Holmen leads the industry with innovative voice and mobile marketing techniques designed for a new wave of consumers who are choosing to control the advertising messages they receive.
Irvine, California, January 22, 2007 - SmartReply, the provider of voice and mobile messaging for over 80 major national and regional retailers, has promoted former EVP Eric Holmen to president. Holmen's prior leadership role contributed significantly to the company's doubling in size in less than two years, and helped the company recently win the Mobile Marketing Association's "Best Use of Mobile Marketing, Relationship-Building" award.
As president, Holmen's plan is to empower those retailers facing a drop in the effectiveness of their marketing programs as consumers increasingly demand customer-controlled marketing. "Traditional marketing and advertising as we know it is soon going to be virtually extinct," states Holmen. "With the introduction of devices like TiVO and satellite radio, consumers are taking more and more control over what advertising they receive. Businesses are desperately seeking non-traditional solutions to effectively market to customers, and SmartReply is addressing that need by leveraging mobile marketing and interactive voice recognition technology (IVR) to elevate marketing to a form of customer service."
Holmen brings extensive experience to his new post at SmartReply, with a diverse background that includes marketing roles in strategic planning, marketing, sales, and operational management and strategic partnerships for leading companies that include Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Catalina Marketing. With his extensive background in retail marketing, Holmen is confident that SmartReply will supply the much-needed solutions for the changing marketplace. "I originally came to SmartReply because I recognized the value of conversing with the retail customer in a voice that not only prompts response, but also builds loyalty and adds depth to the retail brand," he says. "As customers' expectations evolve, it's pretty indisputable. This is the solution of the future. We're excited to be on the leading edge of reshaping how our nation markets to consumers."
"Eric's track record speaks for itself," states SmartReply CEO Dave Savage. "He brings the visionary skills to fully capitalize on the ground-breaking area of mobile marketing, as well as a proven background of leading the innovations that have already grown the company exponentially. We're fortunate to have someone so talented leading our team."
In addition to promoting Holmen to president, SmartReply has completed its Board of Directors. The new board consists of the founding entrepreneurs, Dave Savage and Gregory Wexler. In addition, Mike Romano - SmartReply's EVP of Sales and Business Development and a company founder - will join the board, along with Holmen. In 2007, SmartReply will be seeking outside strategic capital investment for the first time, and Holmen is charged with positioning the company to maximize the potential of those opportunities. "This is going to be a huge year for us," adds Holmen.
About SmartReplySmartReply's voice and mobile messaging solutions have created breakthrough-marketing results for leading retailers throughout the United States and Canada. As the only voice and mobile messaging company dedicated to meeting the unique marketing challenges and objectives of retail executives, SmartReply's clients now have the proven ability to increase store traffic, lower marketing cost and strengthen brand affinity. Because of this, SmartReply is the provider of choice for more than 80 major regional and national retailers. Headquartered in Irvine, California, more information for partners and clients can be found at
www.SmartReply.com or by calling (800)-785-6769.