Strava Poaches Taco Bell’s Digital Chief to Lead Marketing

Strava has tapped veteran fast food marketing mind Zipporah “Zip” Allen as its new Chief Marketing Officer.

In this role, Allen will command the fitness tracking and social platform’s marketing and communications organizations in support of the company's continued growth.

Strava’s global community now counts over 98 million members on its platform and continues to add around 2 million new users each month. Allen’s mission will be to help Strava retain these users and cultivate an increasingly loyal and active community, similar to Taco Bell’s cult-like following.

Allen is a newcomer to the fitness technology industry and joins Strava from Taco Bell, where oversaw customer experience through the fast food giant’s digital channels, including app, web, delivery, loyalty and CRM. Before she was Taco Bell’s Chief Digital Officer, Allen was the top marketing executive at Pizza Hut and led global menu strategy for McDonald’s.

"Zip's experience leading marketing organizations at culture-driven global brands, paired with her passion for creating magnetic digital experiences make her an invaluable addition to the Strava leadership team,” CEO Michael Horvath explained in the company’s announcement. “Her expertise is an important asset to the company as we embark on the next era of growth to serve more athletes globally."

Among Allen’s first major objectives will likely be to quell the uproar caused by the company’s decision to abruptly end its platform’s ability to sync with Apple Health from third party devices. Public outrage from users forced Strava to quickly reverse course but user trust will likely take longer to rebuild.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Allen said that Strava is looking to improve community relations on its app. She also added that the company also wants to discover new ways to engage with its members and find new users.

“We’ve got a really active and engaged and passionate community around the brand,” Allen said to The Journal. “And so how we communicate that to build more users onto the platform, how we actually leverage our community to show up in the world…that’s the work that we’re going to get started on.”