Gen-Z Parents Opps: Gabb Wireless taps first CMO, lands funding round amid spend increase (Score 67)

Gabb Wireless, a kid-safe cellular phone and smart watch brand, selected Nate Randle as its first-ever CMO in June 2021. In his most recent position as Americas marketing and CX product growth SVP at Qualtricks, Randle's responsibilities included marketing leadership and digital marketing, so his hire will lead to shifts in Gabb's strategy, which will likely lead its spend to continue rising (more below).

This hire comes not long after the company landed a $14m Series A funding round in April 2021. Per Crunchbase, this brought its total valuation to $21m.

According to Pathmatics, Gabb first started investing in digital ads in 2020, and it ended up spending roughly $102.1k by the end of the year. So far this year, the company has already spent 83% of that amount ($85m). It has earned around 11.3m digital impressions YTD, 100% via Instagram ads.

Gabb allows parents to communicate with their kids more safely. As you can tell by its increases in digital spend and reliance on Instagram advertising, the company is primarily targeting Gen-Z parents right now. Gabb's spend should continue rising since it has a new CMO and the new funding allows it a larger budget. Thus, the company will likely expand into additional digital channels such as OTT and/or podcast down the road to reach a wider audience.

Agency & martech readers - As you know, CMO hires often lead to agency reviews; get in touch sooner rather than later to see what work is available now.