• by Nina Lentini , Staff Writer @Nina_Lentini, March 5, 2019

Lori Gatto (second from right), VP of Marketing at TomBoy X, tells the audience at this morning’s MediaPost Brand Insider Summit D2C that when she came to this smaller D2C company that sells underwear from a more established company, she wanted to build expertise in-house.

Since TomBoy X is seeing “tremendous growth,” she said, instead it is relying on agencies to help with social media and search. “Working with an agency has allowed us to scale. It brings the creative that we need on social and on the media side. 

As the brand has gotten larger, Gatto is looking to build expertise in-house. “It starts with recruiting and finding good talent. The next wave is to bring that in. On the creative side, our founders enlisted help on a project basis, to establish brand. We have hired an art director and a content manager in-house.

“We’re leading with the brand first, with an internal voice in building that across all channels. It’s the first layer of building voice in-house.” 

“We’re stable with what we’ve got on social and search but we want to scale up, and we’re getting funding to build on top of where we’re at,” Gatto said. “I am looking to bring in some technology solutions, and startegic partners. But there are time when you just may not have the resources.

“Every company is different. Breaking out of siloes is so important. We have agency partners tied in with our email CR manager, and we’re sharing results. Make sure partners are integrated and part of the planning process and overall company goals. United KPIs. They’re not just a vendor, get them in your office.”

Others on the panel were, left to right, moderator Rich Zeldes, EVP-Managing Director, Stella Rising; Jadey Chow, VP, Brand Marketing, Curology; and Jennifer Muse, Global eCommerce & CRM Manager, General Mills.