About Marilyn Ball

Marilyn Ball

Robert Kennedy once said, “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

For as long as I can remember, seeing things as they are was just not an option. Like Kennedy, I asked “why not?”  Throughout my 20-year career in marketing and advertising, working alongside professionals who think big and look for solutions outside the status quo, I learned to create programs to accomplish marketing goals and objectives creatively and collaboratively.

Some of my accomplishments include:

• Preparing and executing all pre-grand opening media and public relations for Harrah’s Cherokee Casino & Hotel, North Carolina’s largest attraction and only casino.

• Producing the 48-page book, A Heritage Journey Through the Great Smoky Mountains, the first such publication in the state of North Carolina.

• Producing the book, The Cherokee, for Joyce Dugan, former Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

• Producing the book, A History of Red Clay, for Principal Chief Michell Hicks of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

• Generating over $400,000 per year in co-op advertising by leveraging with public and private partners.

• Accompanying the NC Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development and MountainSouth USA (AdvantageWest) as part of the delegation team promoting North Carolina in Ireland and England to tour operators, travel agencies and consumers.

• Speaking to the Hawaiian Tourism Authority’s Annual Travel and Tourism Conference about U.S. Family Travel Trends and the Implications for Hawaii.

• Successfully spearheading the creation of the I-Wall Exhibit, a 22-foot long interactive electronic wall map of the entire Blue Ridge Parkway for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area located at the Blue Ridge Parkway Visitor Center. Generated public and private partnerships for funding the first-ever marketing tool on National Park lands.

• Leadership Asheville 27