RichRelevance Welcomes Brand Advertising Innovators, Thought-Leaders To New {rr} Shopping Media Advisory Panel
Former Procter & Gamble, Glam Media and PepsiCo executives bring extensive experience in digital brand advertising and online media innovation to help guide a new era of Shopping Media
San Francisco, CA – Jan. 4, 2011 – RichRelevance®, the leading provider of dynamic e-commerce personalization for the world’s largest retailers, today introduced the {rr} Shopping Media Advisory Panel to help retailers, agencies and advertisers make the most of Shopping Media, a new form of advertising that engages online shoppers in relevant ways on the world’s largest retail websites. The {rr} Shopping Media Advisory Panel is the industry’s first group to focus exclusively on new ways that brand advertisers can extend the benefits of Shopper Marketing to the online channel in order to drive sales and build brand equity for both products and retailers. Founding panel members include Ken Zinn, Director, Digital Marketing Strategy at Abbott Labs and former head of Digital Marketing at Procter & Gamble; Josh Jacobs, Senior Vice President of Brand Advertising Products & Marketing and former Vice President and General Manager of Marketing Technology at Yahoo!; and Dan Hickle, former Vice President of Marketing at PepsiCo, among other top advertising executives.
“Brands are looking for a meaningful way to connect with consumers as they research and complete purchases on the web’s largest retail sites,” said RichRelevance CEO David Selinger. “Shopping Media allows advertisers to engage consumers with brand advertising that enhances, instead of detracts from, the shopping experience, and this new form of advertising is already delivering big results for brands like Kellogg’s, Toyota and Universal Home Entertainment. Our advisors bring a wealth of knowledge and best practices that will provide a leadership backbone as we continue to change the way brands see the possibilities in digital advertising in retail.”
With its launch of enRich for Brands in December 2010, RichRelevance recently pioneered Shopping Media, a new form digital advertising that complements the online shopping experience with engaging rich media – including video tutorials, testimonials, couponing, trials and reviews – integrated directly into product recommendations on leading retail sites. Shopping Media has been embraced by brands as a critical success factor to Holiday 2010, and was covered by Ad Age. The {rr} Shopping Media Advisory Panel rallies the best minds in advertising around Shopping Media, including the digital brand advertising luminaries who have been instrumental in driving their own companies to innovate in online media. Founding members include:
• Ken Zinn: Ken Zinn is a senior corporate marketing executive with over 17 years of broad-based experience in technology and marketing. He is currently Corporate Director of Global Digital Marketing Strategy at Abbott Labs. Prior to this appointment, Zinn worked at Procter & Gamble where he led the Digital Marketing Organizations in every Business Unit since inception in 2001, including Crest, Iams, Prilosec, Pantene, Clairol and P&G’s pharmaceutical drugs. Ken was responsible for formulating strategic global digital marketing plans for 11 brands in 134 countries. Prior to his P&G experience, Zinn worked for LexisNexis a global provider of content-enabled workflow. Zinn continues to Chair the Internet Content Syndication Council’s Advertising Committee (ICSC), a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to advanced business ideas, thought leadership and professional networking among content producers and advertisers.
• Josh Jacobs: Jacobs serves as Senior Vice President of Brand Advertising Products & Marketing and is responsible for all of Glam Media’s brand advertising products. In addition, Jacobs is responsible for global marketing and communications for Glam Media. Prior to joining Glam Media, Jacobs was responsible for setting Yahoo!’s advertising technology strategy and for driving the marketplace operations supporting the company’s advertising platform business. He is credited with helping advance the vision of the Right Media Exchange as a vibrant and open marketplace for digital advertising.
• Dan Hickle: Dan Hickle is a senior consumer marketing executive with 14 years of consumer-packaged goods (CPG) leadership experience at PepsiCo and The Quaker Oats Company. His broad marketing experience includes base business, innovation, advertising and communications. He launched Propel Fitness Water, Gatorade Endurance Formula, Gatorade X-Factor in addition to many other new brands and sub-brands for PepsiCo. In total, he delivered over $1 billion of new products into the marketplace. On the Gatorade business, Dan reinvented the marketing strategy for key targets and developed the first digital marketing strategy for the brand. Most recently, Dan served as VP Marketing for PepsiCo’s largest restaurant customers.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of the RichRelevance family,” said Jacobs. “Their innovation in the Shopper Marketing world is unprecedented. I look forward to helping RichRelevance’s brand partners build their presence across some of the leading retailers on the Internet. Retailers have some of the most valuable ad inventory on the market, and RichRelevance is uniquely positioned to unlock this opportunity for them.”
About RichRelevance
RichRelevance powers personalized shopping experiences for the world’s largest and most innovative retail brands, including Wal-Mart, Sears, Overstock.com and others. Founded and led by the e-commerce expert who helped pioneer personalization at Amazon.com, RichRelevance helps retailers increase sales and effectively monetize site traffic by providing the most relevant products, content and offers to shoppers as they switch between web, store and mobile. RichRelevance has delivered more than $1 billion in attributable sales for its clients to date, and is accelerating these results with the introduction of a new form of personalized advertising called shopping media which allows brands to engage shoppers where it matters most – at the point of purchase on the largest retail sites in world. RichRelevance is located in San Francisco, with offices in Seattle and London. For more information, please visit www.richrelevance.com.
