Embattled Snap hires a new VP to shore up its relationship with ad agencies
- Snap has hired an exec to manage its ad agency relationships as it tries to broaden its ad base.
- David Roter served in a similar role at Twitter and will be VP of global agency partnerships.
- Snap had 1,400 advertisers run on the app last year, but most were one-off campaigns.
Snap is bringing on a high-level executive to manage its ad agency relationships as the disappearing-message app tries to broaden the types of advertisers it works with.
Twitter vet David Roter was hired as VP of global agency partnerships. He starts in early April and will report to chief business officer Jeremi Gorman.
Roter spent five years at Twitter, with his role being senior director of global video sales & agency development. Most recently, he spent two years as head of global revenue & partnerships for The Players' Tribune, a media company that tells and distributes athletes' stories.
Roter's agency and video experience play directly to Snap's ambitions as it pushes its unskippable video ads it calls "Commercials" and looks to deepen its relationship with agencies.
Snap has had trouble since going public two years ago. Its stock price has fallen 50% in the past year, it's lost a string of executives, and has battled competition from Instagram.
Snap has been on a charm offensive with agencies and brands, trying to woo them with AR-powered ads it's pitched as ways to tell a story, engage consumers, and get them to take actions.
More than 1,400 advertisers ran ads with Snapchat in 2018, but most of them were one-off campaigns. Only 17% of them ran for more than one quarter. The company needs to get more recurring spending.
A number of top executives have left, including Tim Stone, CFO; Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, head of global strategic partnerships; Imran Khan, chief strategy officer; and Mary Ritti, VP of communications.
In addition to Roter, Snap has recently brought on Gormon, Jared Grusd as chief strategy officer, and Fox PR veteran Julie Henderson as chief communications officer.