Driving Passion: Lincoln Hill Never Stops Learning as a Marketing Creative Director
Written by Doug Goodnough
There is not a typical day on the job for Lincoln Hill, ’91. As vice president of Creative Services for Campbell Marketing and Communications, he is involved in a variety of marketing projects with clients both large and small.
Recently, he spent a day at the Daytona International Speedway on a video shoot to help introduce a new race car for the Ford Motor Company.
“I was in charge of getting the video produced,” Hill said. “We put a race car on the track with a camera to shoot live running footage of the race car in action. So my day was spent making sure all the pieces came together.”
After supervising the editing and approval process, Hill said the goal is to make sure “there’s something that I was proud of.”
Hill said he often works with outsourced talent as well as his close-knit Campbell team. And his job is to make sure everyone is doing theirs.
“It’s your task to make sure the folks you’re bringing in are doing exactly what you want them to do,” he said. “That’s the key to doing a great job—finding great people.”
The Dearborn, Michigan-based company focuses primarily on media, public relations, and social media, and specializes in event activations and live marketing.
“Whether it’s print or TV (advertising), I’ve never really been in that world,” he said. “A lot of times, it’s a video that goes out on social media and YouTube.”
He said his clients range from Ford to “mom-and-pop” shops.
“I love working with cars,” Hill said. “I love working with Ford products like the Mustang and the Bronco and the F-150 (truck). Every time I see a car cover pulled off, it’s kind of amazing. So that drives me. But getting the work done and experiencing new technologies, doing different things every day, that’s what keeps me coming back. And that’s what a creative director is. You never stop learning.”
Hill, a native of Canada who came to Hillsdale College through a military school in Wisconsin, discovered he was interested in a marketing career during his college days. After graduating, he spent some time in New York City, working in retail as he tried to break into “top tier” advertising. Not finding what he wanted there, he moved back to Michigan and started working at Campbell and Company (now known as Campbell Marketing and Communications) in 1999 and has his current role since 2017.
He said a highlight at Hillsdale College was meeting his eventual wife, Allison (Brodbeck), ’91. They have two sons, Cameron and Ethan. Hill’s in-laws still live near campus, and he and Allison regularly get back for College events, including the Charger Derby. He has many fond student memories, including smelling the aroma of former art history professor Bert Fink’s pipe smoke while entering Knowlton Hall.
“I’ve made a lot of great friends, a lot of people who I still keep in touch with to this day,” said Hill, who was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. “And it was just right for me at the time.”
He met and spoke with Hillsdale marketing students during a recent job fair on campus, and gave them his best advice.
“All the students I’ve met are really happy here,” said Hill, who enjoys attending car shows and golfing in his spare time. “They’re excited about the way this place operates. I told them what the most important thing is: They have to find an internship in the field they love. They have to get some real-world experience. In terms of what I do every day, it’s being in the trenches and learning what goes on and how you do it, day in and day out.
“Seeing the changes on campus has been amazing over the last 20 years. The student body is really exciting to me. It’s great to see young people excited about the challenges they face.”
Doug Goodnough, ’90, is Hillsdale’s director of Alumni Marketing. He enjoys connecting with fellow alumni in new and wonderful ways.
Published in November 2023