time. Students learned what influenced artists and how they were motivated by culture and economy. Classical music of the same time period filled the classroom while students created their art projects.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, coincided with our lessons on 13th-century iconography symbolism. All grades, K-12, participated in the creation of this collaborative Mosaic Prayer Wall for the people of Ukraine. We listened to examples of Gregorian chants as we created our mosaic patterns.
The Brand: Hellmann’s
Creative Director + Art Direction: April Speed
Flavor wings flock to. Great salad dressings will draw food and customers in. Developed for both US and Canadian foodservice markets, this memorable campaign introduces the delicious core of Hellmann's Dressing from Unilever Food Solutions. Living in both the B2B and B2C space, we took an omni-channel marketing approach to reach out as far as we could.
The Brand: Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bars
Creative Director/Art Director: April Speed
Photography: Guzman NY
"Respect Yourself in the Morning", stopped people when they were most vulnerable to bad food choices and helped grow the stalled Nutri-Gran business by nearly 30%. The power of this campaign was that the entire media plan was built around the key insight of ‘vulnerability’. Billboard space was purchased above fast food restaurants, near donut shops and around convenient stores, and TV spots ran during self-improvement shows - all the while making people think before they eat.
The Brand: Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Bars
Visual Storyteller + Art Director: April Speed
Co-Creative Directors: April Speed and Anne Patanella
Film Director: Hernandez Productions LA
Agency: Leo Burnett Chicago
This is a series of :30 second TV commercials that reside within a broader campaign titled “Respect Yourself in the Morning” for Nutri-Grain Bars. My partner and I wrote and created this effective and memorable campaign for our Kellogg’s client. The ask: Increase sales in the flat breakfast bar category by reminding busy people to eat something good for breakfast.
A simple, honest reminder to “Respect Yourself in the Morning”, stopped people in their tracks and got them to rethink their morning habits. Built on the insight that busy people are vulnerable to making bad food choices in the morning, this campaign illustrates the consequences of those choices. The effort grew the stalled Nutri-Grain business by nearly 30% within the 1st quarter.
