Patricia Godefroy

Ideas that matter

As Chief Branding Officer for Cohn & Wolfe, Pat is all about one thing – helping clients win. Never content with the status quo in ideas or results, Pat pushes hard to help brands build real competitive advantage. A hands-on manager, she and her teams have earned nearly 500 awards of excellence in virtually every PR category recognized. But the wins she cares most about are marked by the triple bottom lines of her clients.

Bold brand work

Pat started her career as a college intern at Burson-Marsteller, rose through the ranks to vice president and then left to co-found an independent agency, later sold to Cohn & Wolfe. Her first client was Coca-Cola, quickly followed by Hilton Hotels Corporation, which remains a client 20 years later. Over the years, she has worked for – and learned from -- many of the world’s most celebrated brands including Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, BMW, Miller Brewing, American Airlines, Pfizer, Sony and Warner Home Video, to name just a few. Currently, she leads the agency’s work for Walmart, which is literally her dream account since she wakes up most nights thinking about it.

Creative highlight

Pat’s favorite idea is always the next one. She is a student by nature and happiest when synthesizing seemingly unrelated consumer, market and communications trends to uncover a new opportunity for a client. The bigger the challenge, the better. End hunger in the United States? That’s a Walmart goal that Pat has grabbed onto with both hands. But there’s also a future script full of career highlights ranging from the crazy to the crazier – Taco targets, steamrolled fruit cakes, brain wave monitors, monster carrots, tarantula races, dog look-alikes – all in a day’s work.