Eren KumcuoğluExecutive profile Start a conversation
Career journey · 2007–20269 chapters · 56 milestones

Nine companies.
Nineteen years.
One throughline.

A chronological record, written forward, the way it happened. From Ülker's first digital programmes in 2007 to chairing Ozan's ₺25B+ monthly payments engine in 2026. Each chapter is a real problem, the system built for it, and the result it moved.

19yrcareer span
9companies
500+campaigns launched
12+industry firsts
100M+consumers reached
2007–2009

Ülker · UNO

PR & Digital Marketing Specialist

Among Türkiye's first digital practitioners — ran the country's first social media campaign, its first online-offline integrated campaign, and dragged a stone-age FMCG brand into the Jetsons era. The frontier of a discipline before the discipline existed.

Blogger Sofrası — UNO community event, Türkiye's first social media activation, 2008
Blogger Sofrası · UNO · 2008Türkiye's first social media activation

In the dawn of social media, created and built a powerful digital community

130+ bloggers turned into brand ambassadors with nothing but product seeding — no paid incentives, no fees. Built UNO's digital footprint at the precise moment social media was entering Turkish life, on a model no one had attempted before.

Problem solved

No playbook for community-driven brand building in Türkiye. Designed one from scratch — and it ran on zero paid budget.

48Kalori — UNO Light campaign with Ayça Şen, Türkiye's first integrated online–offline campaign, 2008
Integrated Campaign · UNO Light · 2008 First online–offline integration

48Kalori — Türkiye's first fully integrated online-offline campaign

Ayça Şen announced her diet via traditional media, then invited the country to track her — and themselves — on a purpose-built diet tracker. The first campaign of its kind in Türkiye, integrating every media channel.

Ülker UNO — 'Siz Neyle Besleniyorsunuz' brand manifestation and full digital identity reinvention, 2009
Brand Platform · UNO · 2009 Brand rebuilt from manifestation up

"Siz Neyle Besleniyorsunuz" — UNO's brand manifestation

Constructed the brand's full manifestation, then rebuilt every B2C and B2B digital asset around it. A full reinvention of UNO's digital identity from first principles.

2009–2014

Samsung Electronics

Head of Digital Marketing & Content Services

Joined a small Samsung Türkiye. Five years and multiple roles later — across digital, content, services, social and partnerships — helped turn it into the market-leading giant. Brand attitude climbed from 7% to 43% in five years. Mobile category went from challenger to #1 — and never fell off since. Not just marketing — possibly shaping the direction of how humanity met smart devices, from the lead seat of the company leading that shift.

Samsung Galaxy SIII launch — simultaneous Avicii and Bob Sinclar concerts, Istanbul, 30 May 2012
GALAXY SIII LAUNCH · 2012Gained +7% market share in one launch

Galaxy SIII — three simultaneous concerts, one decisive market shift

Avicii on Caddebostan beach, Bob Sinclar in Nişantaşı, Ajda Pekkan for VIPs aboard the Savarona yacht on the Bosphorus — three big activations, one night. Samsung gained 7 share points in a single move, took #1 in mobile devices for the first time, and never gave it back.

Problem solved

Translating product superiority into category dominance in a market dominated by entrenched incumbents. Solved with a launch designed as a cultural event and sealed the marketshare for good.

Galaxy Note launch — 'Galaksiye notumuz var', world's largest caricature (10,952,050 m²), Guinness World Record
Category Creation · 2011 Gone super-viral in minutes · new category establishment

Galaxy Note — introduced an entirely new smartphone category

A spectacular activation video went viral on day one, drove millions to galaksiyenotumuzvar.com, and translated awareness directly into sales. Created a category that didn't exist before.

Samsung Sinema — Türkiye's first online VOD streaming service, built with Saran Media for Smart TV, smartphone and tablet, 2011–2014
Service Innovation · 2011—2014 4.5M users · Türkiye's first video streaming service built from scratch

Samsung Sinema — built Türkiye's first online streaming platform

Partnered with Saran Media to launch Türkiye's first VOD service. Hundreds of films, series and documentaries, free to Smart TV / smartphone / tablet users. 4.5M users in 2.5 years (2011–2014). Massive Smart TV share gained from this single proposition.

Bucketz — Samsung global game launch in 136 countries, App Store featured twice, 2012
Global Launch · Gaming · 2012 Game launch in 136 countries · Bucketz

Bucketz — global game launch driven from Samsung Türkiye

Featured twice on the Apple App Store, re-developed for Android, then released and marketed across every Samsung Android product worldwide — 136 countries — driven solely by Samsung Electronics Türkiye. The first game ever to use Samsung's in-app purchase gateway, worldwide.

Samsung Mobile Türkiye — 1.2M-fan Facebook community, 17.5M monthly reach, 2010–2014
Social Media · 2010—2014 1.2M fans · 17.5M reach/mo

Social media mastery — one of Türkiye's most active brand communities

Built and ran the Samsung Facebook fan page to ~1.2M fans, 17.5M monthly reach, 327K monthly engagements — a meaningful online presence at a moment when most brands didn't yet know what one was.

Function Building · 2010—2014 Division established

Founded Samsung Türkiye's Digital Services & Content division

Starting from WAP services and through Samsung's "smart" transformation, built local development of video, e-book, music, gaming and entertainment services across Android devices and Smart TVs — touching millions of users with locally-developed content.

Global Recognition · 2011—2012 5× Global Best Practice

Global Best Practice awards, repeated

2.5× content turnover growth in 6 months (1M → 2.5M TL). Global Best Practice for Digital-to-Retail (Content Experience Zone), Smart TV Ecosystem (Samsung Fun Club), VAS Offer (Samsung Sinema × Warner Bros), and Service Marketing (ChatON). Repeatedly top-3 globally on TV & mobile content services.

2014–2016

Philips

Digital Marketing & CRM Manager

Reformed Philips Türkiye's conventional habits with unorthodox methods that worked extraordinarily well. Restructured digital, CRM, SEM and media operations, built a 50+ campaign always-on engine, founded the company's digital transformation, and turned data into a structured commercial asset.

Philips Digital@Scale capability framework — baseline and leading ambitions across Search, Social, Content, Campaign, Sales and Analytics
RE-ENGINEERING · 2014€200K annual saving in 3 months

Re-engineered Digital, CRM, SEM and Media — and the agency roster

Rebuilt the entire marketing operating model from the ground up — digital, CRM, SEM and media — and partnered with new agencies. The restructure delivered an annualised €200K saving within the first three months, without sacrificing performance.

Problem solved

Budget allocated by habit and agency inertia, not performance. Replaced it with an evidence-driven operating system.

Philips Lumea — 'Gerçek Hikayeler' real-stories campaign, IPL category influencer programme
Category Building · Lumea · Beauty 90%+ share of voice

Lumea — category domination through long-term influencer activation

Designed a digital activation to inform during active evaluation and drive purchase intention through the consumer decision journey. Long-term influencer programmes resulted in IPL category domination — Lumea held 90%+ share of voice for the full period.

Philips Avent — Mom Talks community platform for motherhood storytelling, 2014–2016
Community · Avent · Mothercare First of Mom Talks

Avent — created a social community among mothers

Launched the first of "Mom Talks" — an inspiring, encouraging and rejuvenating platform built to share extraordinary stories of motherhood. Owned category influencership in mothercare through cultural relevance.

CRM · Lifecycle · 2014—2016 CRM programme built

Product & consumer lifecycle CRM, end-to-end

Designed both product and consumer lifecycle CRM communications — from prospect acquisition through nurturing and retention. A seamless customer journey engineered to foster real loyalty.

SEM · Always-on · 2014—2016 50+ concurrent SEM campaigns

SEM Invasion — always-on search across the full portfolio

Stood up "always-on" search activities running 50+ simultaneous campaigns across the entire portfolio — sustained traffic, consistent presence, and a direct line from query to sellout.

Transformation · 2014—2016 Digital transformation founded

Founding the company's digital transformation

Leadership wasn't confined to strategy or campaigns. Reformed the internal structure, set new performance benchmarks, and aligned Philips Türkiye's team with the global digital vision — the foundation for everything that came after.

2016–2017

Ininal

Chief Marketing Officer

Türkiye's first fintech. Wrote the rules of a category that didn't exist — built brand and audience with zero budget, with pure growth-craft. The foundations of the Turkish fintech ecosystem trace back to this chapter, and so do its early playbooks.

Ininal — Türkiye's first fintech, full-KYC user base 600K→1.2M, MAU 300K→650K, 2016–2017
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH · FINTECH · 2016—20172× KYC · 2× MAU · 4× merchant revenue

Doubled the full-KYC user base from 600K to 1.2M — and doubled MAU alongside

Doubled fully-KYC'd registered users from 600K to 1.2M, more than doubled monthly active users — the company's primary revenue source — from 300K to 650K. Together, these moves quadrupled On-Us merchant revenue.

Problem solved

High CAC, regulatory friction, no awareness in a category Türkiye didn't yet understand. Solved with growth-hack rigour and zero-budget brand craft.

Ininal #epichaziran — long-term gamer audience activation campaign, 2017–2021
Gaming Activation · 2017 #epichaziran · ran until 2021

Long-term gamer-audience activation

Designed #epichaziran for the company's long-term gamer audience. Acquisition and retention figures spiked. The campaign worked so well the company kept running it every year — through 2021.

Brand · Awareness · 2016—2017 4% → 8% awareness · YoY

Brand transformation — new identity, new tone, new sub-brands

Significant reformation of brand identity — shifted the communication tone, developed new sub-brands. The renewed image resonated. Brand awareness doubled YoY (4% → 8%).

Performance · 2016—2017 −50% media cost

Cost optimisation — always-on performance acquisition

Built innovative always-on performance ads, optimising media costs by at least 50%. Reach and profitability finally moved in the same direction.

Retention · 2016—2017 Churn down · LTV up

Inbound marketing programmes for retention

Designed effective inbound programmes to increase retention and prevent churn. Substantial increase in profitability, long-term loyalty as a structural outcome.

Ininal API × BiTaksi — awareness campaign for Türkiye's first financial API services powering 7/24 instant taxi payments, 2017
Category · API · 2017 First financial APIs in TR

Awareness for Türkiye's first financial API services

Ad series introducing Türkiye's first-ever financial API services — built category awareness for an entirely new set of capabilities the market had never seen before.

2017–2019

Pure

Managing Director

Stepped into the MD seat at one of Türkiye's largest independent agencies. Brought cost-fee balance to the P&L for the first time in the firm's 12-year history. Led 70+ people across marquee accounts — Huawei, Allianz, FIAT, Pepsi, Ruffles, Doritos, Opet, Philips, TP Vision, Skoda, Carrefour, Erikli, BNP Cardiff — & built the campaign that took Huawei from 2.8% to 30%+ share.

Huawei P Smart launch — 'Seninle Aynı Modda' disruptive campaign, market share 2.8%→30%+ in 18 months, Pure Agency, 2018
MARKET INVASION ·HUAWEI · 20182.8% → 30%+ · in just 18 months

"Seninle Aynı Modda" — disruptive comms that sealed market dominance

Huawei's market share jumped from 2.8% to 30%+ within 18 months on the back of a disruptive communications strategy. Recognised as one of 2019's most effective campaigns. Huge brand awareness lift, decisive market-share leap — and dominance held at the time.

Problem solved

Challenger brand with weak preference in a category dominated by entrenched incumbents. Solved with precision positioning and performance-integrated campaign architecture.

Huawei × Barış Manço — viral 23 Nisan tribute campaign, Pure Agency, 2018
Cultural Activation · Huawei · 2018 Viral · prime-time news pickup

Huawei x Barış Manço — a 23 Nisan tribute that went viral

Honoured Barış abi ❤️ — one of Türkiye's most beloved musicians and TV hosts — for 23 Nisan. The video went viral on publish, was highlighted in prime-time national TV news, and delivered a huge awareness and preference lift for Huawei's Turkish debut.

P&L · Agency Operations · 2017—2019 Cost–fee balanced · 12-year first

First profitable cost-to-fee balance in the agency's 12-year history

Brought financial equilibrium to the P&L for the first time in 12 years, balancing costs with fees across 70+ people and the full portfolio. Steered the agency toward unprecedented commercial successes.

Portfolio · Marquee Accounts · 2017—2019 Huawei · Allianz · FIAT · Pepsi · Doritos · Opet · Philips · Skoda · Carrefour ·

Landed and led the portfolio

Landed marquee clients and led the work across Huawei, Allianz, FIAT, Pepsi, Ruffles, Doritos, Opet, Philips, TP Vision, Skoda, Carrefour, Erikli, BNP Cardiff and others — orchestrating acclaimed campaigns across categories simultaneously.

2019–2020

InGame Group

Marketing, Sales & Business Development Director

Türkiye's most popular MMOFPS game, 30M+ players. Led five divisions — Marcom, PR, Business Development, Sales, Creative — with a 15-person team. Built incremental revenue through FMCG partnerships, lifted margins through retail, telco and payment-company deals, and shipped Zula Mobile straight to #1.

Zula Mobile — #1 on Google Play and App Store within 24 hours, 1.2M players in 2 weeks with zero paid media, 2020
ZULA MOBILE LAUNCH · 20201.2M players in 2 weeks · 0 paid media

Zula Mobile — #1 in Google Play and App Store within 24 hours

Hit #1 in top popular games on both Google Play and App Store within 24 hours of open beta. By the end of week two, 1.2M active players — achieved purely by fuelling the Zula community, with zero paid media investment. Hundreds of thousands of downloads in hours.

Problem solved

Launches with no commercial momentum and no community leverage. Solved by treating the existing community as the distribution channel.

Vodafone FreeZone Gaming × Zula Mobile — category-first subscription bundle for Turkish mobile gaming, 2019–2020
Telco Partnership · 2019—2020 Vodafone FreeZone Gaming

Vodafone × Zula — gaming subscription pack co-created

Co-built FreeZone Gaming with Vodafone — free data and exclusive in-game perks for Zula Mobile gamers who were also Vodafone subscribers. A category-first subscription bundle for Turkish mobile gaming.

Pepsi × Zula — game codes printed under can pull-rings preference campaign, 2019
FMCG Partnership · Pepsi · 2019 Game codes under pull rings

Pepsi × Zula — codes under every can pull-ring

Preference campaign with Pepsi: Zula game codes printed under can pull-rings. Buy a Pepsi, redeem the code, earn in-game currency instantly. Drove preference at point of sale and engagement in-game.

Eti Maximus × Zula — in-pack game-code consumption campaign, 2019
FMCG Partnership · Eti · 2019 Codes inside Maximus packs

Eti × Zula — consumption campaign with Maximus

Game codes printed inside Maximus packs. Players who redeemed earned in-game currency. Drove sustained consumption while seeding the game across new audiences.

Little Caesars × Zula — Battle Royale activation, in-game air-support crate unlocked by online pizza orders, 2020
QSR Partnership · Little Caesars · 2020 In-game air-support crate

Little Caesars × Zula — Battle Royale activation

For the Battle Royale mode launch: players ordering pizza online unlocked a special code redeeming a Little Caesars-branded air-support crate inside the game. A technical and commercial first — integration baked into the gameplay loop, not bolted on.

Sales · Channel Economics · 2019—2020 Margin: 3% → 8% · per channel

Reshaped sales channel economics

Renegotiated commission rates, restructured channel partners, added significant new sales channels through seven-figure deals. Per-channel profitability moved from 3% to 8%. Channel-level sales growth ranged from +20% to +45% YoY.

Strategic Leadership · 2019—2020 5 divisions · 15-person team

Led Marcom, PR, BD, Sales and Creative simultaneously

Defined and implemented new marketing strategies that identified growth opportunities, opened new business avenues, expanded sales channels, and delivered creative assets on cadence — institutionalising the company's product launch and marketing planning function.

2020–2021

Martı

VP of Growth & Marketing

Türkiye's most disruptive and most challenging mobility app. Found a hidden 20% revenue uplift inside the payments stack, renegotiated PSP economics, and built fintech-grade partnerships with Papara, Ininal, Garanti, Akbank, Turkcell, Vodafone and Coca-Cola.

Martı — prepaid card payment integration, +20% turnover lift in 5 months, 2020–2021
ENABLING PAYMENTS · 2020—2021+20% turnover · in 5 months

Enabled prepaid cards as a payment method — a hidden 20% revenue uplift

Created schemes to prevent fraud and minimize bad-debt risks in foundation, integrated prepaid cards as a payment method — a single move that delivered a remarkable 20% turnover lift within five months of activation. No additional marketing investment required.

Problem solved

Utilized the youth segment who uses prepaid services as their primary payments solution.

Business Development · 2020—2021 Papara · Ininal · Garanti · Akbank · Turkcell · Vodafone · Coca-Cola

Long-term strategic partnerships across fintech, telco and FMCG

Forged and cultivated strategic partnerships with category leaders — Papara, Ininal, Garanti, Akbank, Turkcell, Vodafone, Coca-Cola — to add novel payment channels, build sustainable growth pathways and open monetisable business relationships.

Margin Optimisation · 2020—2021 1.6% → 1.0% PSP margin

Re-pitched PSP — meaningful margin compression on payments

Led a strategic pitch for a new Payment Service Provider arrangement. New partner proposed a 1% margin, down from 1.6% — substantial profitability lift directly to P&L.

Strategic Negotiations · 2021 3-year fee waiver · 3M TL sponsorship

MasterCard & Visa — Card-on-File partnership

Conducted high-level negotiations with MasterCard and Visa for a Card-on-File (CoF) partnership. Secured a three-year fee waiver and a 3M TL sponsorship fee — both highly favourable to Martı.

Growth & Engagement · 2020—2021 Non-rider → champion

Revenue-driven marketing across the full customer ladder

Led a team that excelled at designing revenue-driving campaigns, orchestrating smooth transitions through customer segments (non-rider → casual → frequent → champion), and curbing churn through tailored behaviour-based incentive activations.

Customer Experience · 2020—2021 Resolution Center built in-house

Resolution Center — issue resolution as a satisfaction lever

Directed an in-house Resolution Center that prioritised customer satisfaction through efficient issue-resolution funnels. Built the operational backbone for sustained customer trust.

2021

Bitci

CMO (& acting COO)

Short tenure, outstanding output. Ran the world's fastest fan-token offerings on record. €55M+ raised across 20+ launches. Stepped into Acting COO to corporatise the company — a defining transition that anchored the firm's next phase.

Bitci Teknoloji × CBF — Brazil National Football Team fan tokens, 30M tokens / €15M sold out in 19 minutes, 2021
Featured · Brazil National Football Team · 2021€15M in 19 minutes

Brazil National Team — 30M tokens sold out in 19 minutes

Bitci Teknoloji × CBF: 30M tokens = €15M sold out in 19 minutes flat. A new record in the history of sports — and proof the playbook scales by design, not by luck.

Problem solved

Monetising global fanbases instantly, without equity dilution or traditional capital markets. Engineered the system that did it — repeatably.

Bitci Teknoloji × RFEF — Spain National Football Team fan tokens, €15M sold out in 15 minutes, Europe's biggest FTO at the time, 2021
Spain National Team · RFEF · 2021 €15M in 15 minutes

Spain National Team — Europe's biggest fan token offering

Bitci Teknoloji × Real Federación Española de Fútbol: sold out €15M of tokens in 15 minutes — Europe's biggest fan token offering at the time.

Bitci × McLaren Racing — 40M F1 fan tokens / €20M sold out in 45 minutes to 11,000 holders, 2021
McLaren F1 · 2021 €20M in 45 minutes

McLaren Racing — another record broken

40M McLaren fan tokens = €20M sold out in 45 minutes to 11,000 holders. Yet another record on the books.

Token Programme · 2021 €55M+ · 20+ launches

Multi-federation FTO programme across 20+ launches

Spearheaded a coordinated FTO programme that raised €55M+ across 20+ token launches with sports federations and clubs globally — a repeatable, structured commercial model engineered for crypto markets.

Fan Engagement · Bitcicoin · 2021 +130% token price

Fan engagement programmes worldwide

Initiated fan engagement programmes touching millions of fans globally, with event-day activations driving conversion. The Bitcicoin activation resulted in a 130% price surge and a measurable brand-awareness leap in the global community.

Operations · COO Transition · 2021 CMO + Acting COO

Corporatised the company under both hats

Influenced the corporatisation of the company while wearing both CMO and COO hats — orchestrating product launches, asset management, fan token offerings and sponsorships with one playbook. A defining transitional moment for the company.

Third-Party Reset · 2021 Creative · Media · UX · SaaS

Pitched and contracted the full third-party stack

Pitched and contracted across creative, media-buying, UX-UI, research, monitoring and SaaS partners — significantly raising the quality and efficiency of the company's marketing operations end-to-end.

2021–2026

Ozan

Chief Operating Officer · Chairman of the Board

Started from scratch. Designed the company to become a leading acquirer and issuer in a highly competitive, highly regulated market. Five years of compounding wins — ₺25B+ monthly transaction volume enabled, top-5 issuer, top-2 acquirer, profit-positive payments, board-level governance built from zero.

BUSINESS GROWTH · FINTECH · 2021—2026₺25B+ monthly transaction volume enabled

From scratch to Türkiye's top tier of acquirers and issuers

Realigned cross-functional teams, optimised operations, sales and product in parallel — driving sustainable growth in both volume and revenue across a highly competitive and regulated market.

Problem solved

Fragmented operations and limited scalability constrained growth. Streamlining created the infrastructure to confidently manage high-volume transactions.

Market Position · Fintech · 2024 Issuer #22 → #5 · Acquirer #29 → #2

Became the 2nd biggest acquirer and 5th biggest issuer in Türkiye

Market analysis and data-driven decisions expanded sales channels, strengthened partner ecosystems, and accelerated user and transaction growth — moving Ozan from #22 to #5 issuer ranking, and #29 to #2 to acquirer ranking.

Ozan × Pazar POS — strategic partnership unlocking taxis and street merchants, +₺500M monthly TPV, 2025
Business Development · Fintech · 2025 +₺500M monthly TPV

Pazar POS partnership — taxis and street merchants unlocked

Structured a strategic partnership enabling rapid deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure across an entirely untapped merchant segment.

Payments · Fintech · 2022 PSP re-engineered

Renegotiated acquiring economics — payments became a profit centre

Eliminated structural inefficiencies in scheme fees and PSP routing, delivering meaningful unit-economics improvement directly to P&L margins.

Governance · Fintech · 2023 Board built

Built governance infrastructure from the ground up as Chairman

Designed and implemented board-level governance — committee structures, reporting cadences, decision frameworks — enabling institutional discipline at scale.

Compliance · Fintech · 2022—2024 100% audit clean

Clean sweeps across Visa, Mastercard, TCMB and MASAK

Led the company through multiple major regulatory audits simultaneously — passing every one cleanly. Compliance became an institutional moat.

Ozan × Verifone — strategic partnership with the world's #1 physical POS provider for SME expansion, 2023
Partnership · POS · 2023 SME expansion with Verifone

Strategic partnership with Verifone — world's #1 physical POS provider

Ozan's acquiring capability merged with Verifone's superior physical POS products. Led the go-to-market, merchant acquisition, sales and operations end-to-end.

Ozan SuperApp — innovative consumer cashback programmes across Türkiye's top digital platforms, 2022–2024
Consumer Programmes · Fintech · 2022—2024 Cashback across top platforms

Innovative consumer cashback programmes

Designed unique cashback programmes for end-users spanning Türkiye's most popular digital platforms. Forecasted performance and ROI with precision to keep KPIs and consumer value aligned.

Brand · From Scratch · 2021—2022 Brand built from zero

Founded Ozan's brand strategy and go-to-market

Built the brand from scratch — manifestation, guidelines, tone of voice, brand cues. Authored the GTM strategy, defined target audiences, and developed the communication plans that shaped Ozan's identity and positioning.

People & Culture · 2022—2024 Comp restructure · policy reset

Progressive HR policies — happiness, well-being, performance

Introduced HR policies focused on employee happiness, well-being and performance. Implemented a comprehensive salary restructuring aligned with market standards and merit.

The journey continues

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