Sarah Kaplan
Verified Expert in Marketing
Marketing Expert
Santa Monica, CA, United States
Toptal member since August 5, 2024
Sarah is a results-oriented marketing leader who crafts impactful brand and product strategies, go-to-market (GTM) strategies, and digital advertising. She excels in building teams and driving customer success. Sarah has led high-profile multimillion-dollar campaigns like the Bud Light Super Bowl and built a loyalty program that boosted lead conversion by 83%. Her GTM strategy for the US fastest-growing cannabis brand, Tyson 2.0, also won a 2023 Webby Awards nomination for viral video marketing.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Brand Strategy
- Digital
- Digital Media
- Growth Marketing
- Loyalty Programs
- Marketing Strategy
- Paid Media
- Strategic Marketing
Work Experience
VP of Marketing
Xponential Fitness
- Grew local lead acquisition by 133% after optimizing omnichannel marketing strategies.
- Managed digital partnerships across four franchise-focused media agencies, public relations, and retail.
- Developed and mentored a marketing team of three, including brand, social, and creative.
- Drove significant improvements to digital KPIs, including a 10% increase in on-site conversions and a $5 reduction in paid digital customer acquisition cost across search and social.
Senior Director of Loyalty
Xponential Fitness
- Increased lead-to-class enrollments by 84% by building brand and product loyalty and scaling via a mobile app.
- Tripled tech adoption rates by leveraging data-driven insights to spearhead a $3 million mobile app product budget.
- Oversaw PR, digital, content, demand generation, and product relationships for app and loyalty programs, ensuring seamless integration and alignment with overall marketing objectives.
- Recruited and mentored a high-performing team of four, spanning partnership sales, social media, and marketing technology, building a collaborative culture.
- Sourced partnerships exceeding $1 million in value, leveraging strong negotiation skills and strategic alignment.
Head of Brand Marketing
Tyson 2.0
- Achieved over 2x gross royalty sales YoY by cultivating national and global relationships with external partners, including creative agencies, cannabis brand licensees, and collaborating brands.
- Grew social media by 170% for TYSON 2.0 and 307% for Ric Flair Drip through scalable digital omnichannel organic and paid strategies.
- Led the GTM strategy and multi-state launch of the Ric Flair Drip brand, working cross-functionally to develop brand architecture, marketing collateral, channel strategy, and experiential events.
- Generated earned media value of $1+ million by developing creative and digital strategies for earned content like Holy Ears.
- Recruited and developed an in-house marketing team of four.
Senior Strategist | Bud Light
Anheuser-Busch
- Generated $5+ million in sales by heading the GTM strategy for Bud Light NEXT's NFT collection, debuting the first-ever NFT in a Super Bowl commercial.
- Established new brand positioning to 113+ million consumers as a creative and content thought leader for campaigns like Bud Light NEXT Super Bowl, Bud Light 2022 NFL Draft, and Bud Light Seltzer Cocktail Hour Launch.
- Built, launched, and managed the NFT collection portfolio playbook, including the Discord platform strategy and key partnerships to achieve business objectives.
- Managed cross-functional work across creatives, brand managers, external agencies, insights, data, and legal teams, ensuring seamless collaboration and communication across work streams.
Strategist & Project Manager | Innovation Brands
Anheuser-Busch
- Generated 6-figure sales by developing CACTI's product GTM strategy—including the creative, flow, and data visualization of the company's first-ever white-label eCommerce site—selling out within 24 hours.
- Led the digital testing strategy across all five 2021 pilot launches, creating a comprehensive innovation best practices playbook and thought-leadership GTM strategy for new products.
- Grew joint-venture partnerships and drove successful pilot launches.
Digital Media Manager | Seltzer Wine & Spirits
Anheuser-Busch
- Generated over 10% incremental revenue to portfolio sales and grew category sales by 3x in the first month by building a unique Meta eCommerce strategy.
- Achieved 7.6x higher sales YoY and over 2x ROAS for BABE Wine by pioneering a full-funnel direct-to-consumer alcohol eCommerce strategy via programmatic and social channels.
- Built, implemented, and optimized customer segmentation strategies for $20+ million in programmatic and social activations across brands.
Programmatic & Data Associate | Craft Beer Portfolio
Anheuser-Busch
- Built, implemented, and optimized paid programmatic, connected TV, online video, SEO, and SEM strategies across eight unique brands, aligning with each brand's marketing and sales objectives.
- Conceptualized proprietary influencer and creator strategy for Stella Artois influencers in three cities, which has since grown into a full in-house influencer management team.
- Developed and deployed audiences, improving digital campaign performance with tailored optimizations.
Project History
Tyson 2.0 Holy Ears | Viral Marketing Campaign
Led the campaign strategy and omnichannel execution of the Holy Ears campaign, bringing Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield together in an epic episodic series. Got nominated in The Webby Awards 2023 for video in the viral marketing category.
The first video iteration of the campaign series, "Happy Holy Days," skyrocketed the viral charts and garnered 3.8+ million views across Meta platforms, Facebook and Instagram. The entire campaign series, comprised of five episodes, achieved massive consumer reach, generating 15+ million views on Instagram alone.
Xponential Fitness | ClassPoints Loyalty Program
https://www.classpoints.com/Spearheaded the creation of the loyalty program ClassPoints for Xponential Fitness, achieving an 83% increase in lead-to-class enrollment during the initial launch.
Bud Light Super Bowl & NFT Collection Launch
Drove the campaign strategy for "Zero in the Way of Possibility" and the GTM strategy for Bud Light's first-ever NFT collection.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Economics
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Certifications
Trading Academy Certified Professional
The Trade Desk
Six Sigma Yellow Belt Certification
The Council for Six Sigma Certification
Skills
Core
Marketing Strategy, Brand Strategy, Strategic Marketing, Organic Social Media, Marketing Campaigns, Marketing, Go-to-market Strategy, Digital Marketing, Social Media Management, Brand Marketing, Paid Advertising, Social Media, Product Marketing, Digital Marketing Strategy, Lead Generation, TikTok Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Influencer Marketing, Community Management, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Experiential Marketing, Ad Campaigns, Google Ads, SEO Tools, Social Media Advertising, Marketing Budgeting, Audience Targeting, Creative Advertising
Platforms & Tools
HubSpot, Meta Platform
Business Models
B2C, B2B
Other
Growth Marketing, Digital, Paid Media, Digital Media, Strategic Planning, Advertising, Consumer Products, Loyalty Programs, Programmatic Marketing, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Data Analysis, Agency, AI Social Media Content Creation, Customer Acquisition, Product Owner, Loyalty Marketing, Business Strategy, Customer Retention, Mobile Apps, Mobile UX, Mobile UI, B2B Partnerships, Organic Content Marketing, Creative Strategy, Creative Briefs, Creative Direction, Project Planning, Project Management, Innovation, Innovation Strategy, Launch Strategy, Product Launch, Tableau, Figma, Meta Ads, Programmatic Advertising, Audience Segmentation, Data, Campaigns, Viral Marketing, Scrum, Discord Bots, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Economics, Psychology, Business Operations, Data-driven Decision-making, Six Sigma
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