Drift announced Monday that former marketing employee Dave Gerhardt is rejoining the company as its first-ever Chief Brand Officer.
He will report directly to Drift’s CEO David Cancel and help drive Drift's strategic narratives during what CMO Tricia Gellman calls its "Revenue era."
"When he left the company we were in the Demand Gen era where people measure marketing via how many leads they produce," Gellman told The Org. "The world has changed and now marketing is measured by how much revenue they help to generate. As CMO, I will be leading the marketing organization to collaborate with David as we continue to define what Drift is in the Revenue Era."
Gerhardt comes back to Drift from Privy, where he served as Chief Marketing Officer for the e-commerce marketing brand, which was acquired by Attentive Mobile in June.
As the first marketing employee at Drift in October 2015, Gerhardt was responsible for creating the framework for the initial marketing organization in his four-year tenure, including the company’s annual keynote event, HYPERGROWTH. The marketing department now boasts 42 employees and the company saw 35,474% revenue growth from 2016-2019.
"Dave is one of the best marketers in our industry and was instrumental in building the Drift brand our customers know and love today. We are thrilled to welcome him back to the team to focus on one thing--building the next great business brand," CEO David Cancel said.
In addtiion to working at both Drift and Privy, Gerhardt is also the founder of Gerhardt Marketing Group and runs a community of over 3,000 marketers. Gerhardt and Cancel also co-wrote the industry novel "Conversational Marketing."
