Daily fantasy operator DraftKings has hired JANET HOLIAN as its new global CMO, a senior-level role in which she will oversee the company’s advertising, licensing, sponsorship, game operations and internal expansion efforts. A former strategic adviser to DraftKings, Holian will report to DraftKings co-Founder & CEO JASON ROBINS. She previously worked with Robins and fellow DraftKings founders PAUL LIBERMAN and MATT KALISH at online printing company Vistaprint. After leaving her position as Vistaprint global CMO and president of European operations in '11, Holian spent more than two years with online custom jewelry outfit Gemvara. As DraftKings seeks to steady itself amid a blitz of legislative and legal pushback from several jurisdictions and entities around the country, Holian will have a key role. As global CMO, Holian also will oversee DraftKings’ customer service operations, customer acquisition efforts, and business development activities that include official partnerships with teams, leagues and venues. “We’re looking to build beyond simply daily fantasy into a broader fan entertainment site, and we have a lot of ideas we want to pursue,” Holian said. She added in the full-time role with DraftKings, there likely will not be a major shift in the company’s much-debated and highly aggressive marketing strategy that coincided with the start of the '15 NFL season. She promised more efficiency for the '16 football season, and perhaps less widespread testing of different creative spots. But Holian expressed no fundamental regrets with last year’s marketing campaign, in which she played a substantial consultative role. “It worked for us. It was very successful for us in terms of customer acquisition, and the vast majority of those new players continued with us for the rest of the season,” Holian said. “I see those couple of weeks [before the NFL season] as analogous to how a retailer thinks about Black Friday or Cyber Monday.” Holian will be based out of DraftKings’ Boston HQ.
