• by Laurie Petersen , January 16, 2007

The departure of Coca-Cola's highest-profile interactive marketing executive to join a leading Web analytics marketing company should not be interpreted as anything but a personal opportunity to do something entrepreneurial, he said yesterday.

Tim Kopp, Coca-Cola's global interactive marketing vice president, joins Portland, Ore.-based WebTrends as CMO on Feb. 1. Kopp, who reported to Mary Minnick, Coca-Cola's director of brand innovation, says rumors that Minnick may be restless in her job "did not factor in at all to my decision." Speculation has grown that Minnick might seek a new position in the wake of Muhtar Kent's appointment in December as Coca-Cola president and COO.

Kopp said he took a seat on the WebTrends board of directors last summer, and his decision to leave became more focused in the past two months as he advised the company and came to know its senior management team. "I just developed a tremendous amount of respect for them and I knew I really wanted to do something more entrepreneurial," he said.

Kopp most recently appeared in a video introducing the Coke holiday YouTube promotion allowing consumers to create video cards with classic seasonal Coke brand imagery and share them with friends.

The job at WebTrends, Kopp said, exploits his background in finance, IT and marketing. Before joining Coca-Cola two years ago, Kopp spent eight years at Procter & Gamble, and most recently led interactive marketing for the global beauty-care division.

"I'm really excited about using the marketing and metrics side to bolster marketers' efforts" online, he said.