• by Sara Guaglione , June 14, 2017

Mary Gail Pezzimenti will lead Mashable’s branded content team and oversee its creative strategy, development, presentation and execution for all custom projects for advertising partners. She is the company's first head of branded content.

She joins Mashable after leading The Huffington Post’s Creative Lab, a division of AOL’s Partner Studio. She directed a team to develop content strategies for clients such as Unilever, Goldman Sachs, Ford and eBay.

Gregory Gittrich, chief content officer of Mashable, told Publishers Daily Mashable is "having significant success using data to inspire and inform our branded content and bring in new business." He adds it plans to expand its branded content team in the coming months.

He said 80% of Mashable’s advertising deals are branded content. Mashable was one of the first digital media companies to create branded content, Gittrich said, with its campaign for American Express in 2007.

Some examples of Mashable’s branded content includes an article titled “How to tackle the California Double in 12 hours,” giving a timeline of how to both surf and snowboard in a day, sponsored by Nixon and advertising its smartwatch.

Pezzimenti previously served as an executive at Condé Nast where she guided the editorial business strategies for several publications, including Lucky, GQ, Domino, Women’s Sports and Details.

She also served as Federated Media’s VP of content strategy. 

Mashable’s CRO Ed Wise left his position earlier this month. The site told the Wall Street Journal it plans to hire a new CRO.