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We combine the brains of a management consulting firm with the executional experience of an agency to build actionable marketing strategies and in-house capabilities.
We help businesses find and own a point of differentiation in crowded markets.
We build communications plans, distribution strategies, and intelligence systems to drive growth.
We design and develop best-in-class marketing teams through training and partner selection.
Specialised - We are marketing experts, not generalist consultants
Direct - We say and do what we think is right
Premium - We are an experienced, senior team
Selective - We put culture fit first with our people and our clients
Eric Fulwiler is an entrepreneur who builds businesses through modern marketing, management, and innovation practices. Over the last 15 years he’s been lucky enough to help build some of the biggest brands in the world, from billion-dollar start-ups to Fortune 50 enterprises, and learn from some amazing people along the way. He spent 10 years in the agency world and was a first-15 employee and MD of EMEA for VaynerMedia, founded by Gary Vaynerchuck. He was the Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer for 11:FS, a global fintech consultancy that builds digital banking and insurance propositions from scratch. As co-founder and CEO of Rival, his main job is to hire the smartest people in the industry and get out of their way!
DuBose Cole is a strategist with over 15 years experience working in strategy across consulting, media & creative agencies, such as VaynerMedia, JWT & Mindshare. With experience that spans marketing strategy, brand planning, communications & creative planning and consumer insight, DuBose’s focus has been on helping brands to grow by being more valuable and relevant to the consumers they speak to. His clients have spanned sectors from FMCG to Finance, including Volvo, LG, Samsung, Shell, American Express, Pepsi, UNICEF, NatWest, WeWork and TikTok.
Jenna Cummings is a global leader in media and marketing with over ten years’ experience agency side, working in London, Singapore and New York on some of the largest and most innovative brands in the world. She met her cofounders as the VP, Media for EMEA and was one of the first ten employees on the paid media team at VaynerMedia. Prior to joining Rival, she was the global capability lead and VP for Media Strategy & Planning at Jellyfish, a marketing performance company operating in 20+ markets.
Paul Ross works with ambitious leaders who aspire for their brand to achieve purpose-driven growth. Over a career that has crossed three continents, Paul has over two decades of experience across multiple sectors on strategy, digital and transformation.
Prior to We Are Rival, Paul was Chief Marketing Officer at MindBerry, a rapidly growing health tech scaleup (UK’s Most Innovative Personal and Professional Development Platform 2022), where he drove MindBerry’s vision, strategies and brand forward to achieve its powerful purpose of enabling potential by engaging minds.
Jenna Pelkey is a Principal Consultant at Rival. She brings over 15 years experience working in agency, platform and in-house roles leading brand marketing work and building capabilities for some of the largest global brands including GE, the Olympics, HBO, Netflix and Amex. Her expertise is rooted in experiential marketing with proven capabilities in data and analytics, strategy, brand design and development, and digital spaces. After nearly a decade in New York City, Jenna hopped the pond to sharpen her global experience leading teams and work in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Today she joins Rival from Barcelona.
Catherine Wong is a Senior Consultant in performance marketing at Rival. Her background is in media buying and strategy, with experience planning and running campaigns across FMCG, telecommunications, real estate, and finance verticals for SMB and enterprise clients globally. She spent 5 years at VaynerMedia splitting her time between London and Singapore, where she was the first employee of VaynerMedia APAC. She has extensive experience delivering paid media training for marketing teams and was invited by Campaign Asia to contribute to their Crash Course learning series.
Jess Martin has built her career empowering industry leaders and their teams to succeed in fast-scaling Marketing and Tech environments. Previously, she was Operations/Business Manager during key growth periods at VaynerMedia, founded by Gary Vaynerchuck and then at 11:FS, a global fintech consultancy that builds digital banking and insurance propositions from scratch. Most recently, she supported the Co-Founders of Permutive, as they secured Series C funding to be the privacy-first infrastructure for programmatic advertising. As Operations Director at Rival, she is passionate about building our tools, processes and thriving culture – anything that will help drive success for the team and the business!
Michel Dallemagne has nearly 40 years experience building and growing some of the biggest brands in the world as the EVP for Global Beauty & Hair Care at Unilever and at Ceo of Lumene, a fresh and unique Nordic beauty business. He has learned the job in the EU, US and Asia across both small and large operating companies and across the Unilever beauty/health division at the London HQ. He has a particular affinity and flair to help craft intellectually convincing and emotionally appealing great brand stories, the kind that grows business double-digit. His strongest belief when it comes to brands: Brands are like human beings, complex personalities with each having a different story. The greater the story, the greater than human and vice versa! He has worked with and trained many big names, most now steering FTSE/Nasdaq top companies.
Besides Rival, Michel currently provides strategic coaching and marketing support to a selection of hot fast-growing startups and beauty businesses, bringing fresh insights and helping to stimulate and unlock amazing new brand growth possibilities. Don’t let the corporate resume fool you…Michel is a maverick and entrepreneur at heart, and he brings a wealth of challenger thinking and ideas to the table with him.
Aurora Marino is an undergraduate business student currently working at rival as an internal. She is enjoying learning how the business sector is dealing with the challenging prospect of technologies and customers’ demands. She intends to graduate in 2024 and she would love to keep progressing in her business career.
In a career that has spanned 33 years, Dean Aragón has worked on developing, activating and commercialising market-leading, global brands. Dean is the CEO & Vice-Chairman of Shell Brands International AG – a Shell subsidiary that develops and protects the Shell trademark, for licencing to Shell companies and third parties. He is also Global Vice-President – Brand, for the entire Shell group, leading the development of overall brand strategy, brand policies and brand standards. This includes thought-leadership incorporating brand advertising, digital-social media and creative solutions. As a marketer, Dean focuses on leveraging the power and potency of a brand by harnessing its ‘humanity’. It ensures customers or stakeholders buy into a brand’s ethos and buy its value propositions. This comes from a belief that whether it’s B2B or B2C or B2B2C, it’s really all B2Humans. Prior to Shell, Dean spent 15 years in senior Brand Development roles at Unilever, across a range of categories and markets: Regional Category VP – Deodorants Asia & Africa [Manila]; Regional Brand VP NEAsia & Greater China – Dove Skincare [Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai]; Global Brand VP – Sunsilk [London]; Sr. Global Vice President – Salon Haircare Category [London]. Dean is involved in various industry forums: Board of Directors – ANA (Association of National Advertisers), Adweek Sustainability Council, Facebook Client Council EMEA, Steering Group for BRIM (Black Representation In Marketing).”
Viktoria Degtar is the Global Chief Revenue Officer of TIME. Viktoria is an advertising and media veteran. In her current role she oversees TIME’s partnerships across all TIME platforms. Prior to joining TIME, she was the Head of Sales and Marketing at Bloomberg Media, where she oversaw the success and consistent growth of its business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before that, Viktoria was the VP of Sales at HuffPo in the US and also held roles at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Financial Times and Ziff Davis.
Dr. Rajesh Bhargave serves as an Advisor to Rival and contributes to Rival’s research series (Spark). Rajesh is Associate Professor of Marketing at Imperial College Business School. He is a thought leader in consumer psychology. Rajesh has leading publications in marketing, organisational behaviour, and psychology. His work has examined how consumers’ evaluations and decisions are influenced by their social context, both online and offline. He has studied how people use digital tools and technology to evaluate options and ultimately to “pull the trigger” to make decisions.
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Fast, actionable tips on challenger marketing straight to your inbox every Monday