As head of marketing and employee number three, I'm charged with creating the Productable brand from the ground up, focusing on top-of-funnel education and awareness, telling the startup's unique story to the masses and driving qualified leads through a variety of marketing activities.

I came on board with Moboom when employee numbers were somewhere in its mid-teens, so my marketing communications role soon broadened to include much more. The biggest challenge: Developing a story that communicated the need for Moboom's responsive web technology when there were already larger and louder competitors, like WordPress, ruling the space. The task really tested my inner storyteller, who wanted to create a true emotional connection between our product and our audience. But how do you do that when your product is a website and your target is a developer? You showoff your grab bag of fancy toys. You make them see how your technology allows them to get their job done faster and more efficiently. Essentially, you assure the developer that your product makes them more successful. After months of behind-the-scenes planning, we officially introduced Moboom to a packed house of industry influencers and developers at the startup's first-ever Responsive Web Trends Conference in San Francisco. We used the conference as a platform to tell our story and to get developers excited about our technology, all while focusing on the bigger responsive web trends picture. As director of marketing, I led the rollout of the "new" Moboom, including conference details, such as speaker topics and presentation coaching; a complete overhaul of www.moboom.com to highlight an in-depth look at that aforementioned grab bag of fancy toys; and a media outreach campaign that included interviews with CIO Magazine and analyst briefings with Forrester.

As head of communications for this early-stage startup, I immediately saw the opportunity to educate small- and medium-sized businesses on the need to go mobile. With several other players already in the space, it was time for someone to step forward and truly own mobile education as a brand platform. With this goal top of mind, I developed Duda's key messages and a communications outreach strategy that included both traditional and emerging media, taking Duda beyond media placements in technology publications such as TechCrunch and into publications more often seen by SMBs. To further boost brand awareness, I launched the Duda blog with the purpose of educating SMBs on how and why they should mobilize their websites and turned to Facebook to feature great examples of mobile-friendly sites. Between March 2012 and October 2012, Duda’s Facebook community expanded to attract 70 new fans per day, up from 40 new fans per day; and blog traffic tripled, moving Duda's site up and up in search engine results. I also secured Duda's position as a Yahoo! Knowledge Partner to educate members of the Yahoo! Answers community, one of the web's largest social media sites, and oversaw ongoing content development opportunities such as contributed articles and, more specifically, a seven minute segment that appeared on Fox Business News and the Food Network. In addition to these brand communications activities, I also worked closely with business development to announce enterprise partnerships. In particular, I led media outreach for the launch of Duda's partnership with Google, gaining coverage for Duda and Google's GoMo initiative. The announcement received more than 40 unique media placements, including TechCrunch, GigaOm and Fortune.

Brought on to refine the brand position and media outreach strategy ahead of the official launch of Spire, a flash-sale site for luxury hotels by Perfect Escapes, I directed the development of the company's brand narrative and key messages along with its public relations and social media web launch strategies. We focused on the pain points of flash sales and launched as the only flash-sale travel site to offer a "Best Deal Guarantee" and a friendly refund policy.Well-received by the media, we gained positive news coverage in Reuters, MSNBC.com, Tnooz, Los Angeles Times and more. Overall results included more than 60 placements during the first month of launch with no negative coverage.In addition to targeting traditional media, I led the development of a Facebook sweepstakes to introduce Spire that resulted in more than 5,000 signups at a CPA of less than $1 per member and wrote several contributed articles for sites such as Techlicious, The Examiner and Traveling Mom.

During my eight years at Travelocity, I delivered their story to the masses, always focusing on the love and inspiration of travel instead of just selling a travel product. We called this forward-thinking brand initiative "The Resource Program" and endeavored to position Travelocity as an expert in all things travel. As a spokesperson and senior editor for Travelocity, I taught travelers how to plan their trips and avoid hiccups; gave them advice on where to go; and offered tips on how to experience a place beyond the typical tourist destinations. I also managed The Window Seat blog and its team of writers, which won the prestigious 2009 Gold Lowell Thomas Journalism Award for travel blogs.This branding initiative worked. It propelled Travelocity to the top, consistently smashing its competitors in terms of media coverage and brand perception. Case in point: During the busy holiday travel season, I managed all aspects of Travelocity's annual Thanksgiving Task Force, stationing media-trained "spotters" at the nation's busiest airports to report on the travel situation and help travelers navigate the airports during this busy time. In 2010, traditional media coverage included more than 214 media placements in target markets, $2.2 million in ad value, $7.1 million in publicity value and reached an audience of more than 31 million. Travelocity also blew up Twitter and Facebook feeds and gained even more eyeballs through blogging. To elevate Travelocity's position as an industry expert, I kept up with trends in travel, generated stories through analysis of seasonal booking data and often set out to ask travelers exactly what they thought of current news and topics affecting them. I created at least four major surveys per year, publishing trend reports and generating press coverage in major outlets. The most memorable of those: Travelocity's Rudeness Survey, a tongue-in-cheek analysis of common behavior that really irks travelers.