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Summary

Digital marketing executive.Steeped in customer-centric brand segmentation and positioning.Online and offline customer acquisition specialist.15 years creating compelling ecommerce experiences that drive engagement and sales.Intrapreneur.Marketing Services Agency leader, in both traditional and in-house environments.

Work experience

2012Present

Divisional Vice President, Strategic Account and Digital Product Management

Sears Holdings

Get 400+ person org thinking like an internal digital agency.Create client loyalty by delivering valuable digital experiences, from creative to deployed code.Create confidence in C-level Sears executives in our ability to deliver, while optimizing OBU services P&L.

  • Ended FY 2013 with a +5% margin rate vs. plan, with revenues of $52MM
  • New Health and Wellness and Celebrity-based ecommerce experiences on proprietary SHC membership platform, revitalized experiences for Kenmore and Craftsman brands, among others
  • Continued development of personalized, dynamic assembly email platform as a service to external clients (e.g. Lands End)
  • Won competitive pitch to develop mobile and web Internet of Things applications for Kenmore Assurelink (15+ product introductions in 2014).
  • Developed business plan, new legal entity, staffing model and new business presentations for new SHC digital marketing services start-up (STATE Interactive, LLC)
20102012

Divisional Vice President, Addressable Marketing

Sears Holdings

Turn around failing $28MM direct marketing budget for digital direct to consumer marketing communications (Sears, Kmart, etc.).Mostly email (~30MM marketable email address universe, 4+BB sends/year), but also SMS.Extended team (40+) includes Strategy & Planning, Campaign Management Infrastructure, and Email Creative and Production groups Balance Business Unit expectations of email performance for their specific businesses (online and offline) while, while achieving the Online Business Unit's own aggressive online-only sales plan.Drain the swamp

  • Redesigned targeting, customer contact, frequency and creative strategies to reverse 6 months of poor performance.Program returned to year-over-year monthly revenue growth within 90 days of joining.
    • Program ended FY 2010 +35% vs. YA; FY 2011 +20%; FY 2012 +22%
  • Redesigned campaign management infrastructure to move from primarily batch processing to real-time, event based contacts
  • Transformed promotional program from "same offers to everyone" to dynamically assembled, personalized campaigns with offers based on online and offline behavior
  • Designed and staffed new internal email creative and production agency (28 FTE’s) within 90 days of joining
Feb 2005May 2009

Assistant Vice President, Direct Channel Sales and Service

Allstate Insurance

Push an ambivalent Senior Management team, while pulling an openly skeptical Agency sales force, into the direct-to-consumer auto insurance world.Test into a $150 million marketing P&L, leverage a staff of 34 and utilize online (SEO, SEM, display, affiliates) and offline (DTRV, direct mail) tactics to increase quote and purchase activity in the call center and on the Web. Transform old and broken online quoting functionality on allstate.com into a consumer-centric experience competitive with Geico and Progressive.Develop on-line prototypes; prioritize new web site functionalities, and team with Call Center leaders on capacity planning, sales skills development, scripting and call routing and triage strategies and technologies. Recruit and motivate a skunkworks team, insolate them from a Agency-oriented wider environment.Champion the direct channel sales and service vision to stakeholders ranging from front line employees and Agents to executive management.

  • Evangelized $38 billion direct-to-consumer auto insurance opportunity, and led some skunkworks media tests to prove consumers would buy direct from Allstate.Created iterative portfolio approach to optimizing on-line, direct mail and call center capabilities that resulted in direct written premium growth from less that $100 million in 2004 to more than $500 million in 2008.
  • Doubled direct mail response sales rates within a two year period by leveraging various target and responder models.
  • Developed aggressive search engine paid placement program that generated 15 million auto insurance shoppers @ Allstate.com from 2006-2009, while reducing cost per completed quote by 20%.
  • Decreased DRTV cost per call 40% over 2 years ($15-$20 million annual spend) by optimizing creative, network and day part combinations
  • Increased visitor-to-quote, completed-quote and bind-to-quote ratios by 24%, 25% and 150% respectively by leading the redesign of Allstate.com, including increasing its coverage from 20 to 49 states, resulting in an improvement in organic search results to first, second or third place in all major search engines.
20032004

Assistant Vice President, Acquisition Strategy and Programs

Allstate Insurance

Answer the questions "Who should we be targeting?" and "What should we say to them?"Use available market, competitive and customer insights where we have them, conduct research where we don't.Pay special attention to the increasingly important Multi-Cultural segments.Generate profitable growth.Lead 14 marketing professionals to do this.

  • Contributed to the 14.8 % growth in auto policies sold in 2004 by refocusing the mass media targeting and messaging strategy from all drivers over 24 years of age to the 35 to 54 year segment, a group more likely to require multi-policy coverage.
  • Dramatically improved the effectiveness of existing direct mail program by outsourcing data base management and list acquisition functions and eliminating credit pre-scoring, enabling the redirection of more than $9 million in annual fixed costs into increased variable cost mailing volume.
  • Tested and refined the new-to-Allstate DRTV, print and radio campaigns that proved that direct marketing did not cannibalize agent sales.
  • Improved market share in the Hispanic and African-American market segments by securing incremental funding via a compelling business case and proven campaigns.
Sep 20022003

Assistant Vice President, Category & Channel Marketing

Allstate Financial

Bring a consumer marketing perspective to a traditionally sales-focused industry (life insurance, annuities and online savings accounts).Transform the marketing strategy from "let's offer a rich commission" to "let's offer a customer benefit."Conduct consumer needs research.Develop and launch new product concepts, marketing and sales promotions and collateral across all channels (captive agent, independent agent, bank and broker-dealer).

  • Spearheaded the development and implementation of an on-line financial planning-based sales model designed to facilitate the cross selling of financial products to existing property and casualty customers.
  • Generated more than $350 million in sales by launching five new annuity and life insurance products.
  • Nominated to co-lead the development of “That's Allstate's Stand” campaign as part of a new corporate positioning initiative
19992002

Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer

eCampus.com, Inc.

eCampus, the world's largest online college bookstore in 2001,  was a spin off of Wallace's College Bookstores Inc., one of the three largest operators of college bookstores in the country. 

Create and lead “lean and mean, gorilla marketing” function for this e-commerce start-up company. Disrupt the captive and moribund bricks-and-mortar college bookstore industry. Form strategic partnerships AOL, Yahoo and Inktomi to attract attention from potential investors.Develop a sustainable revenue base in the shortest possible time frame.

  • Generated more than $120 million in revenue within two years of forming the unit by developing creative marketing campaigns targeted at community college and trade school segments in addition to the traditional four year academic institutions.
  • Developed TV and print campaign (“We know you’re broke. We make you less broke.”) that drove 80% target awareness while winning 12 ADDY awards
19861999

SVP/Account Director

Learn the art and science of agency account management from the best in the business at the time.Oversee the full range of marketing services delivery from customer segmentation and brand positioning through campaign development, media execution and post campaign evaluation for clients including Allstate, Walt Disney World, Hallmark and Pillsbury. Started as a Management Trainee, ended as Senior Vice President, Account Director.

  • Launched multiple new products and product lines in the greeting card, apparel and consumer food industries.
  • Developed and oversaw implementation of annual national and local brand advertising plans for clients including Allstate, Hallmark and Walt Disney World.
  • Turned major account into a profitable relationship following three years of substantial losses.

Education

MBA

University of Chicago Graduate School of Business

A.B.

Harvard University

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