Layne Cox
Chief Marketing Officer at Union
Layne Cox
Chief Marketing Officer at Union
Denver, Colorado
Overview
Work Experience
Chief Marketing Officer
2022 - Current
Union is disrupting the POS industry with a venue operating system (VOS) tailored for high-volume bars and restaurants. Founded by industry experts, we blend cutting-edge technology and data with hospitality excellence. Our platform streamlines ordering, payments, and rewards for guests while empowering staff with intuitive tools and insights. We also provide valuable consumer data to alcohol and beverage brands. Union's mission is to enhance the bar and restaurant experience for all stakeholders - customers, staff, and owners. We serve more than a thousand of the best operations nationwide, helping them optimize service and boost profitability.
Advisor / Consultant / Fractional CMO
2015
I love nothing more than helping startups and founding teams win! Whether it is evaluating your go-to-market strategy, assessing new avenues for scale, reviewing brand positioning, auditing budgets and media investments, helping to find/hire your next superstar, aiding with your fundraising pitch/intros, and/or just being your sounding board - I’m here to help. A few of the great brands and teams I’ve had the opportunity to support or hold advisory roles with include Opencare, Drizly, Street Easy, Seated, Properly, Reggie, Care, Karma, Handoff, Knowes, ToMarket, SoldOut NYC, Harvest Today and Vinebase.
Chief Marketing Officer / Head of E-Commerce
2020 - 2022
Welcome to the world of POMP: the ultimate floral gifting experience, delivered nationally next day from our family's farms. With over 25+ years in the floral industry, growing and supplying US wholesalers as well as the Rose Bowl, Tony Awards and Miss America with high-quality roses - we're bringing a fresher, longer-lasting, more meaningful floral experience direct to doorsteps nationally without crazy mark-ups. With POMP, we’re setting a new standard for floral deliveries and making sending and receiving flowers more meaningful and memorable no matter where you are in the continental US. We promise you've never seen blooms like ours! We can’t wait to hear what you think! Send flowers with confidence at pompflowers.com. I’m so proud of what our team of freelancers and consultants achieved for POMP. We brought a brand vision to life and successfully processed over $1 million in revenue in less than a year. We have more 5 star reviews than 1 and had an absolute blast while doing it. Prior to POMP, I had never gone from 0 to 1 but now I have and I learned every phase has its perks. Working with the POMP Family, Red Antler and our team of resources made everyday fun. POMP will always hold a very special place in my heart! The best roses are from POMP!
Co-Founder / Growth & Operations
2020 - 2020
Book, pay, and tip for services at local nail salons with a tap. It’s like OpenTable for nail salons. Hellabella was created to solve the pain points of consumers and nail salons related to nail services in the US. Did you know the average nail salon customer spends more than $1,400 per year on nail services and products. They also make more than 24 trips to the ATM and wait in line 16+ hours annually for their services. The nail salon vertical is expected to grow to more than $20B before 2030, with no real competition to lead the creation of convenience-adding technology. The founding team bootstrapped the business to more than $50K in GMV just before covid hit! Our team of eight worked tirelessly to create new products to aid customers and nail salons, but after a few months of COVID, it became clear that the nail salon industry was changed by Covid.
Vice President, Marketing (B2B, B2C, Acquisition & CRM/Retention)
2017 - 2020
Built from a passion to ensure local authentic pizza continues to be something we all can enjoy, Slice, founded by a third generation pizzeria owner, is dedicated to helping independent pizzerias compete with big pizza chains and thrive! Slice offers independent pizzerias everything they need to grow their profits and business; discoverable online presence, simple online ordering, personalized marketing materials and support, data driven automated customer engagement, and much more...... Through Slice, pizza consumers can not only always find authentic pizza close by, they can now order from their favorite, hard-to-get-a-hold-of, mom and pop pizzeria easily by downloading the Slice app. Because eating real pizza should be really easy, convenient, delicious - and always there! Responsible for all aspects of the marketing team from Acquistion to Retention to Growth for my last year. During my tenure at Slice we drastically moved from 3000 local pizzerias to over 15,000. I supported the build of our GTM strategy for local pizzeria Acquistion as well all efforts to engage and retain our individual consumers. My team pioneered Slice’s entry into SEM - moving rapidly from $100 days to thousands, while still winning against our monster competitor budgets. We also launched the company’s first OOH campaign that doubled mobile downloads during the campaign duration. During my time at Slice we launched a number of growth tactics, including web and product conversion improvements that drove order volumes and consumer retention. I could share more but most of all my time at Slice was all about managing extremely dedicated people across the globe to do more everyday to help the local independent pizzeria win!
Director of Brand & Acquisition, Growth Marketing
2016 - 2017
Ibotta is transforming the shopping experience by making it easy for consumers to earn cash back on everyday purchases through a single smartphone app. Ibotta partners with leading brands and retailers to offer rebates on groceries, electronics, clothing, gifts, home and office supplies, restaurant dining, and more. Ibotta is the premier destination for rewarded shopping on mobile, and has paid out more than $200 million in cash back to its users. Launched in 2012, Ibotta has nearly 22 million downloads, and is one of the five most frequently used shopping apps in the United States. Responsible for building the brand and performance marketing team. Moved the company from a mommy couponing app to a broader base savings app with a mission to make everyday purchases rewarding. We expanded budget from a couple thousands dollars to millions over the course of a year, while maintaining growth targets and budgets. My team pioneered our entry into paid media within Facebook, Pinterest, Mobile Display, SEM and affiliate marketing. We also launched the company’s first OOH, Direct Mail, Radio, YouTube and Local/National TV buy. My team was primarily in house from buying to creative. Outside of media, my team conducted the company’s first ever brand survey and assessment, 3rd party consumer research, as well as created and launched Ibotta’s first consumer panel where real users aided us in brand, product and growth feedback.
Head of Marketing Strategy & Operations
2015 - 2016
GrubHub Inc. is the nation's leading online and mobile food-ordering company dedicated to connecting hungry diners with local takeout restaurants. Responsible for organizing and managing the strategic direction and operations of the marketing team, directly with the Chief Marketing Officer. Partnered with other marketing leaders to enable organizational alignment towards critical business objectives and lead the organization’s implementation of company-wide strategic transformation activities and strategic imperatives. Direct responsibilities included acting as Chief of Staff to the CMO, planning & management of budget & staff resources, aligning & maintaining organization focus on key strategic objectives, communicating across all organizational levels, reporting & analysis, strategic insights & development (establishing long-term & short-term direction), and infrastructure/process management, development and improvement.
Senior Manager, Offline Marketing
2013 - 2015
Responsible for the growth of both the Seamless & Grubhub brands through the acquisition of diners across all markets by leveraging traditional offline marketing channels; Out of Home, TV, Direct Mail, Radio, Print, Guerrilla/Local Activation, Distribution Partnerships and Charity/Sponsorship. Oversaw not only the strategy & budget planning but also the buying, negotiation, placement and creative development. All channels are validated and supported through channel analytics and consumer intelligence. Daily activities included strategic marketing planning, management of internal team and external agencies, creative development, media purchasing, testing/development of new channels, and reporting/presenting program analysis to Sr. leadership & Board.
Manager, Acquisition & Brand Marketing
2010 - 2013
Seamless is the ultimate destination to find and order food instantly from every restaurant in your neighborhood for delivery or takeout. Responsibilities included managing the growth of the Seamless brand into and across all markets. I was specifically responsible for developing and executing our offline acquisition initiatives; Out of Home, TV, Direct Mail, Radio, Print, Guerilla/Local Activation, and Charity/Sponsorships. My team utilized these channels to launch both brand awareness & direct response programs that are derived and validated through consumer intelligence and behavior. Accomplishments included initiating and developing the Seamless launch into all major traditional marketing channels; TV, Out of Home and Direct Mail. Under my direction Seamless leveraged these channels to drastically accelerate awareness levels across all markets and acquire more loyal diners each month.
Manager, Catering Sales & Client Management
2008 - 2010
Sold Seamless' corporate catering solution and managed key client relationships (Top Law Firms and Financial Companies). Developed relationships with caterers to ensure clients received the best service, price point and variety. Supported special event planning and menu planning for board meetings, holiday parties, and staff events. All efforts supported maximizing client revenue and growing company's catering portfolio.
Food Service Director
2007 - 2008
Oversaw contract food service operations at KPMG Headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. Direct outlets included, retail cafe, casual catering, executive conference center, and vending/pantry units. Responsible for managing all aspects of day to day operation and future contract obligations of the location. Over 1.5M in annual revenue with 15 unionized employees and executive chef.
Assistant Food Service Director
2005 - 2007
Assisted in overseeing the daily operation of a food service contract with John Hancock/Manulife in their South Boston location including a Starbucks Liscensed store and Retail Cafe. Supported the roll out of corporate marketing initiatives at the regional level through onsite training and weekly communications with regional field team. Took part in several account openings and refreshes as the retail merchandising lead.