Growth & Marketing Advisory for Consumer Subscription and DTC Businesses

Profitable growth & marketing leadership

Your Dedicated Growth Partner

An Introduction

As a senior marketing leader and consultant based in the UK, I bring 20+ years of global experience scaling consumer subscription, marketplace, health tech, e-commerce and FMCG businesses. I’ve worked with and advised brands including BetterHelp, eHarmony, JustGiving, Skype, PhotoBox and L’Oréal. I combine strategic leadership with analytical and financial rigour to drive sustainable, measurable growth—building high-performing teams and aligning brand, acquisition, product and lifecycle work around clear commercial outcomes. Most recently, I oversaw marketing and full P&L responsibility across the UK, Australia and Canada for eHarmony and BetterHelp.

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Services

Growth & Marketing Strategy (C-level advisory)

Define clear growth and marketing priorities aligned to commercial objectives. I work with leadership teams to align brand, media/acquisition, product, lifecycle and pricing around unit economics, EBITDA and measurable outcomes—turning strategy into a clear, executable operating plan.

Marketing Performance & Unit Economics

Improve marketing effectiveness and unit economics across the funnel, with a focus on CAC/LTV, contribution margin and ROI by channel. This includes acquisition, CRO, lifecycle, retention, monetisation, experimentation and measurement frameworks that support sustainable, profitable growth.

Brand, Positioning & Marketing Activation

Clarify positioning and value proposition, then translate it into marketing strategies and campaigns that support both demand generation and performance. This covers brand strategy, messaging, creative direction and marketing activation across digital and offline channels.

International Growth & Marketing Scaling

Support international expansion and multi-market scaling across growth and marketing. From go-to-market strategy and local execution to measurement, governance and stakeholder alignment—drawing on experience leading marketing and P&L across multiple regions.

Selected brands I’ve worked with across subscription, marketplace and consumer businesses

Experience

Growth & Marketing Consultant

@ Freelance & Advisory

2024 - Present

Worked with select subscription businesses/agencies and their leadership teams to help them scale and optimise their growth and marketing capabilities . Examples include: • BETTERHELP • CHERRYPICK Advised founder/CEO Tom Foster-Carter (former COO Monzo, co -founder Curve) • TEGUS / GLG / GUIDEPOINT Regular advisor to range of B2C clients • THE SPECIALIST WORKS (Media & Performance agency) Growth & Marketing Consultant to Healthtech client

Growth Consultant UK/AU/CA/IE

@ BETTERHELP

2024 - 2025

• Managed a multi -country, 9 -figure P&L and large 8 -figure marketing budget across paid social, search, tv/video, podcast/audio, influencers and affiliate/partnership channels • Led experiments pipeline across media mix diversification ( ATL , paid social, DM), creative velocity & optimization, pricing, CRO, and customer lifecycle —driving continuous performance improvement • Co -led first international celebrity partnership (Lewis Capaldi) and PR launch • Stepped in to lead offline channels and media buying agency for BH International, strengthening cross -market execution • Turned UK revenue from flat to +20% growth between Q1 and Q3 2025 by prioritizing demand generation, refining incrementality measurement & attribution framework and unlocking new growth levers

VP International Marketing (2017-23)

@ EHARMONY (sold to PMG)

2013 - 2023

• Promoted to head -up and restructure Australian business (in addition to heading -up UK), following my success with UK market . Full P&L and market growth responsibility for both countries . Led marketing strategy and delivery for all paid/owned/earned channels, with 8 -figure marketing budget • In <4 years (2019 -23), doubled UK/AU revenue (from $20m to $40m, CAGR +22%) and quadrupled EBITDA, delivering and/or exceeding quarterly revenue and EBITDA targets • Added approx. 1m users in just 1 year (YOY 22/23) , with key focus on marketing effectiveness and both performance (ROI/LTV/CM) and brand/audience metrics . Successfully tested, optimised, and scaled multiple new brand performance channels, including BVOD, online video and radio (in addition to broader media mix listed below) • Grew EBITDA margins from 10% to 20% by spearheading innovative growth and retention initiatives with multi ple global stakeholders (CPO, CFO, COO, Global BI/Analytics) across monetisation/pricing, CRM, product launches, customer advocacy, and reputation management • Member of Executive Team leading sale of eharmony to P arship in 2018 . Post acquisition led integrat ion of all aspects of UK & A U business into the global Parship brand portfolio (3.5 x size of eharmony in 202 3). Reported to Group Head of International with commercial bi -monthly accountability to Group C-Suite . Direct ed team of 15 + 6 agencies

Head of Marketing

@ JUSTGIVING

2011 - 2013

• Hired by the world ’s leading online fundraising platform to develop and bring to market new Direct Giving proposition (B2C) , and scale revenue from core online charity fundraising business (B2B2C) . Grew revenue by 16% and traffic by 30% YoY ( in a declining market) • Devised end to end B2C GTM plan. Built marketing strategy to reposition the brand , including creation & launch of new brand identity . Hired multichannel marketing team (15) and agencies to lead new customer acquisition programme via SEA /SEO , Product Marketing, PR /Social Media, CRM, Partnerships • Led B2B2C Vodafone partnership strategy , securing multimillion -pound investment in advertising • Part of the Senior Leadership Team reporting into the CEO

Head of Customer Acquisition and Partnerships

@ PHOTOBOX

2008 - 2011

• Brought in by Commercial Director to accelerate growth of the business and develop new customer growth strategy , expand ing portfolio of customer acquisition channels beyond Search • Doubled new customer volumes and delivered 40% of the business growth from £15m to £30m in just 2.5 years • Recruited and led team (5) of marketing growth experts across Affiliat es & Partnerships, Direct Marketing , Retargeting, Product Marketing • Developed multimillion and multichannel partnership with Boots across online/stores and managed key co-brand partners incl. Orange and Telegraph

Head of Product Marketing

@ SKYPE

2005 - 2008

• Led all GTM plans initially as an “ingredient brand”, for global partnerships within Hardware (Sony, Logitech, Panasonic, Philips, Nokia, etc), Retail, Software, Internet and Telco, and latterly, launching all Skype ‘own brand’ new products and services to drive user and revenue growth in the emerging VOIP category

Client Testimonials

Here’s what senior leaders and organisations have to say about working with me

Former CEO - eHarmony

P&L Ownership & International Expansion

"I want to share some of my thoughts about one of my most effective colleagues, Romain Bertrand. Romain began as a Marketing Director in eharmony's UK office. The churn of online dating is structural, and this puts enormous pressure on marketing to continually grow visitors, regs, and subscribers. Romain was immediately an effective actor with a focus on PPC and organic growth. He showed tremendous range, spotting weaknesses in our mid-funnel tactics as well as brand friction between the Los Angeles home office and the UK market. As he moved up the organization and became the UK Country Manager and VP, Marketing International (running the UK and Australia), Romain proved his skills as a manager—advocating for his team within the org while holding them accountable and bulldozing their obstacles. He also managed an array of vendors and support staff while producing significant gains in rev and EBITDA. Of course, he took on P&L responsibilities and worked to evolve the brand, all while under significant turnaround pressure. With Romain's deep international experience, he has become an expert at creating effective brand positioning across cultures. He has run, literally, every kind of marketing channel and campaign. His time managing our P&L puts him in a position to understand how to make the leap from growth to profitable growth, a vital skill in today's environment. He was also integral to our sale process to Parship and the integration with new owners. I hold his skills in high esteem and believe he is one of the most experienced marketplace/subscription model executives working today." - Grant Langston.

Former MD PhotoBox & CEO VavaCars

Elite Acquisition & ROI Leadership

"Romain is an elite Acquisition Director who transformed how we approached customer growth at PhotoBox. He combines a data-driven mindset with a talent for strategic negotiation, evidenced by his success in managing our performance channels and key partnerships like Boots. He is fiercely ROI-focused, a dedicated team leader, and consistently delivered customers with high lifetime value. He would be an asset to any organisation looking for sophisticated, scalable growth." - Lawrence Merritt.

Co-founder - Cherrypick & Curve

Growth advisor & coach to a serial founder

"Romain was my growth advisor / coach for over 12 months at a critical time in our company's trajectory and he was quite simply awesome. He helped me hammer out a new growth strategy when our old one was stuttering thanks to his amazing experience from the bunch of huge consumer brands he helped build. Plus his energy and enthusiasm helped reinvigorate me during the toughest moments of the journey. I couldn't recommend him more strongly to other Founders / growth folks who need guidance in an increasingly competitive and rapidly shifting consumer environment" - Tom Foster-Carter.

Former CEO - ParshipMeet Group

P&L-Driven Growth & Media Strategy

"Romain brings strong capabilities to own a P&L, introducing contribution margin improvements and ROI frameworks (including profit-based ROI), as well as knowledge in various media and performance channels, and holistic optimisation initiatives." - Marc Schachtel.

Founder - Zooka

Digital Experience

"Romain knows the internet like the back of his hand and always keeps up with the latest developments in his field. He couples an excellent online business acumen with an acute awareness and understanding of IT and technological constraints : a rare mix of skills in this day and age. Romain would be a TOP GUN in any Internet Marketing-orientated role and I have no hesitation in recommending him." - Paul Evans.

CEO - Dhygietal

Growth Partnerships

"Romain is proactive and effective to get business opportunities. He has also a great ability to think about marketing in an innovative way through a strong experience in internet business. He is a reliable person and moreover he is a very nice person to work with !" - Hugues Chanoine.

Former Marketing Director - PhotoBox & Moonpig

Performance channels

"Romain worked as my peer heading the Acquisition team at PhotoBox. He has a very broad knowledge and rounded experience of online marketing and retail and is very collaborative in his approach. Romain has a very analytical mind and the ability to make clear & firm decisions." - Armelle Guillet.

Former President - Skype

Product Marketing

"Romain did a good job managing hardware and mobile at Skype. He's a creative and energetic marketing manager with a broad range of skills." - Henry Gomez.

Former Marketing Director - Trainline

Value Proposition Development

"I worked with Romain to develop and deliver a series of workshops to build Skype's capabilities in the areas of value propositions and communications development. He was great to work with: very professional with excellent project management skills and highly knowledgable about the sector." - Ian Hildreth.

Co-founder - Lumipod

Team leadership

"Romain is a talented online marketing manager, combining both innovative mindset and strong analytical skills. He is a very good communicator and always manages to get the best of his team. I would highly recommend him for any online marketing role." - Clement Salvaire.

Co-founder & CEO - Five Lives