Aaron Amerling · San Diego

I find the shift before it's obvious, then build for it.

Chief Marketing Officer, product leader and co-inventor on five U.S. patents. I have built 60-person marketing organizations, managed £40M budgets, and had answer engine optimization running as a live growth channel before the category had a name.

Aaron Amerling

I've yet to find an industry or a challenge he hasn't dealt with.

Trevor Dudeck · CEO, The Lemonade Agency

01 · Growth

Numbers, with the work behind them attached.

Paid, owned, earned and product marketing across consumer, health, fintech, telecom and gaming.

£40M+

annual paid media budget managed (roughly $50M)

GAIN Credit, 2016 to 2017. Sr. Manager, Digital Product and Marketing.

400%

sales increase, CPA cut by roughly two thirds in one year

GreatCall (now Best Buy Health), 2013 to 2014.

25,000 to 1.5M

mobile users, two #1 Medical-category apps

GreatCall, 2012 to 2016. App Store and Google Play.

~10/yr to 100s/mo

inbound MQLs, outranking Nielsen

TrendSource, strategic marketing advisor.

Transformed our SEO visibility, grew digital marketing revenue while cutting inefficiency.

Richie Hannah · Sr. Director of Digital Marketing, GreatCall

now: Founder and CEO, Yellow Cap Media

My go-to innovator of marketing strategy.

Sarah Rowlett · Senior Account Director, TrendSource

now: Account Director (ex-Google)

02 · Applied AI

AEO and GEO as live channels, not a slide in a deck.

I stood up answer engine optimization as a growth channel before most agencies had a name for it, rolled generative AI across a marketing organization of sixty people, and launched AI consumer-facing products. I design, prototype and ship with the tooling myself.

AEO / GEO

stood up as a live growth channel before most agencies had a name for it

Etna Interactive, 2024 to 2026. Chief Marketing Officer.

Techstars

mentor to early-stage AI founders

Techstars network, ongoing.

Tony Robbins

landed as flagship customer for an AI digital twin venture

Steno.ai, strategic advisor.

03 · People and organizations

I build marketing organizations, not just campaigns.

A department is a strategy document. Where paid sits determines what gets optimized, and how specialists are promoted determines who is still there in two years.

60 people

across paid, owned, earned, strategy and client services

Etna Interactive, 2024 to 2026. Chief Marketing Officer.

3 continents

top-performing sales channel within six months

GAIN Credit. San Diego, London, Chennai.

14 agencies

and vendors managed simultaneously

GreatCall, 2012 to 2016.

So far he's been the best manager I've ever had.

Kristina Simmons · Direct report at GreatCall

now: Sr. Marketing Manager, Quiksilver

04 · Technology and early calls

Five patents, and a habit of reading the curve early.

Co-inventor on five U.S. patents for a trust-network architecture, built originally for emergency response call centers and written broadly enough to cover authentication, identity verification and influence targeting. I called crowdfunding, mobile health, and AEO before each had a category name.

5

U.S. patents, co-inventor

Filed 2016 to 2017. Assigned to GreatCall / Best Buy Health.

GoFundMe

started advising when it was just the two founders and still called Create-A-Fund

Early marketing advisor.

GreatCall Labs

founded, produced patents and flagship product lines

GreatCall, internal innovation unit.

Helping us define niches, start our first paid advertising campaigns.

Andy Ballester · Co-founder, GoFundMe

now: Co-founder and CPO, EyePop.ai

Build and present clear strategies to leaders that help ensure a brand remains relevant.

Ed Mallory · CEO, Voxox / Telcentris era

now: CEO, Ring4.com

Selected clients and collaborators

In house
Etna Interactive

Etna Interactive · Chief Marketing Officer

The Lemonade Agency

The Lemonade Agency · VP of Strategy

Team Lewis

Team Lewis · Managing Director, Digital USA

Voxox / Telcentris

Voxox / Telcentris · Director of Marketing and Product Innovation

GAIN Credit

GAIN Credit · Sr. Manager, Digital Product and Marketing

Best Buy Health (GreatCall)

Best Buy Health (GreatCall) · Sr. Manager, Digital and Mobile Product and Marketing

Robbins Research International (Tony Robbins)

Robbins Research International (Tony Robbins) · Writer and Marketing Communications Lead

Ziff Davis

Ziff Davis · Marketing Communications Lead

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon)

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon) · TV Writer, Nickelodeon Fellowship

Agency and strategy
Disney Games

Disney Games · Campaign strategy, via The Lemonade Agency

Meta

Meta · Marketing strategy, via The Lemonade Agency

Ubisoft

Ubisoft · Launch go-to-market, via The Lemonade Agency

Square Enix

Square Enix · Marketing strategy, via The Lemonade Agency

Dior

Dior · NFT and crypto brand strategy, via The Lemonade Agency

DirecTV

DirecTV · Marketing strategy, via The Lemonade Agency

The San Francisco Marathon

The San Francisco Marathon · Brand turnaround strategy, via The Lemonade Agency

VMware

VMware · Agency team lead, via Team Lewis

Ripple Labs

Ripple Labs · Agency team lead, via Team Lewis

Yahoo

Yahoo · Branding for Yahoo Current TV, via Scenefour

Colgate

Colgate · Paid social for a D2C oral care brand, via Amasa Agency

Pardee Homes

Pardee Homes · Print and digital advertising, via Zukor Design

Advisory
GoFundMe

GoFundMe · Early marketing advisor

Steno.ai

Steno.ai · Strategic advisor, Techstars mentor

TrendSource

TrendSource · Strategic marketing advisor

American Medical Response (AMR)

American Medical Response (AMR) · Crisis and search strategy advisor

Cloudhands (cloudhands.ai)

Cloudhands (cloudhands.ai) · Product & AI Consultant

How to work with me

Brand, go-to-market and applied AI for founders and growth-stage teams. Currently taking a small number of engagements.

How I work →

What people say

Recommendations

Aaron is the strategist you want to have in the room. Over the years we've worked together on campaigns for clients from indie game devs to Fortune 100 companies to provide high impact growth strategies that are custom fit for each business challenge. Aaron strikes the right balance between proven methodologies and disruptive tactics that leverage current trends and emerging technologies. Aaron brings blue flame thinking and passion to every project.

Rowan Brooks · Chief Creative Officer, The Lemonade Agency

Aaron has a well-honed set of skills across both product and marketing that are invaluable to any organization. His breadth of experience across the complete product lifecycle, from research and ideation to strategic planning and execution, is unmatched. Through his ability to make connections with prospects and customers and then learn an industry inside and out, he is able to build and present clear strategies to leaders that help ensure a brand, its products and the company as a whole remain relevant well into the future. It was a pleasure to work side by side with Aaron for years, and I am truly better for it.

Ed Mallory · CEO, Voxox / Telcentris eranow: CEO, Ring4.com

What always stood out to me about Aaron was his ability to see the bigger picture. He is a creative, strategic thinker who could step back from the immediate challenge, identify the larger opportunity, and push our thinking in new directions. As my supervisor at Etna, Aaron regularly asked for my perspective on complex client, product, and organizational questions. He trusted my expertise, challenged my thinking in productive ways, and gave me room to take ownership. I especially appreciated that he treated me as a thought partner rather than simply someone responsible for carrying out a directive.

Jessica White · Director of Marketing Strategy, Etna Interactive (reported to Aaron)

Aaron was involved with helping GoFundMe with innovative marketing strategy, including helping us define niches, start our first paid advertising campaigns, working with our advertising agency, and training our first in-house marketing team.

Andrew Ballester · Co-Founder, GoFundMenow: Co-founder and CPO, EyePop.ai

Aaron is one of the most dedicated and focused digital marketing directors I have had the pleasure of working with over the past 10 years. He is an excellent communicator and an incredibly strategic thinker when it comes to delivering a true multi-channel digital marketing strategy. He also has an uncanny ability to execute and deliver at all levels. I learned a great deal from Aaron and hope to have the opportunity to work with him again in the future.

Jeffrey Tompkins · Director of Operations, Jacob Tyler Brand + Digital Agency

It was my pleasure to work closely with Aaron for over two years at GreatCall. He impressed me immediately with his drive, passion, speed and intelligence, and quickly built strong relationships as he worked across internal teams and external agencies. In his digital marketing role, Aaron transformed our SEO visibility, grew digital marketing revenue while cutting inefficiency, and spearheaded many ideas and projects that quickly grew GreatCall's digital capabilities. Then, with focus on our mobile apps, he managed the teams that brought strategically-important apps to market, gaining us #1 positions in the iTunes and Google Play apps store medical category for not just one, but two of our apps. Aaron is fun to work with, and delivers concrete results. I'd happily recommend him to any company that needs best-in-class digital marketing and app management.

Richie Hannah · Sr. Director of Digital Marketing, GreatCallnow: Founder and CEO, Yellow Cap Media

Read more recommendations →

Let's build the next number together.

If you need advisory or fractional support around brand, go-to-market or applied AI, reach out.