Disney has assembled the Star Destroyer of marketing executives following the elevation of Asad Ayaz to the post of chief marketing and brand officer earlier this month.
In a memo to Disney staffers, Ayaz outlined the structure of the marketing group that he now steers across all company divisions. It also confirms the creation of an Enterprise Marketing team designed to help facilitate the increased collaboration among the divisional groups, with an emphasis on maintaining a global perspective across all Disney marketing activities.
All told, Ayaz’s group amounts to the largest collection of marketing prowess that Hollywood has ever seen, ranging from theme parks and experiences to film and TV to the research and technology units that will power the audience development, subscriber acquisition and data analytics tools that its marketers will rely on to fuel future growth.
“We will show up as one unified storytelling brand across our flywheel — film, television, streaming, parks, experiences, and sports — aligned to how consumers experience the company today. We will engage with them in more relevant ways, when they want, where they want, making it seamless and intuitive for them to connect with our characters, stories, products, and experiences,” Ayaz wrote.
The memo reaffirms the topline details announced on Jan. 14 with Ayaz’s elevation to the company’s first-ever chief marketing and brand officer post. Ayaz details his vision for the teams that will be responsible for steering their own segments but with an much increased emphasis on collaboration, data-sharing and long-term planning around franchises that now span many mediums. It’s not immediately clear if the newly created structure will result in any layoffs or major shuffling of staff underneath the leaders named in the memo.
“We will continue to be industry-leading in collaborating with brands, influencers, and creative partners to amplify their presence across Disney and maximize the value of every relationship, leveraging our scale and brand strength to outperform our competitors,” Ayaz wrote. “We will amplify what’s working and respond dynamically to market shifts, using data as a differentiator to make informed decisions and leveraging technology to eliminate friction, reduce complexity, and elevate our team’s experience.”
The memo highlights the company’s top five marketing chiefs who have a dual reporting structure to Ayaz and their respective division heads.
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- Ron Faris (Disney Consumer Products)
- Scott Hudgins (Disney Experiences)
- Martha Morrison (Disney Entertainment Studios)
- Shannon Ryan (Disney Entertainment Television, Disney+ & Hulu)
- Tina Thornton (ESPN)
Working alongside this group will be the newly assembled enterprise team. “These leaders and their teams will partner closely with the segment and international marketing functions to deliver scale, modern processes, resource flexibility, and innovation that drive impact,” Ayaz wrote. “These functions will be comprised of subject matter experts and dedicated segment resources where needed.”
Per Ayaz’s memo:
- Brand & Franchise – Joanna Balikian will lead the strategy and execution of enterprise brand campaigns and synergy initiatives, oversee company brand priorities and governance, and drive fan engagement strategies that strengthen affinity across audiences.
- Corporate Alliances – Becca Vodnoy will continue in her role shaping Disney’s global partner and promotional strategy—developing and growing high value relationships with partners and creators to amplify the reach and impact of Disney’s brands.
- Creative Execution – Carrie Brzezinski-Hsu will lead Disney’s new creative production ecosystem, unifying our cross-segment creative agencies. She will partner with our segment creative teams to ensure every asset reflects the company’s creative excellence and brand standards while orchestrating high quality, high velocity delivery of campaigns that drive impact at scale. In addition, she will continue to oversee ESPN’s Creative Studio, with dual accountability to Tina Thornton.
- Media – Kimberly Flaster will take on a new role that shapes and directs a unified media investment strategy that leverages cross-channel buying, advanced optimization, and data-driven decisioning to maximize impact and ROI. This function will include media strategy and planning, which will dual report to the respective Segment Marketing leaders, and trade desk operations.
- Research & Insights – Andrew Ferguson will lead enterprise-wide consumer and brand intelligence, along with marketing, brand and franchise performance research. His team will guide campaign research—from audience resonance testing to end-to-end campaign measurement—delivering insights that shape strategy, strengthen storytelling, and drive informed decision making across the enterprise. Operational and business strategy-specific research will continue to report into the respective segments.
There is also one open role for a leader overseeing marketing operations and technology. The job will involve building and overseeing “the systems, processes, and tools that power modern, data-driven marketing — leading KPI and reporting standardization, advanced analytics enablement, and end-to-end campaign operations,” per the memo.
More to come.
From Variety US