About us

The database marketing consultants at Drake Direct average 25 years of experience in the management and usage of customer data in the corporate sector. This boutique digital marketing agency located in New York has worked with some of the world's largest direct marketing firms ranging from American Express to SAP to Disney. What uniquely sets this agency apart from the competition is their profound conviction to become intimate with their clients' existing business model and metrics and then compare those against the industry best practices and standards. The Drake Direct team has expertise in all aspects of using customer information to drive a business forward in this new multi-channel world.

The Team

Rhonda Knehans Drake founded the consulting firm in 1996 following more than 12 years in various information management roles. Rhonda's background includes experience in all aspects of direct marketing from conceptualization of strategy to test market design and implementation in roll-out. Rhonda's experience emphasizes the importance of leveraging information to make marketing decisions. This experience has enabled her to assess the most effective and efficient ways to improve marketing efforts for her clients.

Most recently, Rhonda was employed by The Reader's Digest Association as Director of Customer Database and List Management. At The Reader's Digest Association, Rhonda was a part of the management team which led the effort in developing a new strategic business aimed at marketing to young families with children. Rhonda's initial responsibility was to determine and manage the build of a stand alone customer database in support of this new business. Prior to this assignment, Rhonda was a senior account executive at Information Resources, Inc. In this role, Rhonda led two of IRI's largest account teams: Clairol and Bristol Myers. Among Rhonda's key accomplishments while managing the syndicated market research for Clairol and Bristol Myers was supporting the client's marketing team with recommendations which ultimately reversed a decline in market share. As a result of this accomplishment, Rhonda was awarded the "President's Award" by IRI officers. Rhonda has also worked for Columbia House Music & Video Club, Citicorp POS, and Arbitron Ratings.

In addition to consulting, Rhonda is an Assistant Professor at New York University in the Master of Science in Integrated Marketing program teaching “Statistical Measurement for Marketing,” “SAS for Marketers,” and  “Social Media Measurement.” In her courses, Rhonda emphasizes split A/B testing, multivariate testing, full factorial test design, sampling methods, competitive analysis, marketing mix models, and conjoint analysis. This past year, Rhonda worked with Perry Drake to create a course on Social Media Analytics. NYU is currently one of the only universities in the United States to offer a course in this field, and the course was featured in Time Out Magazine as one of the top four classes to take in the "online learning space.”

Through her participation in the academic and business communities, Rhonda is able to identify trends in information and consumer behavior, which can be leveraged to improve her clients’ marketing efforts. She works with clients to develop strategies that improve their web presence and overall marketing reach to achieve optimal ROI. Rhonda has also developed many statistical models that enhance clients’ acquisition and retention strategies.

Rhonda earned a Master of Science in Applied Statistics from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Missouri. She is a member of the Direct Marketing Association, the Direct Marketing Club of New York and the American Statistical Association

Perry D. Drake joined the consulting firm in April of 1998. Perry is monitoring the digital marketing landscape and all times. He uses emerging strategic trends to identify new media and technological strengths for marketing and defines best practices in measuring their effectiveness. He then leverages his learnings to the academic community and to Drake Direct’s clients. Prior to his work with Drake Direct, Perry worked eleven years in a variety of roles at The Reader's Digest Association. This diversity of responsibilities has provided Perry with in-depth experience to share with clients.

Perry's initial position at The Reader's Digest Association was as a statistician in the quantitative analysis department, applying segmentation, response modeling, list assessment and multivariate techniques. Later, moving into a product line role as Associate Director of Magazine Circulation Marketing, Perry assumed full strategic responsibility for all acquisition efforts including mailings to house and outside lists as well as renewal and billing efforts. During this time, Perry was selected to play a major role on the "promotional process re-engineering committee" charged with re-designing the entire promotional campaign process. Next, Perry was chosen by upper management to assume the responsibility of creating a new marketing services division in preparation for the conversion to new marketing systems and procedures at The Reader's Digest Association. As Director of this new marketing services division, Perry was responsible for staff assessment, re-alignment of organizational structures for efficiencies, new job descriptions and re-training for a staff of 40 marketing database professionals in support of marketing efforts for the entire U.S. business.

In addition to consulting, Perry is an Assistant Professor at New York University in the Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Program and the Digital Marketing Certificate program. Perry has been heavily involved in the creation and teaching of many cutting edge courses at NYU including Database Management, Database Mining, SAS Data Mining Certification, Web Analytics, Search Engine Optimization and Omniture SiteCatalyst Certification. This past year, Perry worked with Rhonda Drake to create a course on Social Media Analytics. NYU is currently one of the only universities in the United States to offer a course in this field, and the course was featured in Time Out Magazine as one of the top four classes to take in the "online learning space.” Perry also has been honored with the distinctions of "Outstanding Master's Faculty" member in 1999 and “Award for Outstanding Service” in 2011, which recognized his effective and continuing contributions to the goals and purposes of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Perry earned a Master of Science in Applied Statistics from the University of Iowa and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Missouri. He is a member of the Direct Marketing Association, the Direct Marketing Club of New York and the American Statistical Association.

Perry is always available for speaking engagements and training sessions. To learn more click here.

Winnie Huang, Senior Database Analyst: Winnie originally joined the Drake Direct team back in 2004. Her analytical skills and expertise in SAS help to develop acquisition and retention models as well as solve business cases for Drake Direct’s clients. She is well versed in analytic methods and utilizing internal and appended data to predict consumer behavior.

From 2007 to 2011, Winnie worked as a Senior Marketing Database Analyst for CPA2Biz, Inc. Her responsibilities included analysis of customer and product data to produce business intelligence reporting for both the senior management and the marketing team, post-mortem campaign analyses, and creation of customer segmentation and profiles. Winnie also designed Key Performance Indicator (KPI) dashboards to implement web analytics best practices, improve customers’ experience both on- and offline, and help meet the needs of different business owners.

In her work at Drake Direct, Winnie builds statistical predictive models to assist clients in understanding their customers’ behaviors, allocating resources to promote model-defined segments with statistical confidence, and improving their campaign results and ROI.

Winnie earned a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Applied English and an Associate of Science in Business Administration from Taipei University of Technology.

Sarah Lazun, CRM Manager: Sarah joined Drake Direct in October 2011 after completing a one year intensive Masters in Commerce program at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. While the program gave her skills in a wide variety of business applications, Sarah developed an affinity for utilizing customer data to develop targeted marketing strategies and manage brands. Sarah’s past work experience includes an internship with the PA Department of Welfare, where she designed a database that organized information from Pennsylvania’s 67 counties into a centralized location.

In her work for Drake Direct, Sarah manages client campaign deliverables and segmentation strategies for e-mail campaigns, where she takes into consideration the uniqueness of the product as well as historical segment performance. Sarah also provides insightful campaign post analyses for e-mail campaigns, which take into account both the segmentation strategies and external factors that affect a campaign’s performance.

In addition to her Master of Science in Commerce, Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Dickinson College.

Yuko Ichihara, Database Analyst: Yuko joined Drake Direct in October 2011. Yuko has more than ten years of experience working in marketing and advertising for major brands in both Japan and the United States. Before joining Drake Direct, Yuko worked as an Associate Business Planning and Marketing Manager for Sharp Electronics Corporation, where she identified opportunities for reaching new markets and oversaw the implementation of new marketing programs. Yuko also worked as a Marketing/PR Coordinator for Estee Lauder in Tokyo, Japan and successfully created new service programs for the Prescriptives line of cosmetics that led to an 11% increase in sales in three months.

While her previous work experience is diverse, Yuko has developed an affinity for marketing and web analytics, which she supplemented with her Integrated Marketing coursework at NYU. She is also very skilled at researching and understanding the unique competitive environments in which businesses operate. This focus helps her to provide strategic solutions to clients’ needs.

Yuko earned a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing from New York University, a Master of Science in Electronic Commerce from Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business, and a Bachelor of Science in Management Science and Information Systems from Rutgers.