Vol 38. Insights from Crayola’s CMO Vicky Lozano

Case Studied Experts
Meet Vicky Lozano

Each week, we sit down with a marketing leader to learn more about their career, insights, and accomplishments. This week, that marketing leader is Vicky Lozano. 

Vicky Lozano is a marketing leader who has spent her career bridging the gap between brand and business. Over decades in consumer brands, she’s built a POV grounded in strategy, clarity, and long-term thinking, with a particular passion for brands that play a meaningful role in people’s lives.

Here are the need-to-knows about Vicky:

• She built her career in CPG brand management, working across multiple major consumer brands through acquisitions and organizational change.

• She’s spent 16 years and counting at Crayola, growing into a role that oversees how the brand shows up across multiple touchpoints including brand purpose, product activation, interactive and location-based experiences and partnerships. She’s led award-winning brand work, including Crayola’s Campaign for Creativity, which earned 25 awards including multiple Cannes Lions and global recognition.

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Discovering brand management the long way

Vicky knew early on that she wanted to work in business. While studying at NYU’s Stern School of Business, she gravitated toward marketing but didn’t yet understand how expansive the field could be. “I liked marketing,” she said, “but I didn’t really know the specific type of role or an industry I wanted to work in.” 

Her first real exposure came through an internship at Miller Brewing Company, where she got a look at brand management within CPG. That experience flipped a switch. “Once I was exposed to brand management, and specifically in the CPG world, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.’”

At the time, that decision came with a catch. In the U.S., brand management roles almost always required an MBA—something she didn’t yet have. But a personal move to Puerto Rico opened an unexpected door. There, she landed her first full-time role in brand management through an international business unit, where the traditional credential requirements didn’t apply.

Choosing experience over a straight line

From the start, Vicky’s career unfolded through change. She worked on brands that moved from one parent company to another through acquisitions, experiencing firsthand how the same business can feel radically different depending on who owns it.

Rather than resisting that instability, she leaned into it. “Very early in my career, I focused on experiences,” she said. “What does this role give me? Does it round me out? Or am I just becoming a narrower specialist?”

That lens guided her choices. Over time, she worked across different categories, brands, and organizational structures, often within the same business as it evolved. She managed global teams, took on P&L responsibility, and built an understanding of how brand decisions connect directly to revenue and results.

“I’m a marketer by background,” she said, “but I’ve also managed large teams and owned parts of the business. That really shapes how you think about what marketing is supposed to do.”

Making emotion work for the business

Vicky is deeply brand-driven but she’s also pragmatic. She believes that what a brand represents genuinely matters, especially in categories where emotional connection is the difference between relevance and commoditization. At the same time, she’s clear-eyed about the need for marketing to perform.

That balance became especially clear in her work on confectionery brands like Dentyne Ice. Rather than focusing solely on functional benefits like breath freshening, her team leaned into the emotional signal behind the product: the confidence it gives people to connect closely with others.

“There’s a sensory hit, a feeling,” she explained. “That immediate signal gives you confidence. And that confidence enables real, in-person connection.”

For Vicky, that’s where good marketing lives: not in abstract storytelling, but in translating product truth into human meaning and then ensuring that meaning actually drives the business forward.

Growing with a legacy brand

When Vicky joined Crayola more than 16 years ago, she encountered something rare: a heritage brand that hadn’t lost its emotional resonance. “Crayola was the oldest brand I’d ever worked on,” she said, “but it also had incredible equity and an incredible relationship with consumers.”

Instead of a turnaround, the work became about stewardship. How do you make a beloved brand even better? How do you expand what it offers without losing its core?

Over time, Vicky’s role evolved well beyond traditional marketing. She helped build Crayola’s location-based entertainment business, creating immersive creativity experiences for families. She oversaw how the brand shows up across digital apps, content, partnerships, and physical experiences, all under a single strategic framework.

Today, her remit reflects the full consumer ecosystem. “It’s about connecting all the touchpoints,” she said. “So the experience feels cohesive, even if it shows up in very different ways.”

A standout campaign

Of all the work Vicky has led, Crayola’s Campaign for Creativity stands out as a defining moment.

The campaign was designed to elevate creativity as something essential not just for kids, but for adults, educators, and families. It reframed creativity as a life skill tied to development, learning outcomes, confidence, and even wellness.

What made the campaign especially powerful was its flexibility. The same core strategy showed up differently depending on the audience. For parents, it focused on child development and partnership. For teachers, it delivered standards-aligned, turnkey classroom content used globally. For adults, it celebrates creativity as a tool for joy and mental recharge.

The campaign became a platform rather than a one-off, earning multiple Cannes Lions and global recognition. But for Vicky, the bigger win was making the importance of creativity feel culturally relevant.

Advice and Takeaways

1) Brand only works when it’s tied to reality.

Vicky’s career underscores that brand is not a layer added on top of the business. It’s a foundation that has to connect to how the business actually operates.

Do you and your team understand how your work ties to revenue, product, and long-term growth? Ask where the “rubber meets the road” and make sure your brand strategy earns its keep.

2)  Optimize for learning early, not perfection.

Rather than chasing a perfectly plotted career path, Vicky focused on building range. That breadth gave her confidence and credibility later in her career.

If you’re early or mid-career, consider roles that expand your perspective, even if they feel messy or non-linear. Experience can compound in ways that titles don’t.

3)  Protect the core while pushing forward.

Working on a legacy brand taught Vicky that innovation doesn’t require abandoning the past. It requires clarity.

Define what must stay true about your brand, then give yourself permission to experiment everywhere else. When the core is clear, growth becomes an opportunity, not a risk.

Think long-term: What could help make your campaigns more successful over time? The right agency partner. And Vendry can help you meet yours, for free. Get started.