Ross Lafayette joins esbconnect as Sales & Partnerships Director

Customer acquisition specialist esbconnect has appointed Ross Lafayette as Sales and Partnerships Director, targeting growth in the wake of its management buyout earlier this year.

Ross Lafayette

Adept at creating digital solutions across channels and formats, Lafayette will focus on helping some of the UK’s most-loved brands to grow, enrich and engage their audiences through robust first-party data strategies.

His arrival comes as esbconnect experiences increased interest in its suite of products – including Data-Driven Email, First-Party Data Builds and Inbox Extend.

Its growing team helps brands acquire and retain customers through its millions-strong UK proprietary email database, having set up, managed and run data-driven email and omnichannel campaigns for more than 600 clients.

The company said it is now experiencing a surge in demand, at a time when advertisers are recognising the value of first-party data, with email in particular gaining traction as an increasingly important post-cookie ID.

Esbconnect CEO and co-founder, Suzanna Chaplin, said: “Ross shares our passion for first-party data strategies fit for the modern age.

“We are thrilled to welcome him to our growing team as we support more and more advertisers and publishers with people-based marketing.

“A superb communicator, he turns client needs into winning strategies. And we should probably mention that, in a former life, he was a professional footballer.”

Having worked in the fast-changing field of adtech for almost 15 years – concurrent with his sporting career – Lafayette was previously a Enterprise Account Executive at Branch.io, supporting a range of clients utilising the MMPs powerful cross-platform and attribution capabilities.

He has worked at independent adserver Flashtalking by Mediaocean, as well as Channel 5, ESI Media, Incisive Media and Trinity Mirror.

He also played for numerous football clubs including Premier League new boys Luton Town, and once scored 19 goals in a season for Welling United as they secured promotion from the Conference South.

On his appointment at the proprietary customer acquisition platform, one of the largest consumer and B2B data owners, Lafayette said: “I’ve long admired the way in which esbconnect has helped clients with valuable insights, enabling many of our most-loved brands to understand their customers, expand their first-party data, and create personalised marketing campaigns across channels.

“I’m thrilled to join the growing team and to help even more organisations to navigate the challenges of a changing digital landscape and unlocking new opportunities for growth.”

Esbconnect’s services deliver rich insights, its customer acquisition platform reaching 17m consumers across the UK.

In addition to tracking the opens and click-rates of 50 million emails each month, esbconnect helps brands to monetise data, find new customers and grow their databases.

The company’s team and its proprietary tech enables clients such as HelloFresh, Clarks and Ted Baker to engage new customers on any device and channel, using email as a trusted digital ID.

Its platform puts brands in front of millions of consumers whilst building a multi-dimensional picture of an individual across channels and devices.

It delivers precision targeting at scale – connecting email, cookie and mobile data to track customer journeys live from platform to platform.

Also published in: Mediashotz