Meet Nellie Murray, The Media Planner Behind Cheese Heads' Innovative Campaigns

Murray wins Media Planner of the Year at the 2024 Creativity Awards

By Jon Springer. Published on April 25, 2024. 

Nellie Murray can turn big creative ideas into innovative media that makes an impact. The group media director at Carmichael Lynch, Murray orchestrates the combination of audience, brand, media, creative and engagement teams to make successful campaigns. 

Murray—this year’s Media Planner of the Year at Ad Age’s Creativity Awards—is behind the media for multiple Saputo Dairy brands including its tween-focused Frigo Cheese Heads and Treasure Cave blue cheese. Murray has brought these brands to life behind innovative expressions that transcend media types.

“I love her approach to media,” said one Creativity Awards judge. “It was really an example of how media can be the springboard for creative thinking.”

More than 39,000 tweens completed a Roblox mission in that game’s Horse Valley, competing to win their own “Cheese Stead.” The game drove more than 51,000 interactions with its Cheese Head mascot, and more than 7.6 million media impressions. Another 1 million gamers started a custom-built Cheese Heads Minehut obstacle course, generating more than 65 million brand impressions. 

And a custom Snap AR lens with which users could turn themselves into Cheese Heads generated 13.4 million uses, 661,000 shares and a 10-point lift in brand awareness.

Murray also partnered with Sofar Sounds to create a “secret concert” event, set in a cave, to support Saputo’s Treasure Cave blue cheese.

Murray’s projects made an impact. Cheese Heads has become the preferred brand among tweens, growing by 9.3% while the total category saw a 0.3% gain. 

“I think it’s quite hard to make string cheese interesting, and she did a great job of that—Snap, TikTok, Twitch—she was everywhere the tweens were,” another judge remarked. “She made an impact in a way that mattered.”