CMO Moves August Update

It feels fitting to be coming out of the long Labor Day weekend talking about people getting hired.

In August, 26 global CMOs were appointed, with 18 women and 8 men taking on the role. Of these, sadly, only 2 were internal promotions, while 24 were external hires.

On a more positive note, 10 of the new CMOs are breaking into this C-level position for the first time.

California led geographically with 7 CMO appointments, followed by New York with 3, and Ohio, Florida, and Massachusetts each with 2.

In terms of industries, Software Development was the most active, with 5 CMOs appointed. Entertainment Providers followed with 3 new CMO announcements. Overall, the new CMOs were distributed across 15 industries, highlighting their growing importance across a wider range of sectors:

• Software Development 5

• Entertainment Providers 3

• IT Services and IT Consulting 2

• Restaurants 2

• Wellness and Fitness Services 2

• Hospitals and Health Care 2

• Business Consulting and Services 2

• Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain, and Storage 1

• Sporting Goods Manufacturing 1

• Commercial and Industrial Machinery Maintenance 1

• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals 1

• Retail Apparel and Fashion 1

• Wholesale 1

• Information Technology & Services 1

• Manufacturing 1

Warner Bros. Discovery

Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced the appointment of Shauna Spenley, a former executive at Netflix and Riot Games, as the Global Chief Marketing Officer for Direct to Consumer. She succeeds Patrizio “Pato” Spagnoletto and will report to JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games.

The media and entertainment giant, formed two years ago through the merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia spinoff and Discovery, is grappling with the decline of linear media, massive debts, the loss of NBA sports rights, and the devaluation of its TV networks. Since the merger, the company has seen its market value drop by more than half. A recent $9.1 billion goodwill impairment charge related to its TV networks contributed to a Q2 2024 net loss of $10 billion. Even cash-burning machine Uber wasn’t losing money that fast after write-downs related to investments in Grab and Didi - they lost a whopping $5.6bn in Q1 2022.

Despite these struggles, the company’s streaming business centered around the Max platform has shown some positive signs. In Q2 2024, WBD added 3.6 million subscribers, bringing the total to 103.3 million. Streaming ad revenue also saw a significant jump, increasing 99% year-over-year from $121 million in Q2 2023 to $240 million. Considering Disney+ (per Statista) subscribers have been stagnant since Q3 2022, that’s not a bad result.

David Zaslav, CEO of WBD, emphasized the company's focus on its global direct-to-consumer business:

At Taligence, we have seen an entire year of client assignments focused on finding talent who can drive down (or at least control) CAC – so lower customer acquisition costs are indeed an advantage.

There are also reports from the Financial Times that WBD might be considering a restructuring to split the company into two separate entities, separating its digital streaming and studio businesses from its legacy television networks. Last month, the company initiated another round of layoffs, potentially affecting close to 1,000 jobs across finance, business affairs, production, and the Max streaming service.

The marketing team at WBD has undergone significant changes:

• Meredith Gertler, EVP of Global Content Strategy, Planning, and Analysis, and Lisa Holme, Group SVP of Global Content Strategy, Merchandising, and Podcasts, both left the company in December.

• Content merchandising and scheduling have been integrated into the Global Chief Marketing Officer for Direct to Consumer responsibilities and are now part of the marketing team.

• Content Strategy and Planning now fall under Chief Financial & Strategy Officer Josh Walker’s global responsibilities.

• FAST channels and Podcasts will be led by Michael Bishara, Group SVP & GM Direct to Consumer and Digital Studios Group.

• Global programming and scheduling for HBO linear and Max will come under Jennie Morris, SVP of Content Experience. Content merchandising will be led by Megan Kew, VP of Global Merchandising, and content team operations have become part of marketing.

Additionally, Robert Gibbs, former Press Secretary for President Obama, was hired in June to lead WBD’s communications team following Nathaniel Brown’s departure. WBD’s head of U.S. networks, Kathleen Finch, is set to retire at the end of the year, with Channing Dungey, Television Group chairman and CEO, designated as her successor.

Our CMO mover, Shauna Spenley, joins WBD from Riot Games, where she served as President of Global Entertainment, overseeing music, animation, film, television, third-party games, and consumer products since December 2020. Before that, Spenley spent over 15 years at Netflix in various marketing leadership roles during which time the streaming giant witnessed stratospheric subscriber growth. Check out these numbers!

In 2005, Netflix had around 4.2 million subscribers, mainly from its DVD rental service. By 2011, after launching its streaming service globally, Netflix's subscribers increased to 21.5 million. Fast-forward to September 2020, when Shauna Spenley left the company, and Netflix had reached around 195 million subscribers globally.

At Riot Games, her departure has triggered significant reshuffling, with John Needham, President of Esports, expanding his role to become the new President of Publishing and Esports. Riot Games’ TV and film development will now be led by two studios, divided into live-action and animation, under the leadership of Christian Linke (animation) and Brian Wright (live-action).

Now, I’ve interviewed for a job at Riot Games, and I can’t think of a more different operating model and culture.

Riot Games and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) are like oil and water when it comes to management culture. Riot is player-obsessed, driven by a passion for gaming, with a flat hierarchy where ideas thrive on creativity and user feedback. Their focus is on making games that resonate with their community. WBD, on the other hand, leans into a traditional corporate structure where decisions are weighed down by layers of approval, driven by a need to satisfy shareholders. Riot is all about gamers; WBD is all about profits.

Blizzard Entertainment

Meanwhile, another gaming company, Blizzard Entertainment, has appointed Monica Austin as their new Chief Marketing Officer. Austin brings over two decades of marketing experience from leading content, media, and tech companies, including ITV, Facebook, Netflix, and Calm. Most recently, she served as CMO at Linktree.

Blizzard Entertainment is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft late last year in a $68.7 billion deal. Following the acquisition, CEO and Founder Bobby Kotick stepped down in December. As part of the new structure, key executives at Activision Blizzard—including Thomas Tippl, vice chairman of Activision Blizzard; Rob Kostich, president of Activision Publishing; and Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment—will now report directly to Matt Booty, President of Microsoft Game Content and Studios.

Several other leadership changes have taken place following Kotick’s departure:

• Lulu Meservey, EVP and Chief Communications Officer, left in January.

• Grant Dixton, Chief Legal Officer, departed in June to join General Motors.

• Humam Sakhnini, Vice Chairman of Blizzard and King, stepped down in December.

Microsoft Gaming is also undergoing restructuring.

In June, we reported that Jarret West, CMO of Xbox and CVP of Microsoft Gaming, left to join Roblox as Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Market Expansion. Xbox’s current VP of Integrated Marketing, Kirsten Ward, now leads a newly unified gaming marketing team, reporting to Matt Booty.

Although Blizzard is a strong revenue contributor to MS, they have had issues with profit and user engagement. We feel that Blizzard’s new CMO should focus on rebuilding trust with the gaming community, finding the balance between monetization and player satisfaction, and standing out against competition like Riot Games. 

In 2024, Riots’ League of Legends (LoL) is clearly winning over Overwatch in terms of player numbers and overall popularity.

Riot’s League of Legends is giant in the gaming world, maintaining an average of 140-150 million monthly active users (MAUs), with daily peaks reaching up to 35 million players. MAU for Blizzards Overwatch 2 is estimated to be 24m across all platforms and 7m peak DAUs [esports.net]

Commenting on her new role, Austin said,

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