The following is a News & Insights profile from the RV Industry Association (RVIA).
Throughout her career, Amber Holm has dedicated her marketing talents to prominent consumer brands ranging from Cheerios to Firestone. Now, she’s making her mark in the RV industry as Winnebago Industries’ first chief marketing officer.
“I’ve spent my career in brand marketing,” says Amber. “I have a passion for understanding consumers and leveraging insights to create products and services that deliver value for them. Building great consumer brands to drive business growth has been the common thread throughout my career.”
Amber began establishing her marketing skills immediately upon graduating from Yale University with her Bachelor of Arts in History. “After college I worked briefly at Medscape (now part of WebMD) developing health websites, and then I joined General Mills in brand management where I spent several years leading top consumer-packaged goods brands like Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Pillsbury Dough — iconic brands with which people have strong emotional connections. At General Mills, I developed marketing and general management skills, as well as people skills leading cross-functional teams.” Amber also earned her master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School during this time.
Eventually, Amber became vice president of brand marketing at Bridgestone Americas, one of the world’s largest tire and rubber companies. “At Bridgestone, we had a strong focus on digital marketing across the Bridgestone and Firestone tire brands, so it was a good opportunity to further enhance my digital marketing skills, including driving engagement, lead generation and conversion.” Bridgestone also introduced her to working with a network of dealers and retailers, a skill she now uses frequently in her role at Winnebago Industries. After gaining further brand management experience as Newell Brands’ vice president of brands, Amber ventured into the RV world.
“When the opportunity came to join Winnebago Industries as Chief Marketing Officer, I jumped at the chance!” she says. “We have iconic brands with decades of rich history, like Winnebago and Newmar, as well as newer, trailblazing brands like Grand Design. I was excited for the opportunity to work with teams of passionate people across our business units to accelerate marketing and to build the Winnebago Industries’ corporate brand.”
Her role includes leading enterprise marketing and communications and collaborating with Winnebago Industries’ five premium outdoor brands (Winnebago, Grand Design, Newmar, Chris-Craft and Barletta) as well as its new technology brand, Lithionics, a lithium-ion battery manufacturer acquired earlier this year. “My team is fortunate to work with the great marketers embedded in each of our businesses. We partner to drive scale and best practices with the ultimate goal to grow our brands and consumer engagement to drive sales and market share.”
Amber, who started her new position a year and a half ago, reflects that this is an “exciting time” to be in the RV space. “While the category has faced some challenges in recent months, we know there is an evergreen, enduring interest in the outdoors. We saw younger consumers enter RVing during the pandemic, and they are now enjoying the lifestyle, using their RVs and thinking about their next purchases.”
Read the full profile on Holm here.