Product and strategy veteran tapped to accelerate innovation for consumer purchase insights leader following the launch of Comet™
NEW YORK, September 19, 2023 — Affinity Solutions (Affinity), the leading consumer purchase insights company, today announced the appointment of Kalyan Lanka as Chief Product Officer.
In this role, Lanka will be pivotal in expanding Affinity’s product vision and strategy, holding end-to-end responsibility for Affinity’s entire product portfolio – from ideation and innovation, to launch and lifecycle management. Specifically, Lanka will be focused on accelerating business momentum surrounding Affinity’s recent launch of Comet™, an intelligence platform that provides marketers, consultancies and financial services with visibility on consumer purchase behavior outside their stores, branches and websites. With Comet, companies can fully validate the efficacy of marketing investments with true outcomes-based metrics and insights that drive company ROI.
“With the launch of Comet this year, Affinity is now entering its next phase of growth,” said Jonathan Silver, CEO and Founder, Affinity Solutions. “As such, we are expanding our executive team to align top leadership expertise with the needs of our growing and unique client base. Kalyan’s outstanding track record in product strategy and innovation directly aligns with Affinity’s vision for Comet™ to reshape how marketers measure success. We are confident he will help fortify our stance as the leader in consumer purchase insights and driver of outcomes-based marketing.”
With more than 15 years of diversified experience across consumer research and insights, customer data and data management platforms, media planning, and advertising tech, Lanka joins Affinity from Ampersand where he was VP of Product Management. Before that, he served as Chief Strategy Officer at Simmons Research, Head of Product Innovation and Strategy at Experian Marketing Services, and Head of Product Management at Lotame.
Lanka joins Affinity as it continues to expand its leadership roster of executives that have a proven track record in innovating, launching, and delivering new products to market. Recent hires in the last three months include: Sean Welsh as SVP and Managing Director, Financial Institutions, Chris Clark as SVP and Managing Director, Consulting and Investor Solutions, and Bryan Crutchley as SVP, Account Management.
“Armed with experts in data insights and the largest deterministic dataset of U.S. consumer spending, Affinity is well-positioned to address the unique challenges faced by marketers, consultancies, and financial services companies – providing innovative solutions that drive market share and revenue growth,” said Lanka. “As the marketing industry grapples with the loss of valuable data signals, Comet™ is poised for growth, delivering true outcomes-based metrics that empower businesses to drive better results with confidence.”
For more information on Comet™ and Affinity Solutions, visit www.affinity.solutions.
About Affinity Solutions
Affinity Solutions (Affinity) is the leading consumer purchase insights company. We provide a comprehensive view of U.S. consumer spending, across and between brands, via exclusive access to fully permissioned data from over 140 million debit and credit cards. This data is transformed into actionable insights for marketers, consultancies, and financial services companies to drive market share and revenue growth. Affinity powers CometTM, a powerful data-led intelligence platform that enables marketers to effortlessly plan, activate, and measure media to purchase-based outcomes. To learn more about Affinity Solutions visit www.affinity.solutions.