Electronic Retailer - November 2011 - 25

2011-2012 ERA Board of Directors
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Steven Feinberg CEO SF Global Sourcing BOARD MEMBERS Scott Boilen President and CEO Allstar Marketing Group Denira Borrero Vice President, Operations Omni Direct, Inc. Brendan Condon CEO REVShare Jon Congdon Co-founder and President Beachbody BJ Fazeli Founder and President BJ Global Direct, Inc. Matt Fisher General Manager and Executive Vice President, Agent Division LiveOps Carey Grange President TEMPTU, Inc. Greg Henchel Executive Vice President and General Counsel HSN Harry Hill President and CEO Oak Lawn Marketing John Mills Chairman, ERA Europe John Mills, Ltd. JML House Tim Pearson Senior Vice President, Household Marketing Time Life/Direct Holdings Americas, Inc. Chris Reinmuth Vice President, Direct Response Litle & Co. Elliott Segal Senior Vice President, Program Development Guthy-Renker International Cecilia Turner President International Commerce Agency, Inc. (IComm) Rich Yoegel Director of Off Air Programming QVC, Inc. IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN Jeff Tuller President Savvier

ERA in the U.S. conducts its business and responds to the challenges it faces. Tim Pearson: It is a great opportunity to network with the leaders of our business and, hopefully to be a part of setting the direction that the association will go in the future. I look forward to addressing important issues like counterfeiting, developing extra member benefits, and building the association so that it becomes stronger in the long run. ER: As a newly appointed ERA board member, what do you hope to accomplish during your tenure? Brendan Condon: I want to make a difference. I have a passion about performance-based advertising, that I love sharing with anyone who’ll listen. Why? It’s because I’ve seen what it can do across print, TV and online media – for both large and small marketers. I spent 25 years with Time Warner, one of the best global media companies in the world, and I am confident that I can provide an original perspective and unique take from my years spent there. Chris Reinmuth: I’ve always wanted to be a part of the ERA board so that

I could have personal involvement in making a difference. I hope to bring a fresh voice to the board – more specifically to my payment’s background, which is an area that is of huge interest to our industry today. I’m the first ERA board member to represent the payment processing industry. I believe and I hope to share some of the knowledge, insight and government affairs data I have learned while at Litle & Co. Rich Yoegel: During my tenure, I intend to listen and learn to find where I can provide the most benefit. I will help with the initiative to grow our membership, specifically in the e-commerce sector and contribute and share my experience and industry knowledge by being actively involved. I want to make sure that ERA is positioned to continue its leadership well beyond my tenure on the board. ER: As the former ERA Chairman, what key objectives do you believe you accomplished during your tenure? Jeff Tuller: Our biggest challenge five years ago was to revitalize our annual trade show, to increase attendance and

grow it into what we’ve always deemed it to be: “the must-attend show for our industry” that brings together all the players across multichannel marketing. We accomplished that two years ago – with attendance almost doubling, which we again matched this past September. Our second challenge has been the fragmentation of our industry – how to embrace the emerging technologies (the internet, cable set boxes, video streaming, mobile, social marketing, etc.) while staying true to our core members. At the board level, this posed almost an identity crisis because as marketers, we know that our businesses have become multichannel. However, we were concerned with trying to become everything to everyone and diluting our focus. Thus, we took a script from our own DR handbook and asked: “What is our unique selling position (USP) as an industry and association?” Our answer: “We use compelling marketing stories with video and audio that drive direct sales with consumers.” Whether it’s video/audio on television, the internet, radio or any other platform that emerges, this is what makes the marketers of our industry unique. As a result of defining our USP, we have since began a concerted effort of expanding our membership across multichannel marketers that use video/ audio for direct selling and the service providers that support them. We have begun aligning our marketing materials, magazine articles and government affairs support to match our USP. Thus, membership has grown 20 percent over the past three years. This is a multi-year effort, but we envision it will keep our association relevant and vibrant regardless of how marketing channels evolve. ER: What have been the most significant contributions that the board has made to ERA this past year? Denira Borrero: The board has made three key contributions: implementation oversight of a solid strategic plan that will ensure long term, financial viability and growth of the association; the decision to proactively increase boardlevel collaboration with the C-suite of our largest members; and outsourced management of the Electronic Retailer 25

November 2011 | electronicRETAILER

Electronic Retailer - November 2011

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