Ana Maria Romay

VP Brand & UX, Founding Team Member

Nift Networks Inc.  | September 2014 – Present

From 10 consumers and an office in the basement to 25M+ consumers today, creating this product continues to be a labor of love. A Nift is a gift consumers receive as a thank you. It allows them to try new products and services without paying full price. Businesses use Nift to acquire, engage and retain customers. Nift partners, like Meetup, TripAdvisor and ParkMobile, thank and reward their customers with Nift gift cards which can be used to access gifts on the Nift Network. These gifts are provided by local businesses and national brands, like HelloFresh, Allbirds and Gaiam, who rely on Nift’s matchmaking technology to acquire new customers cost-effectively, at scale. 

• Product strategy and design—insight, create, test, repeat
• Marketing, advertising, branding, PR, swag, etc—from day one to today
• In a nutshell, I oversee "pictures and words" that make people do things, feel things, believe things—and the writers, designers, interns that help to make that happen. 

Global Creative Director, Product & Brand

TripAdvisor | June 2013 – July 2014

What does it take to build an in-house agency and do a complete brand overhaul for the world's largest travel site? Leading a team of 24 talented creatives, I proudly rolled up my sleeves to kick out 74-million emails per week, site updates in 39 different points of sale, new branded swag, billboards in Times Square, print ads, digital and display OLA, tweets, posts, info-graphics, apps, and so much more. Together we elevated TripAdvisor’s look and feel, rebranded GreenLeaders and Travelers’ Choice, revamped the CRM program, honed the #1 most downloaded travel app, restructured the creative department, and added 9 new hires in 9 months. The result? Increased unaided brand awareness and a 22% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue to a record $281 million—all in a single year.

• Led design and copy teams for CRM/Social, Brand, and Product (mobile/web)
• Overhauled TripAdvisor.com, including the Tourism pages—decreased bounce rate 36%
• Launched 8 new points of sale, Instant Booking and Maps—260+ million visitors per month 
• Increased display-based advertising revenue to $32 million (Q1 ‘14)—28% higher than ‘13

VP Creative Director 

Digitas | April 2007 – June 2013

How do you change a big bank’s bad reputation? Show people the real positive impact the bank makes every day—right in their own backyards. For Bank of America, that included leading several teams to create branded video content, 50+ online ads, hundreds of interactive site assets, a couple of award-winning iAds, the bank’s first military social campaign “Express Your Thanks,” and a 200+ page Enterprise site, which has since been selected as a MITX finalist, a Webby Honoree, and an OMMA award winner.

• Pitched, sold, and pitched again, helping to double our BofA account in a year—$60MM
• Created financial videos that folks actually watched—completion rates to 44%
• Oversaw every pixel of the bank’s rebrand to ensure 100% ADA compliance

ACD
What does it take to promote multi-million dollar brands without TV? It’s about engagement and activation. Fueling fandom drives sharing, increases brand recognition, and incites trial. That’s the logic that helped us win big with a face-aging site experience for Merrill Edge, branded video content for Merrill Lynch, and live Facebook programs with Kim Cattrall and Carrie Underwood for Olay.

• Led and won the cross-agency Pantene Mobile pitch with Starcom Media—$54MM
• Concepted and helped to sell in award-winning “Face Retirement”—Merrill Edge
• Led the development of global e-commerce sites across 29 countries—Olay

ACTING ACD
How do you get teenage girls to tweet about pads? I traded in my New Yorker for CosmoGirl, got the deets on Hanna and Nick, and even had a sleepover with Jordin Sparks, all to help move boxes off the shelves by “igniting emotional bonds” between young women and P&G's line of femcare products. Technically, I managed the voice for Tampax, Always and Beinggirl.com—which means I got to channel Mother Nature while "having a happy period" and getting in touch with my angst- ridden teenage side.

• Launched P&G’s first ever Augmented Reality campaign—Always Infinity
• Increased site traffic 300% and click-thru rates 24% for P&G online ads—Always 
• Won a Hatch award for America’s Biggest Sleepover—Beinggirl.com
• Received an Effie for work on “Outsmart Mother Nature”—Tampax

Previous Experience

• Creative Director, Partner—Bradam Creative, Inc: MARCH 2004 – 2007
• Director, Strategic Communications / TV Show Producer—MBTA: JULY 2002 – 2004
• Freelance Copywriter—Edelman PR, Blue Worldwide, and Agency.com: SUMMER 1999 – 2002 
• Associate Copywriter / New Business—J. Walter Thompson, NY: SUMMER 1996 – 1998

Education

• MA, Advertising, University of Texas at Austin, Texas Creative
• MA, Interactive Advertising, University of Texas at Austin, Center for Interactive Advertising
• BA, Advertising, Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
• BA, Policy Studies, Syracuse University, College of Arts & Sciences