Jennifer Goodman Linn Named Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group

NEW YORK, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group has named Jennifer Goodman Linn to the position of Senior Vice President (SVP) of Brand Marketing. The announcement was made by Pam Kaufman, Chief Marketing Officer, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group, to whom Ms. Linn will report. Ms. Linn is responsible for implementing both short- and long-term strategies to promote the Nickelodeon brand, its shows and overall company initiatives.

"Jennifer comes from a background of developing long-term, strategic plans for some of the biggest Fortune 500 companies," said Ms. Kaufman. "As our brand hits creative highs and we speak to new audiences, Jennifer will be a huge asset in making sure we have consistent marketing messages across all our platforms."

Ms. Linn will serve as a central representative of Nickelodeon, working to develop long-term brand positioning, and ensuring that it is carried out and communicated across the company. Working across several lines of business within Nickelodeon, Ms. Linn will manage the planning and marketing for Nickelodeon properties including the popular SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, The Naked Brothers Band, iCarly, Home Improvement, as well as Nickelodeon's original movies. In addition, she will partner with the Public Affairs team on the marketing of all Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group's pro-social initiatives, spearhead the company's multicultural marketing efforts, and oversee the consumer and trade advertising for Nickelodeon.

Most recently, Ms. Linn served as Vice President, Marketing, for Ann Taylor Corporation, where she oversaw marketing strategy, marketing operations, direct communications, media and public relations for the Ann Taylor, LOFT and Factory Businesses. She worked with the Chief Marketing Officer and a team of 25 to develop a teacher's initiative program for the LOFT business that resulted in a ROI of more than 5000%. Additionally, she spearheaded target consumer identification, market research assessment, branding and design development of new apparel concepts, and oversaw the development of a corporate-wide credit card program.

Prior to joining Ann Taylor, Ms. Linn spent five years with The Geppetto Group/WPP Group USA, where she served as Managing Director and was responsible for developing the long-range strategic vision and marketing activities for clients including: Wrigley's, Wal-Mart, Kraft, Coca-Cola, LEGO, Major League Baseball, Samsung and Microsoft. Working primarily on campaigns geared toward the under 24 market, she developed and marketed an MP3 player for Samsung, targeting teens, to compete with the iPod, developed a skateboarding tween- targeted strategy for Converse and Nike, and helped Pepsi develop healthy products and market them to kids internationally. Ms. Linn as also held positions at McKinsey & Company as a Marketing Specialist in its Branding Practice, and at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising Worldwide where she worked with clients including Proctor & Gamble, General Mills and Johnson & Johnson.

Ms. Linn graduated cum laude from Duke University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Psychology and Marketing/Management, and from Harvard University with a Masters in Business Administration. She is a board member of New Alternatives for Children, a non-profit organization that helps place medically fragile children in loving homes. Ms. Linn is the founder of Spin4Survival, a cancer research benefit organization that has raised more than $ 775,000 since its inception in 2007. She is also a founding member of the Survivorship Committee at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and volunteers for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Nickelodeon, in its 28th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in almost 96 million households and has been the number-one- rated basic cable network for more than 13 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. .