GSTV Taps Starcom and iHeartMedia Vet Kristina Lutz as its New EVP, Marketing
Jennifer Cesa and Geoff Maresca Join to Accelerate Regional Growth and Holding Company Relationships
DETROIT, MI – March 1, 2023 – GSTV, the national video network engaging and entertaining targeted audiences at scale across tens of thousands of fuel retailers, announces today the appointment of Kristina Lutz as Executive Vice President , Marketing. In her new role, she will lead integrated marketing, ad sales solutions, public relations, and brand activations, among other areas. Based in Chicago, Lutz will report to GSTV President and CEO Sean McCaffrey.
Lutz has over two decades of marketing experience, joining GSTV from CarSaver where she was VP, Strategic Partnership Marketing. While with the auto ecommerce platform, she helped develop and execute strategic partnerships to expand offerings, build brand awareness, and drive sales as a key member of the leadership team. Previously, Lutz held various leadership roles at Starcom and iHeartMedia.
“When searching for our next marketing head, we wanted to find someone with deep, diverse knowledge who could help us continue sharing what GSTV’s video platform offers advertisers and consumers. With her varied experience across agency, brand, and publisher perspectives, Kristina emerged as the perfect candidate,” said McCaffrey. “As we head into another NewFronts season, I’m excited to partner with her to continue spreading awareness of GSTV’s full offering, especially knowing her track record when it comes to brand building and client solutions.”
Prior to the brand side, Kristina served as President for Starcom USA, with a staff of 600+ across Chicago, New York, Detroit and Los Angeles. She led the agency’s investment, content, and multi-cultural practices, focusing on innovative, client-specific activation across all channels and all clients. She was a key member of the Publicis Media Exchange (PMX), the largest U.S. media buying entity, fueling cross-channel marketplace innovation and transformation. She had rejoined Starcom USA from iHeartMedia, where as EVP she led business development and client partnerships through creative media and product solutions across Fortune 100 partners and agency holding companies. She pioneered the company’s vertical strategy, focused on auto, and built the central region team from zero to 100+ clients.
“I’m thrilled to join GSTV, especially at this particular moment in time,” said Lutz. “As the company continues to cement itself as a major video player, I will partner with Sean and the team to develop a communications and marketing strategy that clarifies our offering, breaking through to new audiences by emphasizing results.”
This announcement comes in tandem with two other key new hires at GSTV. Jennifer Cesa, joins as Regional Vice President, Client Partnerships. Cesa joins GSTV from Shutterstock, and prior to that had sales leadership positions at Tastemade and across the Scripps/Discovery lifestyle portfolio of networks. Geoff Maresca steps into the position of Vice President, Agency Development, after holding sales leadership roles at leading media and martech companies including Ryff, Amobee, FreeWheel, Quantcast, AOL and Microsoft. Cesa will oversee GSTV’s client partnerships on the East Coast, while Maresca focuses on further honing agency holding company relationships. Both hires are key elements of GSTV’s continued focus on best-in-class national advertising solutions for agency and brand partners. Based in New York, both will report to Chief Revenue Officer, Scott Pawloski.
Search for Abducted Atlanta Baby Goes Nationwide
Alexandria, Virginia, Feb. 22, 2023 – Today, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is going nationwide to help solve a decades-old infant abduction mystery out
of Atlanta. To generate fresh leads in the missing case of Raymond Green, NCMEC is partnering with national digital video network GSTV to spotlight Raymond’s case on screens across the country.
In a first-of-its-kind effort, all GSTV screens will highlight just one case nationwide. GSTV has more than 28,000 fuel retailers in 48 states.* This is an unprecedented effort to reach people who may have never heard of Raymond’s story but might be the key to bringing him home. At a press conference today, Atlanta Police Department and NCMEC released a new image, which shows what Raymond might look like today at age 44. This new image was created by a forensic artist at NCMEC.
“We believe that Raymond could be out there and may not know his real identity,” said Angeline Hartmann, Director of Communications at NCMEC. “We’ve worked with families in similar situations where their babies were kidnapped and then found alive as adults. Today,
Raymond could be anywhere and GSTV has given us this invaluable opportunity to reach the entire country. We’re asking everyone to take a moment and really look at both Raymond's image and the image of his abductor. You never know if you’ll be that one person who can make a difference.”
Raymond Green was just five days old when he was abducted from his home in Atlanta, Georgia on Nov. 6, 1978. After giving birth at Grady Memorial Hospital, Raymond’s mother, Donna, was befriended by a woman who called herself “Lisa.” That woman later showed up at Donna’s home and abducted baby Raymond. There is no photograph of Raymond, only a sketch from Donna’s memory. NCMEC forensic artists used photos of Raymond’s siblings and other family to estimate what he might look like today.
NCMEC and GSTV have partnered together for the last several years, getting critical cases of missing children on gas station screens in key locations. Since the start of the partnership, GSTV has shared more than 460 missing children’s posters.
“Our partnership with NCMEC has helped reunite missing children with their parents since 2019. Normally, we activate in any given 25 states at one time, so this effort marks a major step up in terms of scale,” said Violeta Ivezaj, SVP, Business Operations, GSTV. “By turning our screens to a single case for the first time, we hope to leverage the attention we have with our viewers and garner the visibility Raymond’s family needs to bring him home.”
The campaign on GSTV’s screens will run for two weeks. If you have any information about Raymond Green, please call Crimestoppers Atlanta 404-577-TIPS (8477) or NCMEC at 1-800-843- 5678.
To find a participating gas station in your area, visit gstv.com/missingkids.
View Raymond’s missing poster here:
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/1079986/1/screen
*GSTV does not operate in New Jersey and Oregon.