Jan Brandt on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Janice Brandt is an American businesswoman and vice chair emeritus of
Brandt was hired with the explicit goal to grow the subscriber base and was given free rein over AOL's marketing strategies. After AOL began sending complimentary discs to people who requested them, Brandt set up a direct marketing campaign to distribute AOL installation diskettes in the mail. The trial campaign cost $250,000 and had an average response of over 10% uptake, with some mailing lists pulling as high as 16-18%. This prompted Brandt to expand the campaign beyond direct mailing and start working with nonconventional distribution partners, such as airlines and cereal companies. At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo. This "
Jan Brandt Interview on Internet History Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt, Jan Living people Businesspeople from Brooklyn 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American technology chief executives American women business executives Boston University College of Communication alumni Chairmen of AOL AOL people Women in marketing American computer businesspeople Philanthropists from New York (state) American chairpersons of corporations Chief marketing officers American women chief executives Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesswomen
America Online
AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc.
The service tra ...
/Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City.
It was established as Time Warne ...
and the former Chief Marketing Officer
A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a chief brand officer (CBO), is a C-suite corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. The CMO leads brand management, marketing communications (including adver ...
of AOL from 1993 to 2002. She is known for her direct marketing campaign at AOL that increased the number of subscribers from 200,000 to more than 22 million.
Early life and education
Jan Brandt was born inBrooklyn, New York
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
and moved to New Jersey at the age of eight. She graduated from Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...
's School of Public Communications. Following graduation, she began working as a copywriter
Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...
at Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...
Education Publications in Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles (25.749504 km) south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the L ...
. She enrolled in night courses at the University of Connecticut and decided to switch careers to marketing.
Career
After a brief period working for Colonial Penn inPhiladelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Brandt moved to Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
Th ...
, to join Education Today publishing with Thomas O. Ryder, where she worked for 10 years. She then briefly returned to Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...
Education Publications, which by then had been acquired by Newfield Publications, before being hired by Steve Case as vice president of marketing of AOL in 1993.
AOL
Brandt was hired with the explicit goal to grow the subscriber base and was given free rein over AOL's marketing strategies. After AOL began sending complimentary discs to people who requested them, Brandt set up a direct marketing campaign to distribute AOL installation diskettes in the mail. The trial campaign cost $250,000 and had an average response of over 10% uptake, with some mailing lists pulling as high as 16-18%. This prompted Brandt to expand the campaign beyond direct mailing and start working with nonconventional distribution partners, such as airlines and cereal companies. At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo. This "carpet bombing
Carpet bombing, also known as saturation bombing, is a large area bombardment done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of land. The phrase evokes the image of explosions completely covering an area, in t ...
" strategy was instrumental in moving AOL beyond Prodigy and CompuServe
CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...
to dominate the online service provider market.
In 2002, Brandt stepped down as vice chair and chief marketing officer of AOL to take a part-time consulting position.
Brandt was named twice by Fortune Magazine as one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in American Business", in 1999 and again in 2000.
She also received Direct Marketing Days New York's "Direct Marketer of the Year" award in 2000, and the 2001 "Direct Marketer of the Year" award from Target Marketing.
Personal life
Brandt has been politically active since the 1990s, and a longtime supporter of EMILY's List. She currently sits on the board of directors for Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization for providing aid to women in war-torn regions. Brandt joined the board of directors of the Vet Voice Foundation in October 2022.References
External links
Jan Brandt Interview on Internet History Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt, Jan Living people Businesspeople from Brooklyn 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American technology chief executives American women business executives Boston University College of Communication alumni Chairmen of AOL AOL people Women in marketing American computer businesspeople Philanthropists from New York (state) American chairpersons of corporations Chief marketing officers American women chief executives Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesswomen