Experience
Wanderful Media, Los Gatos, CA 2012 – 2014
Chief Marketing Officer
Lead B2C and B2B marketing, public relations, social media, brand and consumer acquisition efforts for this shopping navigation start-up backed by 12 of the largest U.S. media companies and covering top 50 DMAs, 110M monthly unique visitors, 1 billion page views and several million mobile users.
- Developed new company brand, positioning and messaging. Launched Wanderful Media with coverage in TechCrunch, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, and other major online media outlets.
- Built and managed marketing, customer acquisition, social media and PR organization.
- Launched flagship product Find&Save on tablet, mobile and web and drove acquisition campaigns through online, social media and media partner channels. Reduced paid acquisition costs by 60%, cost of installs by 25% and increased engagement by 75%.
- Drove successful PR, thought leadership, blogging and broadcast efforts with coverage in Forbes, Huffington Post, Time, Internet Retailer, Bloomberg TV, CNN, FOX and others.
- Developed and managed B2B marketing network involving 450 media outlets. Established 100% compliance and best practices. Grew consumer engagement by 32%.
Atherton Management, Redwood City, CA 2008 – 2012
Managing Partner
Consulting firm specializing in branding, positioning, customer acquisition and retention, and communications that raise company awareness, acquire customers and drive sales. See client list
Primary Clients 2008-2012: Primadesk, Tango, Lavante, Dyyno, Zediva, Splashtop
- Tango — Social mobile and games app platform (video & voice, games, photo sharing) with over 200M users world-wide. Developed company and product positioning and messaging, and developed customer retention and engagement strategy and programs.
- Primadesk -- Acting Vice President, Marketing, Early-stage cloud services startup focused on consumers and small businesses. Successfully established and grew company brand, resulting in a 100,000 person user base (from zero) and receiving large-scale press from major news media and bloggers, including features in PC World, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and CNET.
Care2, Redwood City, CA 2007 – 2008
Vice President, Marketing
Directed corporate and product marketing, analytics and public relations for this $30M consumer social media company. Hired to evolve the company brand and positioning, and drive customer growth.
- Revived and extended leadership position and accelerated member and revenue growth, increasing online page views by 17%, visitors by 48% and repeat visitors by 57%.
- Migrated existing community to new brand while growing membership to over 10 million members.
- Created first product/market plan, developed and enforced standardized business processes and refocused resources on community-oriented and social cause-based high priority/high return products.
CodeGear, Scotts Valley, CA(acquired by Embarcadero Technologies) 2006 – 2007
Chief Marketing Officer
Led worldwide marketing and public relations for a new division of Borland, focused on individual developer tools that generated $65M in revenue.
- Prepared the new division as a stand-alone entity for spin out and launched to market, press and analysts
- Rebranded and repositioned new division to create a distinct identity from Borland. Set strategy to bring back market relevance to the business and drive new customer acquisition
- Managed and built from scratch worldwide marketing and PR organization and infrastructure to transform the business for continual growth.
Atherton Management, Redwood City, CA
Managing Partner 2004 – 2006
Primary Clients: SixApart (acquired by SAY Media), AppStream (acquired by Symantec), U3 (acquired by Microsoft), MailFrontier (acquired by SonicWALL), AlphaSmart (acquired by Renaissance Learning) See client list.
Zone Labs, Inc, San Francisco, CA (acquired by Check Point Technologies) 2002 – 2004
Vice President, Marketing
Led worldwide corporate and brand marketing and customer acquisition for both enterprise and consumer markets for privately held $40M security software company that developed the personal security product ZoneAlarm.
- Created marketing strategy and tactical plans that resulted in accelerated enterprise sales growth, establishing Zone Labs as a leader in the enterprise security market and effectively positioning the company for acquisition by Check Point in 2004
- Increased Global 2000 enterprise revenue from $4M to $11M in one year
- Grew consumer e-commerce business from $15M to $25M in one year, generating 65% of the company’s total revenue. Managed consumer unit to consistently outperform revenue goals
KnightRidder Digital, San Jose, CA 2000 – 2002
Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Managed corporate and brand marketing, customer acquisition, public relations, market research and business development for nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher’s digital media subsidiary. The company comprised multiple businesses and brands, including RealCities, a national network of city and regional destination sites, CareerBuilder, SiliconValley.com and ThatsRacin.com.
- Directed national strategy for marketing and branding programs through corporate headquarters and 33 regional offices
- Developed award-winning national advertising and marketing campaigns, including radio, print and outdoor
- Grew site traffic by over 55% and unique visitors to sites by 45% in less than a year, moving up 19 positions on Media Metrix’s list of Top 100 web sites
- Extended reach of RealCities network by initiating and building a franchise that licensed KnightRidder Digital content and platform to independent newspapers and broadcasters. Negotiated key strategic partnerships with Yahoo, Palm, AT&T and AvantGo.
McAfee.com, Santa Clara, CA 1999 – 2000
Vice President, Marketing
Managed U.S. product, corporate and brand marketing, PR and direct marketing efforts. In less than three months built a paid subscriber base of over 150,000 subscribers and revenues of over $4.5M, reaching company goals that led to a successful public offering. Directed marketing and PR activities in preparation for the IPO.
RELATED EXPERIENCE
- Independent marketing consultant, 1997– 1999
- Knight-Ridder, 1996 – 1997 Senior Director, End-User Market Development
- Apple Inc., 1984 –1996 Held a range of marketing management positions of increasing responsibility ending as the WW Group Marketing Manager for Apple’s first online venture, eWorld, which set the foundation for www.apple.com
EDUCATION
London School of Business, Sales & Marketing Institute
Master of Business Administration, Suffolk University, Boston, MA
B.S., Marketing, Villanova University, Villanova, PA
PRESS
Business Interviews, August 21, 2013 http://www.businessinterviews.com/wanderful-media-lisa-romano
GHOSTED ARTICLES
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-t-smith-iv/how-the-tablet-has-transf_b_3950896.html
Chief Marketing Officer
Lead B2C and B2B marketing, public relations, social media, brand and consumer acquisition efforts for this shopping navigation start-up backed by 12 of the largest U.S. media companies and covering top 50 DMAs, 110M monthly unique visitors, 1 billion page views and several million mobile users.
- Developed new company brand, positioning and messaging. Launched Wanderful Media with coverage in TechCrunch, VentureBeat, PandoDaily, and other major online media outlets.
- Built and managed marketing, customer acquisition, social media and PR organization.
- Launched flagship product Find&Save on tablet, mobile and web and drove acquisition campaigns through online, social media and media partner channels. Reduced paid acquisition costs by 60%, cost of installs by 25% and increased engagement by 75%.
- Drove successful PR, thought leadership, blogging and broadcast efforts with coverage in Forbes, Huffington Post, Time, Internet Retailer, Bloomberg TV, CNN, FOX and others.
- Developed and managed B2B marketing network involving 450 media outlets. Established 100% compliance and best practices. Grew consumer engagement by 32%.
Atherton Management, Redwood City, CA 2008 – 2012
Managing Partner
Consulting firm specializing in branding, positioning, customer acquisition and retention, and communications that raise company awareness, acquire customers and drive sales. See client list
Primary Clients 2008-2012: Primadesk, Tango, Lavante, Dyyno, Zediva, Splashtop
- Tango — Social mobile and games app platform (video & voice, games, photo sharing) with over 200M users world-wide. Developed company and product positioning and messaging, and developed customer retention and engagement strategy and programs.
- Primadesk -- Acting Vice President, Marketing, Early-stage cloud services startup focused on consumers and small businesses. Successfully established and grew company brand, resulting in a 100,000 person user base (from zero) and receiving large-scale press from major news media and bloggers, including features in PC World, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and CNET.
Care2, Redwood City, CA 2007 – 2008
Vice President, Marketing
Directed corporate and product marketing, analytics and public relations for this $30M consumer social media company. Hired to evolve the company brand and positioning, and drive customer growth.
- Revived and extended leadership position and accelerated member and revenue growth, increasing online page views by 17%, visitors by 48% and repeat visitors by 57%.
- Migrated existing community to new brand while growing membership to over 10 million members.
- Created first product/market plan, developed and enforced standardized business processes and refocused resources on community-oriented and social cause-based high priority/high return products.
CodeGear, Scotts Valley, CA(acquired by Embarcadero Technologies) 2006 – 2007
Chief Marketing Officer
Led worldwide marketing and public relations for a new division of Borland, focused on individual developer tools that generated $65M in revenue.
- Prepared the new division as a stand-alone entity for spin out and launched to market, press and analysts
- Rebranded and repositioned new division to create a distinct identity from Borland. Set strategy to bring back market relevance to the business and drive new customer acquisition
- Managed and built from scratch worldwide marketing and PR organization and infrastructure to transform the business for continual growth.
Atherton Management, Redwood City, CA
Managing Partner 2004 – 2006
Primary Clients: SixApart (acquired by SAY Media), AppStream (acquired by Symantec), U3 (acquired by Microsoft), MailFrontier (acquired by SonicWALL), AlphaSmart (acquired by Renaissance Learning) See client list.
Zone Labs, Inc, San Francisco, CA (acquired by Check Point Technologies) 2002 – 2004
Vice President, Marketing
Led worldwide corporate and brand marketing and customer acquisition for both enterprise and consumer markets for privately held $40M security software company that developed the personal security product ZoneAlarm.
- Created marketing strategy and tactical plans that resulted in accelerated enterprise sales growth, establishing Zone Labs as a leader in the enterprise security market and effectively positioning the company for acquisition by Check Point in 2004
- Increased Global 2000 enterprise revenue from $4M to $11M in one year
- Grew consumer e-commerce business from $15M to $25M in one year, generating 65% of the company’s total revenue. Managed consumer unit to consistently outperform revenue goals
KnightRidder Digital, San Jose, CA 2000 – 2002
Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Managed corporate and brand marketing, customer acquisition, public relations, market research and business development for nation’s second-largest newspaper publisher’s digital media subsidiary. The company comprised multiple businesses and brands, including RealCities, a national network of city and regional destination sites, CareerBuilder, SiliconValley.com and ThatsRacin.com.
- Directed national strategy for marketing and branding programs through corporate headquarters and 33 regional offices
- Developed award-winning national advertising and marketing campaigns, including radio, print and outdoor
- Grew site traffic by over 55% and unique visitors to sites by 45% in less than a year, moving up 19 positions on Media Metrix’s list of Top 100 web sites
- Extended reach of RealCities network by initiating and building a franchise that licensed KnightRidder Digital content and platform to independent newspapers and broadcasters. Negotiated key strategic partnerships with Yahoo, Palm, AT&T and AvantGo.
McAfee.com, Santa Clara, CA 1999 – 2000
Vice President, Marketing
Managed U.S. product, corporate and brand marketing, PR and direct marketing efforts. In less than three months built a paid subscriber base of over 150,000 subscribers and revenues of over $4.5M, reaching company goals that led to a successful public offering. Directed marketing and PR activities in preparation for the IPO.
RELATED EXPERIENCE
- Independent marketing consultant, 1997– 1999
- Knight-Ridder, 1996 – 1997 Senior Director, End-User Market Development
- Apple Inc., 1984 –1996 Held a range of marketing management positions of increasing responsibility ending as the WW Group Marketing Manager for Apple’s first online venture, eWorld, which set the foundation for www.apple.com
EDUCATION
London School of Business, Sales & Marketing Institute
Master of Business Administration, Suffolk University, Boston, MA
B.S., Marketing, Villanova University, Villanova, PA
PRESS
Business Interviews, August 21, 2013 http://www.businessinterviews.com/wanderful-media-lisa-romano
GHOSTED ARTICLES
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-t-smith-iv/how-the-tablet-has-transf_b_3950896.html
Lisa Romano | [email protected] | 650.364.9299