About Mirko
As a 11+ year marketing expert, I help purpose-driven and consumer brands build marketing that actually works, connecting brand strategy and impact with commercial results.
My background:
7 years at Nike leading brand, product marketing and digital platforms across EMEA (with years focusing deeply on the Italian market). Then held various product and marketing roles at WaterBear, a B-Corp impact platform, where I eventually led the marketing department as Head of Marketing owning brand repositioning, go-to-market strategy, creator partnerships and growth.
What I typically help with:
brand strategy and positioning, go-to-market planning for product launches, community and creator/influencer strategy, marketing team structuring and interim leadership. I work well as a sparring partner for founders and CMOs who need senior thinking without committing to a full-time hire yet.
I'm strongest with D2C, design, sport, social impact, sustainability, wellness, travel or consumer tech brands. Based in Amsterdam and open to work remotely across Europe.
Italian
Native or bilingual
English
Fluent
Can work on-site
Amsterdam (up to 50km)
Experience
- WaterBear NetworkHead of Global Marketing and CommunityENVIRONMENTALJune 2025 - March 2026 (9 months)Amsterdam, NetherlandsWaterBear is a B-Corp certified A marketplace NGOs, and a people through premium campaigns, The to measurable engagement and social impact.Own global brand, integrated marketing and growth strategy during company repositioning, operating across product, partnerships, and creative teams to scale engagement and retention, while maximising social impact. Main achievements (so far):
- Launched the Watch for Impact™ product-led growth campaign framework in November 2025, converting content consumption to real-world impact (eg: 1 min watched = 1 tree planted) and driving measurable business growth results: +68% DAU (Nov vs Oct, Dec +7.4% vs Nov) | Growth across direct (+19%), email (+12%), and organic social (+8%) traffic. For context, most of our marketing between mid November and late December were focusing on 3 different Watch-for-Impact™ campaigns that ran sequentially) | +12% watch time | +26% increase in high quality traffic (80% title completion).
- Owned brand stewardship and creative direction across digital, editorial and video content in collaboration with designers, creators and external partners.
- Built and scaled strategic collaborations with global brands, creators, influencers and NGOs (Patagonia, Rolex, LUSH, Greenpeace, SeaLegacy, Cristina Mittermeier, and many more), strengthening brand credibility and reach.
- Defined and executed global brand, demand and go-to-market strategy (2025–2026) across digital, partnerships and community channels.
- Led cross-functional programs with Product and Partnerships teams to improve discovery, UX journeys, and repeat engagement.
- WaterBear NetworkDirector of Marketing and CommunityENVIRONMENTALJanuary 2024 - May 2025 (1 year and 4 months)Amsterdam, NetherlandsOwned demand strategy and business growth programs for a multi-sided community marketplace, partnering with Product to optimize user journeys and improve acquisition, engagement, and retention across markets. Main achievements:
- Bridged Marketing and Product teams to improve collaboration and align company-wide product-led goals for stronger community engagement and growth.
- Ran two full-cycle hiring processes, setting standards that were replicated to improve recruitment efficiency for the wider company and a better candidate experience.
- Supported business development through strategic growth presentations, market insights, and data-informed proposals for partners and investors.
- Led the strategic move from SAP Emarsys to Braze (CRM), saving $160k annual costs to the company and securing a more aligned, results driven email marketing platform with full stakeholder engagement and smooth onboarding. Managed Braze onboarding and integration, enabling smarter marketing automation and better campaign performance.
- Continued user discovery, putting existing and potential users at the center of our product and marketing strategies.
- WaterBear NetworkSenior Product Engagement and Growth ManagerENTERTAINMENT AND LEISUREApril 2023 - December 2023 (8 months)Amsterdam, NetherlandsResponsible for engagement and growth of the WaterBear member community, playing a pivotal role across departments while sitting in the Product team. Main Achievements:
- Co-led extensive discovery research to define a new brand positioning, category, and growth strategy, informing product-market fit and long term business direction.
- Built the company's first email marketing strategy from scratch — drove the technical connection of the existing CRM platform SAP Emarsys with the WaterBear platform backend, set up team roles, launched A/B tests despite technical limitations, and defined email franchises, making our newsletter the main traffic driver for our platform engagement (average results: OR 33%, CR 2%, UR 0.2%).
- Owned a company-wide experimentation framework to rapidly test growth initiatives and scale successful programs.
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Education
- Master of Science Marketing ManagementUniversità Commerciale "Luigi Bocconi"2016Master of Science
- Exchange SemesterUniversity of Maryland – R. Smith School of Business (College Park)Exchange Semester