driven the brand to new levels of success.
“The expansion of online marketing took
what was happening in DRTV marketing
and brought it into more focus,” he says.
“Look at banner ad tracking: DRTV guys
would say they’ve been trying to do that
forever. As a CMO, my life is about managing and building plans that are quantitatively driven. As a direct-to-consumer
marketer, we want to measure TV like we
measure online.”
Nutrisystem A Perfect Match
Terrill’s background speaks to his
desire to bring the same kind of measurement capabilities found in the online DR
space to all areas of Nutrisystem’s marketing efforts. In the mid and late 1990s, he
cut his teeth at QZAR Inc., owners of the
then-popular Laser Tag entertainment
center chain, and phone giant GTE.
In 1999, he joined Match.com, the online dating business, where he served as
director of marketing and vice president
of new brands and verticals, among other
senior positions. His
biggest accomplishment there was
spearheading the
creation of
Chemistry.com, a competitor
of eHarmony.com,
aimed at the growing
market of those seeking long-term relationships. During his
tenure, the overall
Match.com business
grew from $15 million to $250 million,
with more than 1
million subscribers.
“At Match, we were doing online
DR-style campaigns designed to drive
immediate response,” he says. “That
came in very handy at Nutrisystem when
we wanted to expand the business from
traditional DR-to-call-center and into
online response.”
He left Match for Blockbuster.com in
Nutrisystem’s Web site has not only
become one of the company’s best sales
tools, offering special deals and additional
video marketing, but its online community
draws customers to discuss, support and
share about their weight-loss journeys.
Chief Marketing Officer/Executive Vice
President of E-Commerce, Nutrisystem Inc.,
Fort Washington, Pa.
Age: 43
Hometown: Dallas
Resides: Lafayette Hill, Pa.
Education: B.S., advertising, University of Texas;
M.B.A., University of Houston
Defining Moments: “I came from a marketing and
production background. That’s why the launch of
Chemistry.com was great for me — it allowed me to
get my hands on everything and understand it for the
first time. We built and launched it from the ground
up — everything down to coming up with the name. All of it was my baby. The project allowed me to be an
in-house entrepreneur (at Match.com), which was a great way to learn. It teaches you how to prioritize and
how to make very difficult decisions. I gained a very pragmatic view on what works and what doesn’t, which is
really what DR is all about. Another defining moment was creating the Total Access program at Blockbuster.
We were losing in a couple of segments to Netflix. But Total Access — allowing our customers to rent online or
in-store and return either way — brought in 1 million new customers quickly. I really learned how to lean on
and use research to translate our ideas into a meaningful product that could do battle with our competitor. It
proved to me that if you can win on fundamentals, customers will come.”
Greatest Career Accomplishment: “I truly believe it’s yet to come. But, thus far, I believe launching
Chemistry.com was a great thing. And now, being at Nutrisystem, taking on the task of changing the brand online
— building a new site, a new community — and taking what already was a very good and strong brand in its
space and making it stronger has been very satisfying as well. But, I still believe the best is yet to come.”
Chris Terrill
2005 to become vice president of product
and marketing. While there, he oversaw
development of the video retailer’s online
brand — and his early segmentation and
positioning work helped lay the foundation for the Blockbuster Total Access
program, which put the retailer in direct
competition with online video retailer
Netflix and brought Blockbuster more
than 1 million new customers.
Today at Nutrisystem, Terrill is in
charge of all marketing for Nutrisystem’s
brands — “men’s, women’s, silver and
diabetic,” he says — encompassing TV,
online, print and more. “We do affiliate
marketing, search, display online, as well
as operate our own social community on
Nutrisystem.com,” Terrill adds. “We have
a team of about 80 that handles every
aspect of our business that touches the
consumer, plus a team of contractors who
fill in whatever spaces we need at a given
time.”
The nearly 40-year-old company offers
its 28-day meal plans targeted to women,
men, seniors and diabetics. The weight-
loss program has had great success in the
past half-decade after suffering through
some lean times after the turn of the
century.
