Guest · Customer experience and personalisation
Greg Licciardi
VP Sponsorships and Partner Programs, ANA
Greg P. Licciardi is VP of Sponsorships and Partner Programs at the ANA, the world’s largest marketing association. A marketing strategist, educator, and author, he spent decades at the Weather Company, IBM, and across media and technology brands before dedicating his work to defining what modern marketing excellence actually looks like.
About
Greg P. Licciardi is a marketing strategist, educator, and author whose career has spanned television, print, digital, and technology platforms across some of the world’s most recognised brands. As VP of Sponsorships and Partner Programs at the ANA, he works with marketers and brands at the intersection of innovation, sponsorship strategy, and the future of consumer connection.
Licciardi spent years at the Weather Company, where he helped CMOs and marketers understand how contextual relevance and real-time data could transform advertising effectiveness. He worked closely with brand leaders including Microsoft, IBM, and major consumer brands, helping them move from interruption-based advertising towards experience-based connection.
His book is a celebration of marketing innovation, drawing on case studies from challenger brands and platform disruptors. He uses the Harry’s versus Gillette story and the e.l.f. beauty growth story as core examples of how brands with constrained budgets can out-manoeuvre incumbents by focusing on the right audience, the right message, and the right moment.
Career31 years
- 2025 to now ANA VP, Sponsorships & Partner Programs
- 2015 to now Fordham Gabelli School / Seton Hall Adjunct Professor
- 2020 to 2025 Worth Media Group VP of Partnerships, Director of Leading Advisors
- 2013 to 2019 Elite Traveler Media Group Chief Revenue Officer
Show earlier roles: Univision Communications, Audubon Magazine / National Audubon Society, Travel + Leisure, SPIN, The Industry Standard
- 2011 to 2013 Univision Communications VP Client Development
- 2006 to 2011 Audubon Magazine / National Audubon Society Publisher and Head of Sales & Marketing
- 1995 to 2006 Travel + Leisure, SPIN, The Industry Standard Progressive senior sales and publishing roles
How Greg thinks3 convictions
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Contextual relevance is the Holy Grail most brands are still missing
Licciardi’s Wendy’s moment came when a Friday lunch-hour ad landed in his social feed at exactly the moment he was deciding where to eat. That was not an accident. It was a signal that contextual relevance, not just demographic targeting, is the standard brands should be held to.
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Challenger brands innovate better because they have no choice
Going up against Gillette with 67% market share forced Harry’s to be relentlessly clear about its proposition. A stylish, affordable razor delivered to a young man’s home. No store. No complexity. The constraint of being the challenger produced the clarity the incumbent could never achieve from a position of comfort.
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AI is eroding the emotional connection that makes brand storytelling work
AI can optimise headlines, automate personalisation, and generate content at scale. What it cannot replace is the genuine human insight that makes a consumer feel understood rather than targeted. The brands most at risk are those treating AI as a creative solution rather than a productivity tool.
