Auction.com names John Ken senior vice president of marketing

Auction.com Names John Ken as Marketing Chief

Auction.com has named John Ken as its new senior vice president of marketing, tasking him with growing the online platform's buyer base and digital marketing technology.

He will focus on bringing more qualified buyers to properties that the marketplace sells, while expanding its marketing technology stack. Distressed property investors make up the core of that base, and Ken plans to widen it with education paths for newcomers.

Ken comes to Auction.com from Experian, where he was head of customer lifecycle and marketing technology for a base of more than 80 million U.S. consumers.

He also previously worked in global e-commerce, publishing, and enterprise technology, including a stint at IBM, bringing his extensive diverse marketing experience to the new position.

Mike Kilander, the current chief operating officer at Auction.com, said Ken's experience matches what its marketplace needs to rapidly grow. He added that Ken brings the performance marketing and data discipline that the company's marketplace growth strategy needs right now.

Ken to Expand Buyer Base and Marketing Tech

Distressed property investors currently make up the core of Auction.com's buyer base, but Ken plans to significantly expand that group. He intends to widen it with education paths for buyers new to the process and channels like SMS and mobile app.

Other key priorities for Ken also include building digital marketing capability and improving how the company applies its various data models across all core buyer touchpoints.

He will implement a "next best action" model to help prepare new first-time and early-tenure buyers for their successful participation. The key role also covers various digital marketing across paid media channels, search, lifecycle, product marketing, and extensive data science.

Ken will also closely collaborate with various product, key data, and critical sales teams to execute the company's overall marketplace growth strategy and improve buyer engagement.

Ken said the company has a huge opportunity to drive education and assist individuals to become successful buyers and sellers. He added that this is part of the company's responsibility to set people up for success in the real estate market.

Executive Emphasizes Education and Responsibility

Kilander added that Ken's experience building education and lifecycle programs at scale will help the company effectively reach more buyers and prepare them to participate with confidence.

Ken said credit is an incredibly complex topic that carries a high responsibility to support consumers at key financial moments. He directly compared it to distressed real estate, saying the marketing skills he built in that world are highly portable.

The new appointment comes as Auction.com seeks to increasingly leverage advanced data and modern technology to effectively serve its core distressed property and growing investor base.

Ken's background at Experian and IBM provides him with extensive experience in deep marketing technology, data, and customer lifecycle management. He said the skills and marketing experience he built in that world are very directly portable to distressed real estate.

Ken's new appointment reflects Auction.com's overall strategy to grow its core buyer base through education, digital technology, and new data as the online marketplace constantly evolves.