Latest / Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling / DISNEY’s New Direction: What Its Latest Leadership Moves Tell Us

Transcript

DISNEY’s New Direction: What Its Latest Leadership Moves Tell Us · Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling

• 0:00
  Disney has made a series of leadership moves over the past
• 0:02
  few weeks that, when you look at them together, start to tell us
• 0:05
  quite a bit about where the company may be heading.
• 0:07
  Individually, these can look like fairly traditional
• 0:10
  corporate announcements. A new marketing technology
• 0:12
  leader, changes around Disney Plus, a new chief technology
• 0:15
  officer, a restructuring of consumer products.
• 0:18
  But I think looking at each announcement separately misses
• 0:20
  the more interesting part, because there is a common thread
• 0:23
  running through all four. Disney appears to be getting
• 0:26
  much more deliberate about how a piece of intellectual property
• 0:29
  moves through the company, how Disney understands the audience
• 0:32
  around it, and how that audience can move from watching something
• 0:35
  into a much broader relationship with the franchise.
• 0:38
  That could mean Disney Plus. It could mean a movie theater, a
• 0:41
  game, a collectible, A publishing product, a fashion
• 0:44
  collaboration, a theme park, or something that hasn't been built
• 0:47
  yet. And that is why I think these
• 0:49
  leadership moves are worth paying attention to.
• 0:52
  The first came earlier this month with Jennifer Kregan
• 0:54
  joining Disney as head of marketing, technology and
• 0:56
  operations, a new enterprise role under chief marketing and
• 0:59
  brand Officer Asad Ayaz. Her remit crosses film and
• 1:03
  television, streaming, sports, parks and experiences, games and
• 1:07
  consumer products, working alongside Disney's technology
• 1:10
  and data organizations. That sounds operational, but the
• 1:14
  underlying problem Disney is trying to solve is much more
• 1:16
  interesting. Think about how many different
• 1:19
  ways somebody can interact with Disney today.
• 1:21
  They could watch an Avengers trailer on YouTube, search for a
• 1:24
  character afterward, buy a Lego set, watch another Marvel title
• 1:27
  on Disney Plus, visit Avengers Campus, follow one of the actors
• 1:30
  on social, play Fortnite, and eventually buy a ticket for the
• 1:33
  next movie. From the audience's perspective,
• 1:36
  that can all be part of the same relationship.
• 1:39
  From the company's perspective, those interactions have
• 1:41
  historically existed across very different businesses, different
• 1:44
  data environments, and different teams.
• 1:46
  So the opportunity here is not simply better marketing
• 1:49
  technology, it is having a clearer understanding of how
• 1:52
  audiences move around Disney. Which franchises are bringing
• 1:55
  new people into the ecosystem? Where do they go after watching
• 1:58
  something? Which characters create interest
• 2:01
  beyond the original film or series?
• 2:03
  When does entertainment interest start becoming product intent?
• 2:06
  Which partnerships extend fandom, and which ones mostly
• 2:09
  generate temporary attention? Those are much more valuable
• 2:13
  questions than simply asking whether a campaign generated
• 2:15
  impressions. And if Disney can create a
• 2:18
  stronger connective layer across those behaviors.
• 2:21
  Marketing becomes less about pushing individual releases and
• 2:24
  more about understanding the life cycle of an audience.
• 2:27
  Then came another important change.
• 2:29
  Adam Smith was named chairman of director, consumer for Disney
• 2:32
  Entertainment, giving him responsibility across Disney
• 2:35
  Plus and Hulu. That includes product
• 2:37
  engineering, advertising, technology, programming,
• 2:40
  strategy, viewer experience, partnerships, and data and
• 2:44
  analytics. At the same time, Joe Early
• 2:47
  moved into the newly created position of president of Disney
• 2:50
  Entertainment Television Franchise and Content Strategy.
• 2:53
  There are two sides of that announcement that I find
• 2:55
  particularly interesting. The first is Disney Plus.
• 2:59
  Disney has talked increasingly about Disney Plus becoming a
• 3:02
  much bigger connection point between the company and its
• 3:04
  fans. Under Smith, many of the pieces
• 3:07
  required to do that now sit much closer together.
• 3:10
  Content strategy is there, product is there, viewer
• 3:14
  experience is there, data is there, partnerships are there.
• 3:19
  Advertising technology is there. That matters because the future
• 3:22
  value of Disney Plus probably goes well beyond how many hours
• 3:26
  someone spends watching television.
• 3:28
  Disney owns one of the broadest entertainment ecosystems in the
• 3:31
  world. Disney Plus is one of the few
• 3:33
  places where the company has a direct digital relationship with
• 3:36
  hundreds of millions of people who already have some level of
• 3:39
  affinity for its brands. Imagine what becomes possible if
• 3:42
  Disney gets better at understanding the relationship
• 3:45
  between what somebody watches and what else they might want to
• 3:48
  do. A family watches Frozen.
• 3:50
  Maybe the next interaction is another piece of content, but it
• 3:53
  could eventually be merchandise, a soundtrack, a vacation
• 3:57
  decision or an experience. Someone enters through Star
• 4:00
  Wars, another person enters through Marvel, someone else
• 4:04
  comes through Bluey, Hulu, ESPN or a Disney animated film.
• 4:08
  The interesting question becomes where they go next, and that
• 4:12
  connects directly with the other half of the announcement.
• 4:15
  Because Joe Early's new role actually puts the word franchise
• 4:18
  into the leadership structure around Disney Entertainment
• 4:21
  Television, that tells me Disney is thinking about television
• 4:24
  properties with a longer runway in mind.
• 4:27
  A successful series has traditionally been measured
• 4:29
  through ratings, streaming engagement, subscriber impact,
• 4:32
  and maybe awards or cultural conversation.
• 4:35
  Those things still matter. But inside Disney, a television
• 4:38
  property can potentially create value across a much wider
• 4:42
  system. Can it become a durable
• 4:44
  franchise? Are there characters audiences
• 4:46
  want to spend more time with? Can it move into products?
• 4:50
  Can IT support experiences? Can another format expand it?
• 4:54
  Is there an international audience that behaves
• 4:56
  differently around it? That is a different way to think
• 4:58
  about content value. Then one day later came
• 5:01
  Karandeep Anand. Disney created the role of chief
• 5:04
  technology officer at the enterprise level and appointed
• 5:07
  Anand most recently CEO of Character dot AI.
• 5:11
  His remit includes enterprise technology, infrastructure, data
• 5:14
  and AI platforms, product and engineering.
• 5:18
  I would be careful about reducing this announcement to
• 5:20
  Disney hiring an AI executive. The larger remit is technology
• 5:24
  across the company, and when you put this beside the changes
• 5:27
  around Disney Plus data and marketing technology, there is a
• 5:31
  much bigger opportunity. Disney has enormous amounts of
• 5:35
  audience behavior occurring across its ecosystem, but the
• 5:38
  real advantage comes from connecting that technology to
• 5:41
  the businesses people actually experience.
• 5:43
  Search and discovery on Disney Plus is an obvious area.
• 5:47
  Personalization is another. Advertising becomes more
• 5:50
  sophisticated. Commerce can become more
• 5:52
  connected. Games can potentially become a
• 5:55
  much more important bridge between franchises and
• 5:57
  audiences. There are also possibilities
• 6:00
  inside the parks where technology can change the
• 6:02
  experience before a guest arrives, while they are there,
• 6:05
  and after they leave. AI will obviously be part of
• 6:08
  that conversation, particularly given Anon's background, but I
• 6:12
  think watching only the generative AI part would miss
• 6:15
  the bigger shift. Disney seems to be putting
• 6:17
  technology closer to the center of how the company operates.
• 6:21
  The most interesting test will be whether that technology
• 6:23
  actually removes friction for audiences.
• 6:26
  Can Disney make discovery better?
• 6:28
  Can it make the relationship between streaming experiences
• 6:31
  and products feel more natural? Can technology help the company
• 6:34
  recognize emerging audience momentum earlier and respond
• 6:37
  faster? Those are much more meaningful
• 6:39
  measures than how many AI tools Disney eventually launches.
• 6:43
  And then this week we got another piece of the picture
• 6:46
  with consumer products. Beginning October 4th, Disney's
• 6:49
  global licensing and ublishing businesses will move into Disney
• 6:52
  Entertainment Studios. Arks Merchandise, Disney Store
• 6:56
  and disneystore.com will remain within Disney Experiences.
• 7:00
  Kathleen Taff becomes president of Disney Entertainment Studios
• 7:04
  and Consumer Products while continuing to oversee areas that
• 7:08
  include franchise management, production services and
• 7:11
  theatrical distribution across a studio portfolio that includes
• 7:15
  Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios
• 7:20
  and Searchlight. Lisa Baldzicki, meanwhile,
• 7:23
  becomes executive vice president of global experience and
• 7:27
  innovation. She retains responsibility for
• 7:29
  parks, merchandise, and Disney's owned retail businesses while
• 7:33
  taking on a broader mandate around developing and scaling
• 7:36
  new ideas across Disney experiences.
• 7:39
  This is probably the clearest example of the direction I see
• 7:42
  developing, licensing and publishing are moving closer to
• 7:45
  the people managing the franchises themselves.
• 7:49
  Think about the potential feedback loop.
• 7:51
  A movie starts building momentum.
• 7:53
  A particular character begins over indexing.
• 7:55
  Search behavior changes, Social conversation shifts 1.
• 8:00
  Audience segment starts engaging differently from another.
• 8:03
  The theatrical team can see demand developing, franchise
• 8:06
  management understands the longer term IP strategy, and
• 8:09
  consumer products can potentially react with licensing
• 8:12
  partners much closer to that process.
• 8:15
  That does not mean every successful movie suddenly needs
• 8:18
  hundreds of products. Actually, I think the more
• 8:20
  interesting possibility is the opposite.
• 8:23
  Better integration should make Disney more selective.
• 8:26
  Some properties have enormous toy potential.
• 8:29
  Some have fashion potential. Some work particularly well in
• 8:32
  publishing. Others may have little
• 8:34
  traditional merchandise opportunity but could be strong
• 8:37
  for experiences, games or partnerships.
• 8:40
  The opportunity is understanding the behavior around each
• 8:43
  property and building the extensions that actually make
• 8:46
  sense for that audience. At the same time, Disney made a
• 8:50
  very deliberate decision to keep parks merchandise, Disney Store
• 8:53
  and disneystore.com inside Experiences.
• 8:57
  I think that distinction matters.
• 8:59
  A licensing partnership with Lego, Mattel, Adidas or another
• 9:03
  outside company operates differently from a product
• 9:06
  developed for someone walking through Galaxy's Edge or
• 9:08
  shopping directly through Disney Inside Experiences.
• 9:12
  The product is increasingly part of the experience itself.
• 9:15
  People don't necessarily separate the attraction, the
• 9:18
  food, the merchandise, the character interaction, and the
• 9:21
  memory of the trip into different business units to the
• 9:24
  guest. It is one Disney experience.
• 9:27
  So when I put these four moves together, I don't see Disney
• 9:30
  simply reshuffling executives. I see the company creating
• 9:34
  clearer connection points around the audience.
• 9:37
  Marketing technology helps Disney understand that audience.
• 9:40
  Disney Plus potentially becomes the digital hub where that
• 9:43
  relationship can deepen. Enterprise technology gives
• 9:46
  Disney a common technical foundation for building products
• 9:49
  and connecting data, and the consumer product structure
• 9:53
  brings more of the commercial extension of a franchise closer
• 9:56
  to the teams actually creating and managing that franchise.
• 9:59
  While Experiences keeps control of the products that are part of
• 10:02
  the physical Disney relationship, there are still a
• 10:05
  lot of questions. Organizational structure alone
• 10:08
  does not guarantee the different divisions will suddenly operate
• 10:11
  seamlessly. Disney is enormous, and
• 10:14
  coordinating studios, streaming parks, products, sports games,
• 10:19
  marketing and technology is extraordinarily complicated.
• 10:23
  There is also a balance Disney will have to manage carefully.
• 10:26
  A connected ecosystem becomes much less interesting if every
• 10:30
  audience interaction feels like an attempt to sell the next
• 10:33
  thing. The strength of Disney's model
• 10:35
  has always started with people caring about the stories and
• 10:38
  characters. The commercial ecosystem works
• 10:41
  when that affinity is already there.
• 10:43
  So what should we watch next? I would watch Disney Plus very
• 10:47
  closely, not only subscriber numbers or viewing hours.
• 10:51
  Watch how the product itself evolves, how discovery changes,
• 10:54
  how franchises are surfaced, how ESPN, Hulu, and Disney content
• 10:59
  begin connecting, whether commerce or experiences
• 11:02
  eventually become more visible, and whether Disney Plus starts
• 11:06
  behaving less like a library of content and more like the
• 11:09
  digital front door into Disney. I would also watch the speed of
• 11:13
  consumer products when something unexpectedly breaks out.
• 11:16
  How quickly can Disney respond when a character suddenly
• 11:20
  becomes the center of audience conversation?
• 11:22
  Can licensing, retail and partners move while that demand
• 11:25
  is still accelerating? And I would pay attention to
• 11:28
  properties that move across several parts of Disney at once.
• 11:32
  Those franchises give us some of the clearest opportunities to
• 11:34
  see whether the structure actually changes anything,
• 11:37
  because their audiences already move between content, products,
• 11:41
  experiences, games, and partnerships.
• 11:44
  I would also watch where Disney starts building new bridges that
• 11:47
  did not exist before. Could Disney Plus become more
• 11:50
  directly connected to experiences?
• 11:52
  Could a piece of audience behavior around a streaming
• 11:54
  title inform what appears in retail?
• 11:58
  Could gaming become a stronger transition point between passive
• 12:01
  fandom and active participation? Could data from one part of the
• 12:05
  company help another part recognize an audience
• 12:07
  opportunity earlier? Those are the questions that
• 12:10
  make these organizational changes interesting.
• 12:13
  For me, that is the bigger story behind these announcements.
• 12:17
  Disney has spent decades building one of the most
• 12:19
  powerful collections of intellectual property in
• 12:21
  entertainment. The next phase appears
• 12:24
  increasingly focused on connecting the pieces around
• 12:26
  that IP and understanding the audience moving between them.
• 12:30
  And that is what makes these four leadership changes worth
• 12:33
  watching. Because the real question isn't
• 12:35
  where each executive sits on the organizational chart.
• 12:39
  It's whether Disney can become better at seeing where its
• 12:41
  audiences want to go next and then build the company around
• 12:45
  helping them get there.