Walt Disney Company, Coca-Cola, Mastercard Execs Among Variety’s Entertainment Advertising Leaders

Senior VP, marketing and communications, IBM

A career in politics provided excellent training for Adashek, whose work on Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign led to roles in the White House, the treasury department and John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign before he migrated to Microsoft, Nissan and, in 2020, IBM as chief communications officer. Two years later, in 2022, he was asked to tackle marketing as well. “A friend said, ‘That’s great news — but what does IBM do?’” he remembers.

Answering the question by condensing 50 different campaigns, Adashek streamlined IBM’s brand platform under the tagline “Let’s create” to help people better understand the company’s mission. It proved to be IBM’s biggest brand campaign in a decade. “Winning elections are all about telling your story, inspiring your constituents to believe in your mission and understanding what you can do for them,” says Adashek. “In this way, marketing and communications are a lot like campaigning.” — Stuart Miller

Exec VP and global chief marketing officer, The Coca-Cola Company

Enveloped by Coca-Cola’s “invisible-bottle hug logo” (“the most pure, universal gesture of acceptance and inclusion,” observes Arroyo), the Paris Olympics marked the epicenter of the beverage company’s biggest campaign of 2024, featuring a musical collaboration with the International Olympic Committee, innovative ticketing systems and refreshments for athletes, officials and spectators alike. “This intersection between passions and sport is a sweet spot for us,” says Arroyo.

Eager to learn but uncertain what path to follow, Arroyo earned degrees in business administration and law before starting at SC Johnson in brand management. He joined the Coca-Cola Company in 1995, holding various marketing roles before moving into upper management.

“Marketing exists to be the major driver of profitable growth for the business. It also is meant to inspire the world,” he says. “Dream big and think boldly, and don’t be afraid to tackle challenges to take the busi- ness to the next level.” — Todd Gilchrist

Senior VP and chief marketing officer, The Home Depot

Battin learned about teamwork from rowing crew at Princeton. “The magic happens when you get the right people in the right seats and they move the boat forward faster, because they’re all in sync,” she says.

In a career spanning more than a quarter-century, diverse experiences at Turner, Delta Airlines and the Coca-Cola Company helped Battin develop a unique perspective on how to run effective campaigns at the Home Depot, which currently includes a bespoke NCAA March Madness partnership featuring Shaquille O’Neal and a retail media network, Orange Apron Media, to help suppliers better connect with customers.

Battin’s leadership philosophy embraces discomfort. “In order to grow, we all need to try new things, and new things are uncomfortable,” she says. “Having the courage to try something innovative or take a risk can result in spectacular success. Conversely, if the risk doesn’t bring the results you were hoping for, you learn why — which is invaluable.” — Brent Simon

Chief marketing office, Chipotle

When Brandt joined Chipotle in 2018, he spent his first two weeks working in one of the company’s restaurants. “I went in at seven o’clock in the morning and saw morning prep happening — all this fresh produce coming in, all this cooking going on — and thought, ‘If we show people this, they will love it.’” His experience inspired the company’s “For Real” tagline and accompanying “Behind the Foil” campaign, with a new iteration due soon.

Brandt sharpened his marketing and advertising skills on General Mills’ Nature Valley brand and Coca-Cola’s Odwalla before joining Taco Bell, where he learned how storytelling drives business and innovation. Identifying areas where culture and Chipotle intersect has led to fun promotions and partnerships, including Spirit Halloween’s new line of Chipotle costumes. “People don’t hate advertising. They hate advertising that isn’t relevant to them,” Brandt says, which is why storytelling remains central to Chipotle’s success. — Paula Hendrickson

President of global advertising, The Walt Disney Company

A 27-year Disney veteran, Ferro credits time in the international space early in her career for instilling an ability to be both flexible and responsive enough to keep up with the pace of innovation. “We’re all so busy doing what’s now,” she says, “but the biggest challenge is honestly just time to do and think and be present for what’s coming.”

Looking out on the horizon, that means Disney’s Bridge ID, which underpins the future of automation for the company, and a first-to-market project called Disney Magic Words, which utilizes metadata and AI to enable dynamic contextual advertising.

The oldest of four children in a small-business-owning family, Ferro learned from a young age the value of leading by empowering others. In a post-pandemic era of upended norms and dynamic change, she’s bullish about the future. “I’ve never been more excited about our business than I am now, and partially because I spend so much time learning,” she says. — B.S.

Chief marketing officer and senior VP of communications and public policy, Uber

“People are smart, fundamentals matter and you can’t spin your way into a better product or a different set of regulations,” says Hazelbaker. The Oregon native has been a key driver behind Uber’s series of safety reports, first published in 2019, tracking assaults and accidents involving their rides. “We took an issue that most companies are afraid to talk about and view as a reputational hazard and we made it a centerpiece, because sunlight really is the best disinfectant,” she says.

Before entering the tech sector, Hazelbaker worked as the national communications director for John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid and as press secretary for Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 New York City mayoral campaign. She’s found that many of the lessons she learned in politics apply to her current job at Uber. Recently, Hazelbaker launched “On Our Way,” a new campaign designed to communicate the positive feelings those three words elicit and the impact of Uber’s services, both practical and emotional. — Todd Longwell

Global chief marketing officer, Ford

Materazzo’s connection to the Ford brand stretches back her entire life. “My dad told me he bought a Mustang GT390 Fastback to celebrate my birth — supposedly for my mom, although she has a slightly different version of that story,” she says.

Prior to coming to Ford, Materazzo was also the top North America marketing executive at Toyota, where she spent over two decades across two stints. Materazzo started in finance before a passion for racing and motorsports facilitated a career pivot.

Given the opportunity several years ago to drive Nürburgring, a famously challenging racetrack in Germany, Materazzo consulted with pro drivers. Their advice — including taking proactive measures to defend against where competitors might try to overtake you, and never following the car ahead of you because you’ll just repeat their mistakes rather than make and learn from your own — inform Materazzo’s professional philosophy. “Those tips are just as applicable to our business and my day-to-day as they are to racing,” she says. — B.S.

Chief marketing & communications officer, Mastercard

At Mastercard, Rajamannar has tapped into consumers’ passion for entertainment through a variety of ongoing initiatives, including sponsorships of seven major film festivals in Europe, partnerships with the Grammy Awards and Live Nation, and the Mastercard Artist Accelerator program. “It’s about getting experiences for our consumers that money cannot buy and only we can provide,” he explains.

Growing up in India, Rajamannar was obsessed with astronomy and dreamed of becoming an astronaut. But his passion shifted by the time he entered college, where he earned an undergrad degree in chemical engineering and then an MBA with a specialization in environmental management. He wound up with a job at cosmetics company Black Paint, where one day he overheard his boss talking to ad agency reps near his cubicle, and he spontaneously pitched them an idea for a campaign — and they ran with it.

“It’s now more than three decades and I’ve been in marketing ever since,” he says. — T.L.

President of advertising, Netflix

After three years leading Netflix’s studio operations, Reinhard drove the streaming giant to 150% growth in ad sale commitments in just over six months as its president of advertising. “We have made incredible progress on the advertising business at Netflix including building and scaling a growing global team, launching our own in-house advertising technology and executing multiregional campaigns for our ad-supported plan,” she says.

Reinhard started as a sports producer for AOL, and she eventually rose to president of worldwide TV licensing and distribution for Paramount Pictures before joining Netflix in 2016 as vice president, content acquisition. But her outlook has never changed.

“It has been helpful throughout to take a holistic approach,” she says, “understanding each business through different lenses — financial, strategic, technological — and to have a strong grasp and opinion on where the business is going and how best to play and win in the years to come.” — S.M.

Chief marketing officer, Delta

At Delta, some of Tillman’s most successful recent campaigns — including partnerships with other brands and destinations, plus a special lounge experience at South by Southwest complete with curated beverages — reflect an embrace of the emerging trend of consumers valuing experiential benefits rather than simply tangible products.

With more than two decades of experience, including six years at SAP and an 11-year stint at American Express, Tillman describes marketing as “part strategy, part innovation and part customer understanding,” the mastered alchemy of which can help create consumer loyalty for life.

Taking to heart lessons of creativity and imagination she witnessed during her first post-collegiate job at travel management company Rosenbluth International, Tillman sees herself as a glass-half-full executive. “I lead with vision first, and this idea of what’s possible more than what’s impossible,” she says. “The world can certainly benefit from there being more optimism, and a push toward creativity and innovation versus always being so inhibited by the enormous number of barriers that sit in front of us.” — B.S.