Andrew Messina is a Senior Vice President at Disney Advertising. He began his career on the agency side before moving into daytime sales at ABC, then advancing to a primetime senior account executive role, and ultimately rising to his current position. For the past 17 years, Andrew has led all brand advertising initiatives at Disney Advertising, including linear, programmatic, and addressable campaigns across platforms such as Disney, Disney+, Hulu, FX, and ESPN.
In today’s episode, Alan and Andrew connect at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to discuss the integration, sponsorship, and advertising opportunities Disney offers brands across its many properties. Andrew shares how live events – particularly women’s sports – are shaping advertising, highlights the importance of relationship-building in media sales, and explains Disney’s approach to reaching diverse audiences. He also reflects on the importance of mentorship and how AI and youth culture are influencing marketing strategies.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
and
Are you ready to go beyond the basics of marketing?
I'm Alan Hart and this is Marketing Beyond where we talk about the questions that sparkchange and share ideas that challenge the status quo.
Join us as we explore the future of marketing and its endless potential.
(00:31):
Today on the show, we've got Andrew Massena.
He's the Senior Vice President for Disney Advertising.
Disney Advertising includes linear, programmatic, and addressable many brands that weknow.
Disney, Disney +, Hulu, FX, and many more, as well as ESPN.
On the show today, we'll talk about integrations, sponsorships, and advertising and theevolution of advertising.
We'll also talk about the changing landscape of advertising and the explosion of women'ssports and how they're taking advantage of that opportunity.
(00:58):
That and much more with Andrew Massena.
Well, Andrew, welcome to the show.
I'd love to know how you ended up in media.
Well, I'm not the traditional way, like kids these days.
(01:18):
I was a history major at Tulane.
And my interesting story of how I got in the business is not the traditional like it wasin the past, or oh currently with kids logging on to LinkedIn.
I started looking for a job in New York City and I saw a classified ad in the New YorkTimes and I sent my resume into this uh small advertising agency.
(01:43):
And this woman responded to me after I sent it in two weeks prior.
And I go, thanks for meeting me.
How'd you decide to pick me as all these resumes?
She goes, my boyfriend saw your resume on the kitchen table and you went to Tulane and hewent to Tulane.
So I decided to interview.
And she gave me the job at a small agency.
(02:05):
That's amazing.
That's the power of networks.
Well, it's not how it's done today.
No.
Which we can get into later.
That's awesome.
What was, from that very early job to now being Senior Vice President, Disney advertising,what was the path or were some of the big stops?
So for me, when I started a small agency, then I went to McCann-Erikson, I worked on somebig brands like Nestle and Coke.
(02:28):
And I realized, you I really wanted to get into the sales side of things.
I started as a daytime planner in 1994 at ABC.
So that's prior to Disney.
That's, know, that's we were Cap Cities, ABC.
So I worked in the heyday of when, you know, daytime television had some big ratings ingeneral hospital, all my children, one life to live.
And then we had the OJ Simpson trial, which basically destroyed.
(02:51):
daytime television because all they ran was The Tribe.
And then what happened there is, know, loyal viewers on daytime couldn't watch their showfor six or eight months, so they lost interest and the daytime ratings from then on kind
of just kind of disintegrated.
ah And then I moved into prime time because it's a natural progression of promotion.
(03:12):
And then there was an opportunity for me move to Los Angeles as a senior account executiveactually selling.
Did that for five years during the dot com boom.
Had three of my four kids, loved LA, no plans to moving.
I was gonna be an LA person and then got promoted to VP in New York.
So that changed my life a little bit.
And then for the last 17 years, I've been a senior vice president at Disney, because wewere bought by a Cap City or we were bought by Disney in 1996.
(03:42):
but in the last seven years, we've had a lot of different, the media landscape haschanged.
Up until 2017, I was just selling ABC.
After that, now under our umbrella, we sell Disney Channel, ABC, Freeform, ESPN, FX, NatGeo, Disney Plus is massive now.
(04:04):
Five years ago, there was no advertising, so a lot has changed.
uh
Well, you've seen a lot.
What is the scope?
mean, besides those properties you just listed off, what's the scope of the role that youhave right now?
So right now I oversee, my most recent role is I oversee all the brand partnerships, theclient partnerships under the team.
So we have an investment team that handles the agencies and I handle all the brandpartnerships.
(04:26):
So all of the clients under those major holding companies, I work with all thosecompanies.
And my primary responsibility is to develop the relationships with the senior C-suitepeople like the CMOs, CFOs and CEOs.
So I've been doing that for the last seven years across
categories across agencies, but in the last year, really more so just I'm focused acrossall the entire brand team.
(04:52):
So we have an entire brand team under myself.
Well, if we just pick out sports for a minute, like how have you seen, you know, consumer,uh, know, brands, guess, and integrations and advertising shape the sports landscape and
the consumer engagement for sports.
(05:12):
Yeah, I mean, right now, when you talk about Disney advertising sales, we have the best inclass across all properties.
We're very fortunate.
But when you talk about the main priorities for us, it's streaming and it's sports.
And live sports right now, if you talk about the NBA, we just renewed our rights deal withthem.
(05:33):
have Monday Night Football.
We have 70 % of the rating points in college football because we picked up the SECnetwork.
We have...
all the college football championships.
So we have a massive, massive reach in that aspect.
And when you talk about sports, a lot of our major, major clients, we probably five yearsago had multi-year deals, which is a two, three, four, five year deal with certain
(05:58):
clients.
We probably had five to 10 of those a handful of years ago.
Now we have probably upwards of 70 plus multi-year deals because even though there's a lotof sports,
There's not a lot of real estate, so the demand on live sports night is better, it's beenhotter than ever.
And I don't know if we're gonna touch on women's sports, but women's sports right now,we've been in that business for 30 years, but over the last couple of years, women's
(06:27):
sports specifically has blown up.
The WNBA, the women's NCAA tournament, which we had a couple years ago, which we stillhave, but with Caitlin Clark.
those numbers for the NCA women were higher than the men's.
Hopefully that's creating more real estate for you and brands to try to figure out how tomake it work.
(06:50):
It is.
Brands come to us, whether they're a legacy brand or a new brand, they come to us becausethey're trying to launch a product.
We have our first Super Bowl in 20 years in 2027, which is very exciting.
Last time we had it was in Detroit in 2006.
(07:13):
Now we'll have it in LA in 2027.
You probably saw the Super Bowl sells out.
you know, pretty quickly.
If you're launching a major automotive brand right now, you want to be in the Super Bowl.
You want to be in the National Championship.
You want to be in the NBA Finals.
So when you, have game six tonight, Oklahoma Pacers on ABC, and the demand for NBA hasbeen spectacular.
(07:40):
Andrew, like you've got under your remit and under Disney advertising so much variety ofproperties and types of opportunities to connect with consumers.
If I'm a brand, how do you, how do you manage that?
How do you bring that power of everything to, to brand?
Well, I mean, it goes back to what I was saying earlier is, we have a, as you said, theportfolio is massive and it allows us to reach every single audience across every single
(08:12):
demo.
And when I look at our cultural calendar from the entire year, you start in January withNew Year's Rockin' Eve and then you end, you know, with college football and NFL.
So throughout the year, we have touch points for marketers.
So there's really not a time of year that we're not really making an impact, whether it'sstreaming, sports, or entertainment.
(08:37):
Well, a lot of brands are trying to experiment with co-creation with consumers.
I'm curious if you've experienced or have any thoughts on how that might shift or changeor augment the advertising landscape for you at Disney.
Yeah, I mean, think it'll evolve, but at the same time, live sports, what we're able to doon site during the national championship games, whether it's an auto or a QSR, those
(09:05):
experiences, know, for instance, college game day.
If you're a college football fan, you are watching college football all week long, and wecover it.
The best thing about it for us is, you've got ESPN.com, which covers
you know, seven days a week.
And then, you know, we've got lead up on oh ESPN, know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, andthen Saturday, College Game Day.
(09:30):
You would think that the ratings, because you look at linear ratings, have kind ofplateaued on College Game Day.
They were up 16%, which is significant number.
So that makes our sponsors a lot of, you know, very happy.
And also, quite frankly, it just creates the more demand.
if somebody pulls out of College Game Day, we are pretty much
(09:50):
It's pretty easy for us to replace them.
So it's high demand.
Well, you mentioned auto before, especially as getting in those big marquee moments.
If you think about auto and retail, how do you see the different strategies playing out?
Is there a leaning towards one versus the other in terms of how you think about packagingthe right approach?
(10:10):
And I think they have their own approach and what we do is we customize, know, we really,give us their brief of what they're trying to accomplish, whether they're launching a new
product in a restaurant or whether they're launching a new auto or it just depends.
We'll customize it to their needs.
of where they are.
Is there any standout moments for you in terms of what retail is doing or what auto isdoing today?
(10:35):
I mean, I think retail, the gold standard on retail is College Game Day built by HomeDepot.
They've been with us for 23 years.
It's their gold standard.
And we build all these things.
These are built by our entire, we have a sports brand solutions team which handles sportsintegrations.
We have an entertainment brand solution that handles our entertainment like the Oscars,the Country Music Awards.
(10:59):
But we, this is, my role is to work very, very closely with the CMOs.
and make sure that they're happy with every, so, you know, I'm on the road a lot talkingto these clients, going down to Atlanta to meet, you Home Depot, going to Detroit to meet
the autos.
So, we want to make sure, because you look at Cannes right now, and you see how manypeople are here, relationships really, really still matter.
(11:23):
And the only way some of these things are going to get done is through making sure you'reconnected.
We've been in the business for a long time, both on the agency side and on the media side.
What's like maybe one big transformation you've seen over the course of your career?
I would go back to relationship.
Back when I started in the business, you had a lot of internal relationships, but weweren't out early in my career on the street.
(11:48):
When I moved to LA and during the dot-com boom, I was on the road every week in LA, SanFrancisco, Seattle, Portland, meeting with all the different clients there and developing
those relationships.
Earlier on, I think it was more transactional.
The relationships really, really matter.
A lot of things have been automated and we're moving fast and furious towards 75 % of ourinventory on automation.
(12:14):
But at the same time, like I said, look at Cannes.
There's all these people here and they're all building relationships.
What is it, I mean, you've been in various types of sales and general management roles,like that notion of relationships and can you put your finger on like what it is that
makes it so unique and special?
Well, I mean, think the main factor is trust.
(12:37):
you know, just like, you you have good friends for a long time.
And when I meet young kids in this, you know, who are coming out of college, one of thethings that I didn't have, you know, I got my first start off a coffee table, right?
Okay, now I have so many kids, because I have so many kids come to me, college graduates,because I have four kids and everybody's like, you work at the Walt Disney Company, can I
(12:58):
come meet with you?
And I'm happy to meet, because I want those kids.
when they move up the ladder to do what I'm doing and meet with them.
So I think the biggest difference right now is the relationships.
I think they matter much more than they did 20, 25 years ago.
Well, one of the things we like to do on the show is to get to know you a little bitbetter.
(13:19):
know you got that early start in your career responding to the old ads, if you will,
Has there been an experience of your past that defines and makes up who you are today?
Yeah, I would say I go back to LA again.
Somebody gave me an opportunity.
I was first of all given the opportunity at ABC, but then three years into my career, Iwas on the prime planning side at ABC and somebody and there was a person,
(13:44):
was running the LA office.
didn't have direct sales experience.
I wasn't a salesperson yet.
And he gave me the opportunity and the opportunity, like I said, was right before thedot-com boom.
So I was forced to then with him.
go out to see all these clients and explain what we were doing at ABC.
And then we were meeting with the E-Trades, the E-Toys, all those E-Companies.
(14:10):
And we were just having fun.
And we were making money.
And then that kind of changed the trajectory of my career because that really got medeeper into sales.
I really broadened.
That's how I really honed or started honing my skills from a relationship.
that investment by him into you.
And so that's kind of what I'm doing now with a lot of people.
(14:33):
I, you know, we at Disney, we have a great mentor program.
So we've, I have, you know, over the years I still have a lot, I have a lot of ex mentees,but once you have a mentee, they're your mentee for life.
So I still mentor a lot of kids when they're starting work, but I also have a lot ofinternals.
And I think it's probably one of the most rewarding things because I didn't really havethat mentor, but I did have people along the way in my career.
(14:58):
Nobody does it on their own.
And I even tell my own kids, when you're starting off in your 20s, that's the beginning ofyour story.
The rest of your career, and because in your 20s, you're pretty stressed out if you don'thave the direction.
But I think a lot of kids now, and there's a lot of pressure on these kids coming out ofcollege.
So I think if just explain them, it's easy for me to say, don't stress out about it.
(15:23):
But if you give them the advice of, all right, just keep your legs moving.
keep your head down and work hard.
It's not easy, but it's also not that difficult.
Well, if you were thinking back and that younger self, you know, looking for that firstjob or after that first job, you know, where are you going to go next?
What advice would you give your younger self?
(15:46):
Just that, would say to myself, try not to stress and make sure that if you can outworkeveryone and open every single door that you can.
uh This has been a tough or an interesting last five years for this generation becausethey were at home for a handful of years.
(16:09):
And quite frankly, we're in the office four days a week.
We're not in on Fridays, we're working from home, but I mean, there was a long time thatwe were, year plus that we were at home five days a week.
And I think that hurt the relationship building for some of the younger generation comingout of college.
So I think my advice to my kids and everybody out there is get out there and develop therelationship.
(16:33):
You never know where your next opportunity is gonna come from.
And if you're not having those conversations and you're not having those in-personmeetings, not gonna fall in your lap.
Is there a topic either you're trying to learn more about or you think marketers need tobe learning more about today?
Well, mean, if we're in canon, you don't say AI, you're in trouble.
ah So I am reading Mark Britton's book, there's an AI right now.
(16:57):
And I just think the more I can learn about AI, the better off I think everybody's goingto be.
Because it's not going away.
I think over the next three, four, five years, it's going to drastically change everysingle business.
But I think in a lot of ways, it's going to change it in some good ways.
Are there any trends or subcultures that you're following and you think other peopleshould take notice of?
(17:19):
Basically what I'm most interested in, like what are you curious about in the world rightnow?
It goes back to the younger audience again.
We need to cultivate the younger audience and marketers are very focused on the youngeraudience because you may not be wanting to buy a luxury car when you're in your 20s, but
the luxury car makers, they want to target you because once you're able to afford that,they want you to subconsciously know, I want that car when I'm older.
(17:44):
So I think in this fragmented world, you really, really need to focus on the young kidsbecause they are all, they have a lot of choices.
And there's not just a handful of retailers out there.
There's not just a handful of consumer.
There's constantly new products going out there that are, one would have thought that inthe retail world there was a handful of retailers.
(18:06):
Now we all know with the advent of you can just go online and buy what you want.
There's a lot of different choices from apparel to sneakers or whatever you may have.
So I think focusing on the younger audience and making sure
that you're attracting them and you're reaching them, that's critical for the marketers.
Well, last question for you.
What do you think is the largest opportunity or threat facing marketers today?
(18:31):
I think being complacent and just thinking, and coming from Disney, we have a pretty goodposition because there's the upper funnel and there's the lower funnel.
We pretty much cover that entire funnel.
And I think the big threat for some of these marketers is they need to make sure thatthey're reaching that entire funnel.
So to me, they need to make sure that that's covered.
(18:53):
Otherwise, it could be an issue.
So thank you very much.
Views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent theviews, thoughts, and opinions of Deloitte.
Material and information presented here is for general information purposes only and doesnot imply endorsement or opposition to any specific company, product, or service.
(19:18):
Hi, it's Alan again.
Marketing Beyond is a Deloitte digital podcast.
It's created and produced by me with post-production support from Sam Robertson.
If you're new to Marketing Beyond, please feel free to write us a review and subscribe onyour favorite listening platform.
I also invite you to explore the other Deloitte digital podcast at deloitte digital.comslash us slash podcast and share the show with your friends and colleagues.
(19:46):
I love hearing from listeners.
can contact me at marketingbeyond at Deloitte.com.
You'll also find complete show notes and links to what's discussed in the podcast today,and you can search our archives.
I'm Alan Hart, and this is Marketing Beyond.
and
Are you ready to go beyond the basics of marketing?
I'm Alan Hart and this is Marketing Beyond where we talk about the questions that sparkchange and share ideas that challenge the status quo.
Join us as we explore the future of marketing and its endless potential.
(00:31):
Today on the show, we've got Andrew Massena.
He's the Senior Vice President for Disney Advertising.
Disney Advertising includes linear, programmatic, and addressable many brands that weknow.
Disney, Disney +, Hulu, FX, and many more, as well as ESPN.
On the show today, we'll talk about integrations, sponsorships, and advertising and theevolution of advertising.
We'll also talk about the changing landscape of advertising and the explosion of women'ssports and how they're taking advantage of that opportunity.
(00:58):
That and much more with Andrew Massena.
Well, Andrew, welcome to the show.
I'd love to know how you ended up in media.
Well, I'm not the traditional way, like kids these days.
(01:18):
I was a history major at Tulane.
And my interesting story of how I got in the business is not the traditional like it wasin the past, or oh currently with kids logging on to LinkedIn.
I started looking for a job in New York City and I saw a classified ad in the New YorkTimes and I sent my resume into this uh small advertising agency.
(01:43):
And this woman responded to me after I sent it in two weeks prior.
And I go, thanks for meeting me.
How'd you decide to pick me as all these resumes?
She goes, my boyfriend saw your resume on the kitchen table and you went to Tulane and hewent to Tulane.
So I decided to interview.
And she gave me the job at a small agency.
(02:05):
That's amazing.
That's the power of networks.
Well, it's not how it's done today.
No.
Which we can get into later.
That's awesome.
What was, from that very early job to now being Senior Vice President, Disney advertising,what was the path or were some of the big stops?
So for me, when I started a small agency, then I went to McCann-Erikson, I worked on somebig brands like Nestle and Coke.
(02:28):
And I realized, you I really wanted to get into the sales side of things.
I started as a daytime planner in 1994 at ABC.
So that's prior to Disney.
That's, know, that's we were Cap Cities, ABC.
So I worked in the heyday of when, you know, daytime television had some big ratings ingeneral hospital, all my children, one life to live.
And then we had the OJ Simpson trial, which basically destroyed.
(02:51):
daytime television because all they ran was The Tribe.
And then what happened there is, know, loyal viewers on daytime couldn't watch their showfor six or eight months, so they lost interest and the daytime ratings from then on kind
of just kind of disintegrated.
ah And then I moved into prime time because it's a natural progression of promotion.
(03:12):
And then there was an opportunity for me move to Los Angeles as a senior account executiveactually selling.
Did that for five years during the dot com boom.
Had three of my four kids, loved LA, no plans to moving.
I was gonna be an LA person and then got promoted to VP in New York.
So that changed my life a little bit.
And then for the last 17 years, I've been a senior vice president at Disney, because wewere bought by a Cap City or we were bought by Disney in 1996.
(03:42):
but in the last seven years, we've had a lot of different, the media landscape haschanged.
Up until 2017, I was just selling ABC.
After that, now under our umbrella, we sell Disney Channel, ABC, Freeform, ESPN, FX, NatGeo, Disney Plus is massive now.
(04:04):
Five years ago, there was no advertising, so a lot has changed.
uh
Well, you've seen a lot.
What is the scope?
mean, besides those properties you just listed off, what's the scope of the role that youhave right now?
So right now I oversee, my most recent role is I oversee all the brand partnerships, theclient partnerships under the team.
So we have an investment team that handles the agencies and I handle all the brandpartnerships.
(04:26):
So all of the clients under those major holding companies, I work with all thosecompanies.
And my primary responsibility is to develop the relationships with the senior C-suitepeople like the CMOs, CFOs and CEOs.
So I've been doing that for the last seven years across
categories across agencies, but in the last year, really more so just I'm focused acrossall the entire brand team.
(04:52):
So we have an entire brand team under myself.
Well, if we just pick out sports for a minute, like how have you seen, you know, consumer,uh, know, brands, guess, and integrations and advertising shape the sports landscape and
the consumer engagement for sports.
(05:12):
Yeah, I mean, right now, when you talk about Disney advertising sales, we have the best inclass across all properties.
We're very fortunate.
But when you talk about the main priorities for us, it's streaming and it's sports.
And live sports right now, if you talk about the NBA, we just renewed our rights deal withthem.
(05:33):
have Monday Night Football.
We have 70 % of the rating points in college football because we picked up the SECnetwork.
We have...
all the college football championships.
So we have a massive, massive reach in that aspect.
And when you talk about sports, a lot of our major, major clients, we probably five yearsago had multi-year deals, which is a two, three, four, five year deal with certain
(05:58):
clients.
We probably had five to 10 of those a handful of years ago.
Now we have probably upwards of 70 plus multi-year deals because even though there's a lotof sports,
There's not a lot of real estate, so the demand on live sports night is better, it's beenhotter than ever.
And I don't know if we're gonna touch on women's sports, but women's sports right now,we've been in that business for 30 years, but over the last couple of years, women's
(06:27):
sports specifically has blown up.
The WNBA, the women's NCAA tournament, which we had a couple years ago, which we stillhave, but with Caitlin Clark.
those numbers for the NCA women were higher than the men's.
Hopefully that's creating more real estate for you and brands to try to figure out how tomake it work.
(06:50):
It is.
Brands come to us, whether they're a legacy brand or a new brand, they come to us becausethey're trying to launch a product.
We have our first Super Bowl in 20 years in 2027, which is very exciting.
Last time we had it was in Detroit in 2006.
(07:13):
Now we'll have it in LA in 2027.
You probably saw the Super Bowl sells out.
you know, pretty quickly.
If you're launching a major automotive brand right now, you want to be in the Super Bowl.
You want to be in the National Championship.
You want to be in the NBA Finals.
So when you, have game six tonight, Oklahoma Pacers on ABC, and the demand for NBA hasbeen spectacular.
(07:40):
Andrew, like you've got under your remit and under Disney advertising so much variety ofproperties and types of opportunities to connect with consumers.
If I'm a brand, how do you, how do you manage that?
How do you bring that power of everything to, to brand?
Well, I mean, it goes back to what I was saying earlier is, we have a, as you said, theportfolio is massive and it allows us to reach every single audience across every single
(08:12):
demo.
And when I look at our cultural calendar from the entire year, you start in January withNew Year's Rockin' Eve and then you end, you know, with college football and NFL.
So throughout the year, we have touch points for marketers.
So there's really not a time of year that we're not really making an impact, whether it'sstreaming, sports, or entertainment.
(08:37):
Well, a lot of brands are trying to experiment with co-creation with consumers.
I'm curious if you've experienced or have any thoughts on how that might shift or changeor augment the advertising landscape for you at Disney.
Yeah, I mean, think it'll evolve, but at the same time, live sports, what we're able to doon site during the national championship games, whether it's an auto or a QSR, those
(09:05):
experiences, know, for instance, college game day.
If you're a college football fan, you are watching college football all week long, and wecover it.
The best thing about it for us is, you've got ESPN.com, which covers
you know, seven days a week.
And then, you know, we've got lead up on oh ESPN, know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, andthen Saturday, College Game Day.
(09:30):
You would think that the ratings, because you look at linear ratings, have kind ofplateaued on College Game Day.
They were up 16%, which is significant number.
So that makes our sponsors a lot of, you know, very happy.
And also, quite frankly, it just creates the more demand.
if somebody pulls out of College Game Day, we are pretty much
(09:50):
It's pretty easy for us to replace them.
So it's high demand.
Well, you mentioned auto before, especially as getting in those big marquee moments.
If you think about auto and retail, how do you see the different strategies playing out?
Is there a leaning towards one versus the other in terms of how you think about packagingthe right approach?
(10:10):
And I think they have their own approach and what we do is we customize, know, we really,give us their brief of what they're trying to accomplish, whether they're launching a new
product in a restaurant or whether they're launching a new auto or it just depends.
We'll customize it to their needs.
of where they are.
Is there any standout moments for you in terms of what retail is doing or what auto isdoing today?
(10:35):
I mean, I think retail, the gold standard on retail is College Game Day built by HomeDepot.
They've been with us for 23 years.
It's their gold standard.
And we build all these things.
These are built by our entire, we have a sports brand solutions team which handles sportsintegrations.
We have an entertainment brand solution that handles our entertainment like the Oscars,the Country Music Awards.
(10:59):
But we, this is, my role is to work very, very closely with the CMOs.
and make sure that they're happy with every, so, you know, I'm on the road a lot talkingto these clients, going down to Atlanta to meet, you Home Depot, going to Detroit to meet
the autos.
So, we want to make sure, because you look at Cannes right now, and you see how manypeople are here, relationships really, really still matter.
(11:23):
And the only way some of these things are going to get done is through making sure you'reconnected.
We've been in the business for a long time, both on the agency side and on the media side.
What's like maybe one big transformation you've seen over the course of your career?
I would go back to relationship.
Back when I started in the business, you had a lot of internal relationships, but weweren't out early in my career on the street.
(11:48):
When I moved to LA and during the dot-com boom, I was on the road every week in LA, SanFrancisco, Seattle, Portland, meeting with all the different clients there and developing
those relationships.
Earlier on, I think it was more transactional.
The relationships really, really matter.
A lot of things have been automated and we're moving fast and furious towards 75 % of ourinventory on automation.
(12:14):
But at the same time, like I said, look at Cannes.
There's all these people here and they're all building relationships.
What is it, I mean, you've been in various types of sales and general management roles,like that notion of relationships and can you put your finger on like what it is that
makes it so unique and special?
Well, I mean, think the main factor is trust.
(12:37):
you know, just like, you you have good friends for a long time.
And when I meet young kids in this, you know, who are coming out of college, one of thethings that I didn't have, you know, I got my first start off a coffee table, right?
Okay, now I have so many kids, because I have so many kids come to me, college graduates,because I have four kids and everybody's like, you work at the Walt Disney Company, can I
(12:58):
come meet with you?
And I'm happy to meet, because I want those kids.
when they move up the ladder to do what I'm doing and meet with them.
So I think the biggest difference right now is the relationships.
I think they matter much more than they did 20, 25 years ago.
Well, one of the things we like to do on the show is to get to know you a little bitbetter.
(13:19):
know you got that early start in your career responding to the old ads, if you will,
Has there been an experience of your past that defines and makes up who you are today?
Yeah, I would say I go back to LA again.
Somebody gave me an opportunity.
I was first of all given the opportunity at ABC, but then three years into my career, Iwas on the prime planning side at ABC and somebody and there was a person,
(13:44):
was running the LA office.
didn't have direct sales experience.
I wasn't a salesperson yet.
And he gave me the opportunity and the opportunity, like I said, was right before thedot-com boom.
So I was forced to then with him.
go out to see all these clients and explain what we were doing at ABC.
And then we were meeting with the E-Trades, the E-Toys, all those E-Companies.
(14:10):
And we were just having fun.
And we were making money.
And then that kind of changed the trajectory of my career because that really got medeeper into sales.
I really broadened.
That's how I really honed or started honing my skills from a relationship.
that investment by him into you.
And so that's kind of what I'm doing now with a lot of people.
(14:33):
I, you know, we at Disney, we have a great mentor program.
So we've, I have, you know, over the years I still have a lot, I have a lot of ex mentees,but once you have a mentee, they're your mentee for life.
So I still mentor a lot of kids when they're starting work, but I also have a lot ofinternals.
And I think it's probably one of the most rewarding things because I didn't really havethat mentor, but I did have people along the way in my career.
(14:58):
Nobody does it on their own.
And I even tell my own kids, when you're starting off in your 20s, that's the beginning ofyour story.
The rest of your career, and because in your 20s, you're pretty stressed out if you don'thave the direction.
But I think a lot of kids now, and there's a lot of pressure on these kids coming out ofcollege.
So I think if just explain them, it's easy for me to say, don't stress out about it.
(15:23):
But if you give them the advice of, all right, just keep your legs moving.
keep your head down and work hard.
It's not easy, but it's also not that difficult.
Well, if you were thinking back and that younger self, you know, looking for that firstjob or after that first job, you know, where are you going to go next?
What advice would you give your younger self?
(15:46):
Just that, would say to myself, try not to stress and make sure that if you can outworkeveryone and open every single door that you can.
uh This has been a tough or an interesting last five years for this generation becausethey were at home for a handful of years.
(16:09):
And quite frankly, we're in the office four days a week.
We're not in on Fridays, we're working from home, but I mean, there was a long time thatwe were, year plus that we were at home five days a week.
And I think that hurt the relationship building for some of the younger generation comingout of college.
So I think my advice to my kids and everybody out there is get out there and develop therelationship.
(16:33):
You never know where your next opportunity is gonna come from.
And if you're not having those conversations and you're not having those in-personmeetings, not gonna fall in your lap.
Is there a topic either you're trying to learn more about or you think marketers need tobe learning more about today?
Well, mean, if we're in canon, you don't say AI, you're in trouble.
ah So I am reading Mark Britton's book, there's an AI right now.
(16:57):
And I just think the more I can learn about AI, the better off I think everybody's goingto be.
Because it's not going away.
I think over the next three, four, five years, it's going to drastically change everysingle business.
But I think in a lot of ways, it's going to change it in some good ways.
Are there any trends or subcultures that you're following and you think other peopleshould take notice of?
(17:19):
Basically what I'm most interested in, like what are you curious about in the world rightnow?
It goes back to the younger audience again.
We need to cultivate the younger audience and marketers are very focused on the youngeraudience because you may not be wanting to buy a luxury car when you're in your 20s, but
the luxury car makers, they want to target you because once you're able to afford that,they want you to subconsciously know, I want that car when I'm older.
(17:44):
So I think in this fragmented world, you really, really need to focus on the young kidsbecause they are all, they have a lot of choices.
And there's not just a handful of retailers out there.
There's not just a handful of consumer.
There's constantly new products going out there that are, one would have thought that inthe retail world there was a handful of retailers.
(18:06):
Now we all know with the advent of you can just go online and buy what you want.
There's a lot of different choices from apparel to sneakers or whatever you may have.
So I think focusing on the younger audience and making sure
that you're attracting them and you're reaching them, that's critical for the marketers.
Well, last question for you.
What do you think is the largest opportunity or threat facing marketers today?
(18:31):
I think being complacent and just thinking, and coming from Disney, we have a pretty goodposition because there's the upper funnel and there's the lower funnel.
We pretty much cover that entire funnel.
And I think the big threat for some of these marketers is they need to make sure thatthey're reaching that entire funnel.
So to me, they need to make sure that that's covered.
(18:53):
Otherwise, it could be an issue.
So thank you very much.
Views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent theviews, thoughts, and opinions of Deloitte.
Material and information presented here is for general information purposes only and doesnot imply endorsement or opposition to any specific company, product, or service.
(19:18):
Hi, it's Alan again.
Marketing Beyond is a Deloitte digital podcast.
It's created and produced by me with post-production support from Sam Robertson.
If you're new to Marketing Beyond, please feel free to write us a review and subscribe onyour favorite listening platform.
I also invite you to explore the other Deloitte digital podcast at deloitte digital.comslash us slash podcast and share the show with your friends and colleagues.
(19:46):
I love hearing from listeners.
can contact me at marketingbeyond at Deloitte.com.
You'll also find complete show notes and links to what's discussed in the podcast today,and you can search our archives.
I'm Alan Hart, and this is Marketing Beyond.
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