Coinbase Hires Facebook Vet Rouch as CMO to Polish the Brand's Image

As Coinbase finds itself in the midst of another public relations crisis, the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange is turning to Facebook product marketing veteran Kate Rouch to stanch the cycle of bad news as its first CMO. As CNBC and other outlets reported earlier this week, Coinbase users are up in arms after being hit with a massive hack that may have drained some customers' accounts. Customer service has been one source of struggle at Coinbase, which filed its IPO last spring. Last October, Coinbase executives weathered an internal and external uproar after CEO Brian Armstrong instituted a policy designed to avoid difficult discussions about social justice issues among staffers. Still, Rouch is no stranger to working for a company that's a lightning rod for controversy. At the end of her decade-long tenure at Facebook, she was global head of brand and product marketing for Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook App, public affairs and the Facebook company. Rouch and Coinbase could not immediately be reached for comment. Infographic: Social Media Conversations Around Crypto and NFTs Soar in 2021 In her new role, Rouch will be responsible for all global brand, product and performance marketing efforts at Coinbase. Coinbase's president and COO Emilie Choi announced the news on Coinbase's blog. "Kate’s experience at a company with the scale and impact of Facebook will be invaluable as we continue building our brand, growing our teams and working to bring millions more people into the cryptoeconomy," Choi said. Inspired by crypto In a statement, Rouch noted that she was inspired by what she learned about crypto. "At its core, Coinbase is about creating more economic freedom for people. It is a mission I feel passionately about. I can’t wait to get started helping to introduce millions more people to the benefits of crypto.” Rouch was a part of significant achievements in her time spent with Facebook as one of its early employees. During her tenure, Facebook's monthly active users grew from around 500 million to an estimated 3 billion people worldwide. The marketing teams that she led won two silver Lions at Cannes, among other awards. Now, it's on to a new challenge. In her own posts on Twitter and LinkedIn announcing the move, Rouch noted similarities between Coinbase and Facebook, with the former serving as a spunky, new-age company on the rise. Coinbase has 56 million consumers alone, the company said in its blog post that announced the hiring of Rouch. Cryptocurrency has been a major topic of conversation over the past year, especially on social media. Mentions of NFTs hit 6.9 million tweets and Reddit posts from April to June of this year. With 3 million followers on Twitter and more than 200,000 on Instagram, Coinbase is at the center of that conversation, despite the constant drumbeat of challenges to its dominant position.