Fetch Rewards, America’s No. 1 rewards app, today announced the appointment of industry veteran, David Sommer, to be its first ever Chief Customer Officer. In this newly created role, Sommer will build out the Global Marketing Solutions team and will lean into his years of experience developing highly specialized marketing initiatives for the world’s largest CPG, retail, and restaurant brands. Alongside CEO Wes Schroll, Sommer will lead all revenue and develop innovative product solutions that will accelerate Fetch’s growth in new target vertical markets as well as with long-standing clients such as PepsiCo, Unilever, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, Albertsons Companies and more, fast-tracking its mission to build the world’s rewards platform.
Sommer joins Fetch at a pivotal moment, as brands are increasingly seeking ways to better connect with customers. This growth is poised to continue — the Fetch platform has 13 million monthly active users and recently surpassed $100 billion in actionable gross merchandise value (GMV), making it equivalent to the nation’s seventh-largest retailer. With over 500 global brands on its roster and proven ability to influence consumer behavior, Fetch represents a tremendous opportunity to build upon a strong foundation of first-party customer value that the company has amassed since its inception. In practice, brands are able to dial into the granular view of any given shoppers’ household spend through scanned receipts, and in turn, each app user is being rewarded in a meaningful way.
“As the digital landscape continues to evolve, brands are losing signal from the traditional advertising platforms that they’ve relied on for years. Fetch offers a solution and gives brands a competitive advantage, and David’s expertise will help our brand partners lean into the value of Fetch’s customer intelligence,” said Wes Schroll, founder and CEO of Fetch Rewards.
In his recent roles as the Head of Industry (HOI), Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Retail Partnerships and Shopper Marketing at Facebook (now Meta), where he worked for the last 11 years, Sommer partnered with the world’s largest CPG companies and retail brands to develop and drive their business and marketing strategies. When he started in 2011, Facebook’s annual revenue was $3.15 billion, a figure that grew to $112.3 billion for the twelve months ending September 30, 2021.
“Fetch Rewards represents the future of digital marketing and is poised to become the global leader for rewards across all categories,” said Sommer. “I’ve spent decades partnering with marketers and CEOs to drive their business outcomes and it quickly became clear to me that Fetch has built a product that addresses their collective needs better than any other company, one that finally builds personalized marketing at scale.”
Prior to joining Facebook, Sommer was the Founder, CEO and President of Retail Media Link (RML). In 2006, GroupM/WPP acquired Retail Media Link and retained Sommer to develop and lead GroupM’s shopper marketing practice. He and the team at GroupM scaled the business to well over a billion dollars in client investment. Sommer’s prowess for driving exponential growth and building strategic integrated marketing plans began before Retail Media Link, when he was a Vice President at Y&R Advertising and led the CPG practice.
“Kimberly-Clark and Fetch are long-standing partners who share a vision of marketing that focuses on developing deeper, mutually beneficial relationships with consumers – not just delivering ads and impressions,” said Zena Arnold, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer at Kimberly-Clark. “Having worked with Dave for many years while he was scaling Facebook, we’re thrilled to have his customer-first expertise on board at Fetch to help us achieve personalization at scale and to add even more value to our customers’ experiences.”
Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s former ad chief and former Instacart president said, “Dave and I started at Facebook together the same week in 2011, and I had the opportunity to watch him build out the CPG, Retail and Shopper businesses for Facebook. He is exceptional at building long-term Joint Business Plans (JBPs) with key partners, and clients appreciate Dave’s powerhouse combination of heart, head, and hustle. Dave knows that delivering growth for clients is job No. 1. I’m a huge fan of what Wes Schroll and the Fetch team are building, and I think hiring Dave is a brilliant move to scale the Fetch business. Dave will be a magnet for more client partnerships and attract more top talent to the Fetch Partnership team.”
