Pam Erlichman is the chief marketing officer at Jebbit, a first-party data company that facilitates volunteered, declared data exchange between consumers and brands. She has more than 20 years of marketing experience, most recently serving as the VP of marketing at Oracle Data Cloud, a role she assumed following the Datalogix acquisition.
Prior to Datalogix, Erlichman worked at Digitas, leading relationships with world class brands including Delta Air Lines, AT&T, FedEx, Ahold USA, Celebrity Cruise Lines and Progressive Insurance. The mother of three children (ages 13, 11 and 3), Erlichman still finds time to mentor working new moms and other female professionals on how to advance their careers.
Erlichman also recently joined the leadership council of the AdCouncil so Jebbit can help advance causes that are important to the company's team. Most recently, Jebbit helped support the summer anti-buzzed driving campaign with Anheuser-Busch. Additionally, Elrichman is very active in her Bridgewater, Mass. community, having spearheaded a local "Put It Down" campaign against texting and driving, and she is currently working on an initiative to combat teenage vaping issues.
Enjoy a condensed version of our podcast discussion as a written Q&A below.
Where did you grow up?
Weymouth, MA. I grew up in a house from the 1800s. It was part of the underground railroad and it was legit haunted (very funny story about how we “unhaunted it”). Two different people died in that house in the late 1800s to early 1900s. About 20 years ago, my parents did the kitchen over and pulled up the original wood—we found old newspaper clippings, old straw mattress, boots, etc. and donated them to the Weymouth historical society.
How would your family members describe you as a child?
Independent. I’m the oldest of three. I had imaginary friends. I had no problems climbing up a tree and sitting there for hours :-)
What was the first career you remember wanting to pursue?
Theater. I was in the drama club in high school. We won an award (I can’t remember where or what), and I had big dreams of becoming an actress. I went to Bridgewater State College (now University, which is still hard for me to remember) as a theater major for the first year. Somewhere along the way, it struck me that this might be better as a hobby than a career. I switched to marketing because I loved the creative aspect of business.
You’ve been described as “state school scrappy.” In addition to being debt-free, what advantages did you take from attending a MA state school for college?
I sometimes regret missing out on dorm life (although I crashed at plenty of friends' dorms). I worked part-time my whole college career. I think that gave me a sense of focus and prioritization and frankly grounded me for the real world. For most of my career, I was a bit embarrassed that my degree wasn’t from some big school, but now I’m proud of my career path and think I bring the right balance of intuition and street smarts with book smarts.
We now have companies like Google and many others no longer making a degree a hiring requirement, so I think scrappy is winning out. My 13-year-old son is actually very interested in carpentry and going to a technical school for high school, which I think is amazing.
You are very committed to the practice of empathy. Why is that so important to you?
I think because I didn’t have it earlier in my career. On a DISC profile, I am a dead center, outer edge “D” which stands for dominance. I like to pretend it just stands for decisive :-) I let my need for driving results and winning overpower the need for team unity, empathy and patience. I’ve consciously worked to balance myself out, but certainly becoming a mom and trying to balance lots of competing priorities has helped me become more empathic. It’s something I continue to work on every day, and I try to pay it forward by mentoring new moms and giving advice whenever I can. Even things like breastfeeding on a plane are topics of conversation—I make sure nothing is off-limits with new moms I talk to. We all have to help each other.
Who has been your most important mentor?
I don’t feel like I can point to one person. I get my humor, sarcasm and scrappiness from my mom, which has certainly brought me perspective and coping mechanisms in my career :-) I’ve had “working mom” trailblazers, like my aunt Irene and my friend Sue, who have impacted me. I had a great mentor at Digitas, Lou Ramery, who taught me a ton about loyalty strategy and customer-centric marketing, and I had a great mentor at Datalogix, Chris Scoggins, who taught me about entrepreneurship, building teams and being scrappy.
With all my mentors, I try to take all the positive lessons in and learn from the things I don’t want to replicate. No one is perfect, but everyone does something close to perfect in my experience.
You’re very committed to improving your local community with your efforts against texting and driving, as well as new efforts to combat teenage vaping issues. Where does this desire come from?
My kids and their safety. My now-3-year-old was one month old when I was run off the road by someone in town who was texting and driving. My mama bear mode came out in full force, and instead of trying to enjoy my maternity leave (to the degree someone can actually enjoy their maternity leave), I created a GoFundMe account, raised about $2,500 and created lawn signs and bumper stickers. I got the police involved to conduct stings on weekends to pull anyone over who had a phone in hand. I love technology; I’ve built a career based on technology. But there is a time and a place, and this situation is out of control.
On the vaping front, last year, several of my son's friends were suspended for vaping, and this year, a mom friend of mine found out her son was completely addicted and had been vaping for about a year without her knowledge. Kids were selling them behind the school, after school, etc. Clearly, it’s being marketed toward kids with flavors like razzle dazzle, buttered popcorn, twin mint, strawberry banana…it’s total bullshit. I was thrilled when Charlie Baker put a ban on it until more research was done on the health concerns. Transparency in advertising is paramount. If you are a legal adult and informed of the risks of vaping and choose to do it anyway, that’s on you. But I’m not going to sit silent when flavors that clearly attract kids are being produced and children are dying from this crap.
What is the most unique challenge you face as a wife-mother-entrepreneur?
Winning the day. On any given day, I might win as one, but very rarely—in fact, it's almost impossible—do I win the day as all three.
I love the book “the one thing”—it talks a lot about the BS of work-life balance and how that really happens successfully. The reality is it’s not this perfect tight sequence of bouncing from one to the other. It’s more extreme. You might go all in on work one day and win that, but the next day might be all about family, and you have to give up some things on the work front. And my poor husband…It’s rare I win the day on the wife front ...LOL although he’s gone to see the last two Patriots Superbowls, so he isn’t doing that badly :-)
What new campaign or initiative are you most excited for heading in to 2020?
There is so much to be excited for with Jebbit. I joined because I really feel like we are wearing the “white hats” in the industry. We are doing right by consumers, and we are doing right by brands, and for that, I am really proud. I’m proud of our partnership with the Ad Council and using our platform to support some of the most important causes of our time. We’ve only scratched the surface so far with the anti-buzzed campaign. I actually have a planning meeting tomorrow with their team on other upcoming initiatives.
If I’m being more specific regarding Jebbit, I’m excited about leaning in more with DTC brands on very simple but powerful product match initiatives. We are helping deliver real ROI for clients like Pour Moi Skincare and Bliss Cosmetics. Pour Moi has an 85% purchase rate of consumer using our experience, and 65% of those are buying multiple products.—proving that a more human, consumer-friendly approach is not only the right thing to do but the profitable thing to do.
I came back to Boston from Indianapolis today after spending the last three days at the Loyalty 360 conference. I got a chance to present with our client from Karisma hotels & resorts. She won first place for her work with Jebbit, which makes me unbelievably proud of the team that we have and the mission we are on.
Fill in the blank. The future of Boston will be… leading in diversity and inclusion.
I know we most certainly still have our work cut out for us here, but when I travel the U.S., it makes me realize how much work is still left to be done and how much we can take a leadership position in that evolution.
Where is your favorite place you’ve traveled in the world?
Santorini. Simply breathtakingly gorgeous.
What would you change about the world; i.e. what problem facing the world would you most like to see solved?
God…unfortunately, there is so much to choose from. Sustainability is really important to me. I want to see more progress in packaging and reusable resources. We vacationed down to the Cape, and my husband was pulling plastic bags out of the ocean while my kids swam.
I also care deeply about our food supply, how it’s been treated, what chemicals are in it, is it safe for my kids to eat—plant, fruit and animal. There is an overall lack of trust now in what we are consuming and what illness it could cause.
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