• United Way 211 - Regional
  • Porter Starke - Meet the Cast
  • Iddea Group
  • troopzilla_sm
    TroopZilla
  • UWLPC_sm
    United Way of LaPorte County
  • simply_amazing_sm
    Simply Amazing - Disney
  • Strongbow
  • Strongbones
  • PNC_sm
    Purdue North Central
  • OE Lakeside
  • Mentor USA
  • Valparaiso Community of the Year
  • SX6 sm
    Success By 6
  • upromenade_sm
    University Promenade
  • weidner_sm
    Weidner & Company, P.C.
  • DHC_sm
    Duneland Health Council
  • IAS
  • facc_sm
    Faith Assembly Christian Church

About Group 7even

We're not your typical marketing agency. Group 7even was founded on the principle of convergence. Convergence of genius strategy, cutting-edge technology and award-winning creative to drive quantitative results for the businesses we work with. The convergence of brilliant minds, each with a unique perspective, pushing the envelope from creation to innovation. The convergence of rigorous standards, coalesced together, to raise the bar. We understand that wanting success is never enough. Group 7even is a brain trust that has the experience necessary to achieve it.

Group 7even is a Valparaiso, Indiana based integrated advertising and marketing agency that was co-founded in 2009 as a collaboration between Michelle and Grant Andres. Michelle, a Strategy Expert, has over 15 years of experience in the field, with the major portion of her career spent concepting and developing comprehensive brand strategies at Draft FCB for companies like Lincoln Mercury, LPL Financial, Scudder Investments, Playtex and Blue Cross Blue Shield of America. Grant, a software development and enterprise virtual infrastructure expert, has over 15 years of experience in both executive and technical roles, leading small and larger companies like Raytheon Aircraft and LaSalle St. Securities in building integrated enterprise software systems and networks. Through their experience and guidance, Group 7even has grown into a thriving small business with five in-house employees and a professional resource network of fifteen independent contractors who are dedicated to an strategic alliance with Group 7even.

Group 7even is based on the concept that strategy, technology, and creative are interdependent--a successful piece, website, or brand must take into account and incorporate all three elements.

Meet The Owners

Michelle Andres

President

Prior to launching Group 7even, Michelle held account and officer positions at several advertising agencies including DraftFCB (Chicago), Young & Rubicam (Detroit) and KCS & World (Chicago).

As the Vice President/Account Director with KCS & World in Chicago, Michelle’s achievements included successful advertising campaigns, strategic brand development and launch, communications integration and numerous other marketing initiatives with proven success. As an Account Director with FCB Worldwide, Chicago, Michelle managed a budget of over $20,000,000 and was responsible for strategic & communications plans for four national brands.

Michelle has received numerous awards and recognition including being awarded FCB’s most prestigious award for creative and strategic excellence and being published for her research on the psychological affect of color on taste perception and its marketing implications.

Michelle has applied her skills with the following brands and companies: National Brands: Playtex, Hoover, Scudder Investments, Discover Card, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Lincoln, Mercury, LPL Financial Services, Zurich

Other Brands & Organizations: Capital Mortgage, Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maryland, Creative on Call, Faith Assembly Christian Church, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Iddea Group, Duneland Health Council, OE Lakeside, Opportunity Enterprises, Porter County Economic Development Alliance, City of Valparaiso/ Valpo Chamber of Commerce, Strongbow, Porter Starke, NWI Success by Six, Simply Amazing Market, Collective Edge, Creative on Call, Fahrenheit 212, Goitia Law Firm, Housing Opportunities, Integrated Advising Services, Northwest Indiana Regional 2-1-1, Regional United Ways (Kosciusko, Marshall, Elkhart, and St. Joseph County), Strongbones Dog Treats, Abbett Farms, All About Kids, ServiceMaster, SecureShred, United Way of LaPorte County, United Way of St. Joseph County, Service Sanitation, South Point Plumbing, Troopzilla, The Valparaiso International Center, Weidner and Company, P.C., Xorco Automation, Purdue University North Central, University Promenade, & Euro Bath, Tampa.

Grant Andres

Vice President, Technology

Co-founder of Group 7even, Grant has nearly 15 years of experience holding enterprise software development, solutions architect and technical-executive roles for firms such as Raytheon Aircraft, LaSalle St. Securities and Searchmont Ski Resort - Ontario (LaSalle).  He has also been at the helm of numerous consulting engagements for small and medium-sized businesses to identify best practices, architect and lead integration initiatives of business-critical, interdependent technologies such as Voice Over IP (VoIP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM).

Grant’s numerous achievements revolve around successfully building and deploying applications for high-traffic, fault-tolerant, virtualized/cloud environments. One notable project he led as architect was published as a best-practices case study for addressing object-relational impedance mismatch challenges using a decoupled lightweight service-based Java architecture, the Spring Framework and JDO (Java Data Objects) which was distributed in a vendor publication at the Borland Developer Conference.

He is a hard supporter and adopter of open source which he primarily credits for his success in developing systems that are both fully scalable and fully redundant while also attaining the goal of rapid and cost efficient delivery.  "My long love affair and experience with open source positions me to provide alternatives that would otherwise be unattainable by small and medium-sized businesses. This is my passion," Grant says.

He is also an authority on all things Apple and enjoys developing applications for the iPhone and iPad on the iOS platform.