WASHINGTON, June 1, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- WASHINGTON The Web Analytics Association (WAA), the not-for-profit professional organization whose mission is to educate and unite professionals, consultants, and end-users to join as one powerful voice in promoting the value of web analytics worldwide, today announced its slate of officers for the 2006-2007 term. The executive board is Chairman Bryan Eisenberg, President Jim Sterne, Seth Romanow, Treasurer, and Secretary Andrea Hadley.
All of the officers are returning board members. The 850-member organization also announced that Greg Drew is returning as a board member, and new board members are Chris D'Alessandro, Clinton Ivy, Richard Foley and Shubhra Srivastava.
"The web analytics industry is at a turning point. It is no longer an incubator technology. Customers are expecting a higher degree of insight and return from using web analytics. At the same time, our members are experiencing increased competition in the marketplace, as more entrepreneurs recognize the market potential of analytics," says Eisenberg.
"All of these trends indicate we are in a dynamic changing profession, and over the next two years our board will focus on these market drivers," he adds.
Based on feedback from the 2006 survey of WAA members, the industry sees room for improvement in a number of dimensions, including: the integration of web analytics data into the broader marketing process; educating the marketplace on web analytics and encouraging curriculum courses on web analytics in higher learning institutions; convincing "C" level executives that web analytics is a valid investment; quantifying return on investment; addressing privacy issues, and getting a better handle on what customers want.
"This feedback is invaluable in helping us shape our agenda for the next two years," says Eisenberg.
Of particular importance is the education mission of WAA, notes Eisenberg. The WAA sees one of its primary roles as educating the business world on the functions and value of web analytics and establishing web analytics as a formal educational discipline. The WAA Education Committee works to support programs that can train and certify web analytics professionals, and to encourage institutions of higher learning to add web analytics to their curricula.
Board Experience
"The board has a skillful cross section of talents, from entrepreneurship to online marketing to communication skills and these will enable WAA to be an effective voice and a change agent for the web analytics community," says advisory board member John Marshall, CEO and founder of ClickTracks.
Board Chairman Bryan Eisenberg is a founding board member of WAA and Co-founder and Chief Persuasion Officer of Future Now, Inc., based in New York City. His company helps clients incorporate expert persuasion techniques into web site design, email marketing, development and implementation. He is the publisher of Future Now's award-winning newsletter GrokDotCom, is the author of the weekly ClickZ column ROI Marketing, and has been a featured speaker at leading conferences including DMDAYS, Adtech, Search Engine Strategies, Internet World, and Emetrics Summit.
Eisenberg is a member of the Asilomar Institute for Information Architecture, Usability Professionals' Association, and the American Society for Quality. He holds a B.A. from Brooklyn College, CUNY, and did graduate work at The Wurzweiler School. Eisenberg is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Result, and a co-author of Persuasive Online Copywriting and The Marketer's Common Sense Guide to E-Metrics. He also teaches at Roy H William's Wizard Academy, and is an inventor of Persuasion Architecture for which a patent is pending.
Jim Sterne of Target Marketing of Santa Barbara is founding president of WAA, and returning as president for the 2006-2007 term. He is an Internet marketing strategy consultant, author and producer of the Emetrics Summit conference. Sterne is an internationally known speaker who focuses his 20 years in sales and marketing on measuring the value of a web site as a medium for creating and strengthening customer relationships.
Sterne has written five books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service including, his most recent, Web Metrics; Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success.
Treasurer Seth Romanow is a founding board member of WAA and Senior Vice President, Global Account Lead, for Wunderman Y&R Brands and is responsible for managing the worldwide relationship marketing activities on behalf of Microsoft Server and Tools business groups. Previously, Romanow was Director of the HP Worldwide Customer Knowledge Management and Analytics organization. For HP he developed global strategies for managing customer information, data quality, web and customer satisfaction measurement and advanced analytics. Romanow also managed Compaq.com and has held senior positions in advertising and marketing management at EuroRSCG, BBDO, BatesUSA and Sugarbush Resort in Vermont.
Romanow holds an MBA in Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business and an AB in Political Science and Russian Studies from Occidental College, Los Angeles.
Secretary Andrea Hadley is a founding board member of WAA and president of NetSetGo Marketing, a Vancouver-based web analytics and search engine marketing company that has been delivering services to leading Canadian and international corporations since 1999. She is an internationally known web-marketing consultant, industry speaker and leader. In addition to producing a successful international web marketing conference in Vancouver BC in 2002, she has presented at several international conferences in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, is a guest lecturer at the University of British Columbia, and co-producer of the MarketingProfs Web Analytics How-to Guide.
Hadley is past-president of the International Internet Marketing Association where she was a Founding Director in 2000 and served on the Board for five years.
Returning board member Greg Drew is President and CEO of WebTrends Inc., based in Portland, Oregon. WebTrends has led the global web analytics market for more than twelve years. Drew is a 30-year veteran with fast growing technology companies, and is also known for his role at 800 Electronics where he served as founder, chairman and CEO of the electronics retailer. Earlier in his career, Drew held positions at Hewlett-Packard, Central Point Software, Clientele Software and NOW Software/Qualcomm.
New Board Members
Chris D'Alessandro is Director, Strategy and Web Analytics, for Organic, Inc. where he is responsible for directing the Web analytics program for Organic's largest client-DaimlerChrysler. Previously, he was the Director of Web Analytics for Brand Experience Services (BES), a WPP company. In that role, he was responsible for the Web analytics programs for the Ford Division, Ford Racing, Ford CPO, White Castle Hamburgers, and Bosch USA. He also directed both the Lincoln and Mercury Web analytics programs and also provided strategic consultation to the Ford Motor Companies brand web sites.
Clinton Ivy is Performance Analysis Manager and web analytics subject matter expert of Walt Disney Internet Group. He oversees the strategy for, and integration of web analytics services into Disney Online's websites, and provides consulting to internal teams and partners throughout WDIG on the uses and best practices of web analytics.
Richard Foley is a World Wide Product Manager and Strategist for SAS Institute, a leader in customer analytics. He has been active in the Web Analytics community since 1996 when he worked on implementing web analytics standards for Medscape, now part of WebMD.
Shubhra Srivastava is a Senior Analytics Consultant of Ecommerce for Intercontinental Hotels, a leading hospitality company. Shubhra is part of the Decision Sciences group, which is involved in extensive statistical analysis, modeling and data mining to design and measure revenue enhancement programs.
About The Web Analytics Association
The Web Analytics Association is a not-for-profit professional organization dedicated to promoting the understanding of web analytics through education, advocacy, standards, research and technology. Founded by web analytics industry leaders, the mission of the association is to unite and foster the interests of practitioners, vendors, consultants and educators who use, sell, install, implement, consult, teach or train in the field of web analytics. For more information, or to become a member, please visit http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org.
To find out more about membership, volunteer, or sponsorship opportunities for the Web Analytics Association, contact Bryan Eisenberg, Chairman, beisenberg@webanalyticsassociation.org