ATLANTA, GA — (Marketwire) — 07/21/11 — Vitrue, the leading social marketing platform, today announced the addition of industry executive Chris Hackney to the newly created position of Vice President, Strategic Alliances. Hackney brings a wealth of strategic business, partner and consumer-marketing experience to Vitrue, including executive roles at global brands WebMD and Coca-Cola, and as such will play an integral role in the continuing global growth of the company. Hackney begins today with Vitrue and will report directly to Vitrue CEO & Founder Reggie Bradford.
“We have the products, technology and capabilities to help our clients and partners succeed in social media; now we are going to strengthen our ability to help them measure, innovate and communicate that value proposition for their brand,” said Bradford. “This is a critically important mission for us and requires an executive with Chris- unique blend of experience and skills that will allow us to strengthen our strategic relationships with our clients and partners. We are thrilled to have Chris as part of our Vitrue team as we continue our explosive global growth.”
“Clearly social media marketing will continue to be a main focus for the marketing departments and the executive suites of brands worldwide,” said Hackney. “Reggie and his team have built an incredible social marketing product and alliances with strong global brands and partners. I look forward to helping to strengthen and innovate within those strategic alliances to help our partners harness and promote the full potential of their brand-consumer social communities. It-s an exciting time to be in this industry and with this tremendous company.”
Hackney comes to Vitrue from WebMD, where he spent the past six years building a team that manages WebMD-s most important strategic client relationships. Most recently he served as the Executive Director of Strategic Development, where he spearheaded all consumer markets business, including CPG and OTC-based business, encompassing more than $100 million in revenues. During his time at WebMD, he oversaw development and planning for all consumer marketing business arenas, including community and global development, senior-level relationships and partnerships, as well as leading WebMD-s first brand extension, the “Fit” brand and website.
From 2003-2006, Hackney was at the Coca-Cola Company, serving roles of Brand Manager for Coca-Cola Trademark Brands and Associate Brand Manager for the Coca-Cola Classic and Vanilla Coke brands. As Brand Manager, he led the long-term strategic planning for Coke TM, an initiative designed to align strategies of all Coke TM brands behind a select number of growth platforms to expand TM business over the long-term. He also focused on building expanded distribution in emerging channels as well as building an integrated communication strategy for the Coke TM in traditional retail outlets. He also led brand activation of national property initiatives including entertainment properties, like American Idol, and sports properties like the Olympics.
Hackney also founded a nutritional product company, Lanair Corporation, where he built an enterprise consisting of 13 separate product lines, 12 employees and annualized revenues of $4.3 million. Hackney has his MBA from Duke University and earned his BS in Business Administration from Washington University.
Hackney is just one of many staff members Vitrue is hiring as it continues to open new offices, both in the U.S. and internationally. Vitrue currently has five offices and expects that number to double by the end of this year. Vitrue-s Bradford cites rapid adoption of its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, the Vitrue SRM, as the driver for growth. The Vitrue SRM is used by hundreds of global brands and agencies, collectively managing its clients- more than 750 million fans in 47 countries across 3,000 Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Vitrue () is the leading social marketing platform, offering software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to help brands and agencies harness the marketing potential of social and manage their expanding and sophisticated social communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, emerging networks and mobile applications. The industry-leading Vitrue Social Relationship Management (SRM) platform is currently managing more than 750 million fans in 47 countries across 3,000 Facebook and Twitter accounts. Vitrue-s stable of clients include McDonald-s, American Express, Amway, YouTube, Intel, State Farm, P&G brands, Johnson and Johnson, Samsung, Ford, Chanel, JCPenney, Disney, Baskin Robbins, Best Buy, Domino-s Pizza and AT&T, as well as many global marketing and public relations agencies.
Aly Brady
LaunchSquad
415-625-8555
vitrue (at) launchsquad (dot) com
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