William E. Kreth

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About

FAQ/Career Highlights

Senior product and service marketing skill-sets acquired while building fast-paced, entrepreneurial Internet companies. Particular emphasis in online marketing, customer experience and usability issues.

Over eight years of direct senior marketing, positioning, and customer interaction experience in building pioneer Internet-based business models and companies. Responsible for design and execution of initial customer-focused marketing goals, plans and strategies for Prodigy, Time Warner/Road Runner, Wired, HotWired, and Agillion.
Strong understanding of Internet/B2B, eCRM, ASP, and e-Commerce business models; proven ability to establish relationships with senior executives at leading e-Commerce companies. Proven ability to build Internet traffic and awareness campaigns, as well as successful programs to increase customer loyalty.
Effective liaison skills to help bridge communication gaps between software developers, marketing, business development and senior management.
Long-term and deep interest in the use of technology to innovate and evolve existing media, advertising, marketing, and customer relationship models.

2000
Lifeset.com
Founder of Lifeset.com, a media personalization service for broadband and wireless devices (similar to Vindigo, but with an eCRM approach and deeper personalization tools). Accomplishments:

Thoroughly researched the space; held discussions with industry analysts.
Created a demo prototype and defined an XML data model using RDF for metadata management.
Wrote and refined a business plan and executive summary.
Worked with financial services firm Virtual CFO on crafting a financial model.
Pitched our idea to angel investors and venture capitalists.

Results: While our timing was not necessarily the best for starting a company in the market downturn of 2000, we did receive a considerable amount of positive feedback from the investment community about our ideas and vision of taking eCRM principles and applying them to the wireless and broadband media/entertainment space.

1999-2000
Agillion
As Marketing and Content Strategist, worked with biz-dev, marcom, and product development teams on online customer experience issues, company messaging, market research, and competitive analysis for Agillion's eCRM strategy. Accomplishments:

Researched and evaluated strategic service partnerships and MOUs.
Delivered white papers outlining personalized B2B customer retention programs.

Results: As the company business model moved away from encouraging customer interaction among vertical business segments (similar to the work of Question.com and VerticalNet), my position was eliminated. However, I did assist in the company launch campaign (editing/re-writing press releases and online/offline marketing collateral), ultimately resulting in successful $45m first-round funding.

1996-1999
Time Warner - Road Runner
As a Senior Director of Content and Marketing Strategy at the fourth pilot Road Runner Division (Maine), directly responsible for:

Creating the first national B2B marketing initiative (roadrunnerpro.com - offering VPN's, static IP, server co-location, SQL databases, work from home/telecommuting solutions, hosting, & e-commerce), serving as a test market & model for all other Road Runner divisions.
Creating and editing national marketing collateral (including a 4 color media kit, spot advertising on cable, direct mail campaigns, local service member messaging, and in-store kiosks at malls and consumer electronic stores).

Results: With over 25% penetration of 110,000+ homes and businesses passed, Road Runner - Maine is still the most successful cable modem launch in the U.S., and per capita - the most successful cable modem B2B service, with over 1500 business customers, including National Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, DeLorme Mapping, Unum Insurance and LL Bean.

1995-1996
Prodigy
As a Senior Director in the company, worked directly with CEO, VP's, Directors and McKinsey consultants on turnaround plan for company, including:

Service repositioning toward a Web-based ISP model through executive "Project Wildfire" team efforts, combined with ongoing online and offline marketing initiatives.
Customer retention and "Member Get A Member" loyalty rewards campaigns within Prodigy COI's (Communities Of Interest), reducing member "churn" by 16% and increasing member chat room hours by 33%.
Participating representative at product launch press conference/analyst briefings with reporters from Newsweek, Wall St. Journal, NY Times, Time Magazine, Business Week; analysts from Jupiter, Gartner, Yankee Group, IDC, and Forrester Research.
Participating representative in exploratory partnership meetings with companies such as Broadvision, Travelocity, Citibank, and TeleTV (a partnership of Bell Atlantic, Pacific Bell, and NYNEX).

Results: Leveraging the Prodigy brand (and a new project in particular) as a viable player in a time of transition, leading to the successful sale of the company to International Wireless/Groupo Carso.

1992-1995
Wired & HotWired (Wired Digital)
As Online Marketing Director, responsible for creating and leading marketing campaign for launch of the magazine. With a limited budget, tight deadlines, and minimal staff, Wired and HotWired both launched with tremendous media coverage. Accomplishments/deliverables:

Pre-launch contact with CNN landed magazine an extended feature on "Future Watch."
Media buys of cable advertising on MTV and CNBC.
Outdoor advertising in seven major U.S. cities, including buses, billboards, subways, and construction sites; managing trade show booths at national conferences in L.A., Las Vegas, Chicago, S.F., and NYC.
Targeted direct mail campaigns and testing. Opt-in email retention marketing. In-house database/list management.
Negotiating the first contract with AOL and marketing the Wired brand on AOL.
Managing and editing a retention and traffic-driving mailing list in excess of 250,000 members.

Results: Through innovative and precedent-setting marketing, messaging, approach and publicity, Wired and HotWired truly did define what “buzz" meant in the Internet industry. Wired Digital was acquired by Lycos, Inc. for $83m in 1998, and Wired Magazine was acquired by Conde Nast in 1998 for $75m.

Prior P&L/budget responsibility.

Prodigy - responsibility for P&L of a $1.5m annual budget.
Time Warner - Road Runner - responsibility for a $500,000 annual budget.

Related Industry Participation

Inside-the-industry analyst credits, skills and interests include a voracious appetite for reading a wide variety of business, industry and marketing books, publications, and newsletters. As a result of my own research and direct career experiences, I've been invited as a recognized industry insider and analyst to speak at numerous conferences across the country, as well as to act as a consultant, advisor and organizer of these events (Jupiter, SXSW, eMediatainment World, Personalization Summit, others). I have been (and continue to be) a published journalist and analyst, contributing to magazines and national Internet newsletters covering online marketing, personalization and customer experience issues. I have also been quoted/interviewed in national media venues, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The San Francisco Examiner, InfoWorld, Interactive Week, PC Week, Asahi (Japan), and RAI-TV (Italian TV). Over the years, I've established and maintained a lively and professional connection with leading industry journalists, analysts and media professionals