Andrew Upton
I build the marketing systems behind brands, partnerships and growth.
5+ years across paid media, SEO, social, email and marketing operations for home services, education, nonprofit and media brands. I've led brand launches and rebrands and been accountable for seven-figure media budgets at Canada First and Legacy+, using data and AI-driven workflows to allocate spend against revenue and cost-per-lead targets.
Email: Andrew@theuptons.com · Phone: 905.703.1325 · LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrewfupton
Highlights
- 100M+ views for the My Legacy podcast and What Is My Legacy? book launch
- $1M+ revenue in three months, with cost per lead down 39%
- 4M+ managed followers across the Legacy+ brand portfolio
Experience
Lead Marketing Project Manager, Canada First (Oct 2025 to Mar 2026)
Canada First Home Protection is a home security and fortification company in Southern Ontario. I led a six-person team through a full brand transition and owned paid media, SEO and attribution for Canada First and its sister company, YESA.
- Generated $1M+ in revenue and cut cost per lead 39% within three months by growing conversions across new and existing digital leads
- Rebuilt the paid social and advertising engine around the new brand and current best practices
- Took the brand to #1 in Google and AI search in Southern Ontario with a GEO and AEO strategy
- Rebuilt sales attribution and lead tracking across GA4, Power BI and GoHighLevel, connected to an in-house CRM, giving the executive team one trusted view of sales and marketing performance
- Led a six-person team across sales, video, design and social through the rebrand of a fast-growing company
- Owned a $1M+ paid media and out-of-home budget, with hands-on buying in Meta Ads and Google Ads
- Supported the handover of executive responsibilities to an incoming CMO
- Cut software spend by replacing several subscriptions with AI tools and a custom CRM
- Built AI workflows for sales outreach, social and web design, and GEO and AEO content, producing five video clips a week
Brands and partners: YESA
Sr. Manager, Marketing & BI, Legacy+ (Aug 2023 to Jun 2025)
Legacy+ is the purpose-driven organization that grew out of WE. Reporting directly to the CEO, I led digital strategy, branding and reporting across its owned brands and 10+ brand and client accounts, and managed partner activations for Realize the Dream.
- Owned a $1M+ media budget for the My Legacy podcast and What Is My Legacy? book launch, driving 100M+ views and leading strategy, growth and reporting
- Directed digital strategy and branding for a portfolio of owned brands reaching 4M+ followers
- Reported directly to the CEO on all marketing metrics and data, and on design and copy across the brand portfolio
- Led the digital side of the Legacy+ rebrand, moving every social and web account and asset to the new brand
- Key point of contact for the NFL Wild Card activation, coordinating asset deployment for a game watched by 28.6M+ viewers
- Launched the My Legacy YouTube channel and scaled it to 100K subscribers in two months
- Launched Realize the Dream, Say It Now, Shift Canada and Well-Being Canada
- Owned email design and copy across the brand portfolio, growing the educator list to 200,000 and holding 40% open rates through the move from WE, and powering email for multiple brand launches
- Contributed to executive brand strategy for the rebrand, bringing in specialist support for the largest accounts
- Co-managed team members and directed freelancers across creative and content
- Partnered with PR teams on media releases and co-branded content for NBA and MLB activations with Martin Luther King III, and ran a national Snapchat story with Yolanda Renee King
- Managed the media rollout of Walter Green's TEDx San Diego talk, working directly with Walter and his team
- Built AI editing and captioning workflows that produced most of the portfolio's social content, including five video clips a week
- Cut software costs by replacing the Altair Monarch data prep platform with Excel
- Built reporting frameworks that gave stakeholders at every level a clear read on engagement, reach and content performance
Brands and partners: Realize the Dream, My Legacy, Say It Now, Legacy College, Minga Lodge, Kilifi Beach Villas, Shift Canada, Well-Being Canada, &Back Coffee, ProjectBlue, NFL, NBA, MLB, Snapchat, Clorox, DoorDash, Eat. Learn. Play., TEDx
Lead Operations and Data Manager, WE Charity (Mar 2020 to Aug 2023)
WE Charity is an international charity and education partner, known for WE Day. I ran marketing operations and data for its education programs, owning email and SMS for a global educator network.
- Ran email and SMS for a 150,000-educator network, mainly in Canada and the US, reaching 159 countries
- Doubled open rates from 20% to 40% by owning email design and copy, guided by behaviour data and audience surveys
- Tripled the email database from 50K to 150K through conversion campaigns and partnerships
- Supported 7,000+ K–12 schools across Canada and the US, reaching millions of students and educators
- Oversaw $1M+ in teacher grants funded by Microsoft Education, Hershey's and Walgreens over multiple years
- Owned marketing operations for WE Schools (now Education+), reporting to the CEO and Head of WE Schools, across professional development, grants, events, web, email and social
- Built KPI dashboards that gave the CEO direct visibility into digital performance and content priorities
Brands and partners: WE Schools (now Education+), Microsoft Education, Hershey's, Walgreens
Skills
- Paid media and search: Meta Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads, YouTube Ads, Out-of-home, SEO, GEO and AEO
- Data, CRM and email: GA4, Power BI, Hotjar, Excel, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, Mailchimp, Custom CRM builds
- Creative and content: Figma, Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, Email design, Social content, Video editing, Asset recording, AI video generation
- Operations and AI: Google Workspace, Asana, Jira, Monday.com, Claude Code, Codex, Workflow automation
Education
Bachelor of Management, University of British Columbia. Study abroad: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.