The Reason Netflix Dissolved Its Entire Brand Marketing Team

As the competitive landscape has changed, so, it would appear, are those deemed best to address the new - and frankly more challenging - media entertainment reality.  JL


Patrick Coffee reports in Ad Week:

With the conclusion of Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox and Apple’s entry into the TV streaming world, Netflix will face several new challengers. CEO Reed Hastings confirmed earlier this month that Netflix would not join Apple TV. The move came around the same time that chief marketing officer and former Warner Bros. executive Kelly Bennett announced he would be departing after 7 years.
Streaming giant Netflix moved to dissolve the entirety of its global brand marketing team earlier this month, according to several parties with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke to Adweek on condition of anonymity.

These individuals said the affected team sat under the content and social department, collaborating with that team as well as various third-party agency partners to perform traditional brand marketing duties in promoting the Netflix platform and original programming.
At this time it is unclear how many staffers were affected, but Adweek’s sources said the team was relatively small. It formed in 2017 as Netflix began to ramp up its overall advertising efforts.
A Netflix representative did not respond to a request for comment.
According to Adweek’s sources, the move came around the same time that chief marketing officer and former Warner Bros. executive Kelly Bennett announced he would be departing after 7 years. Netflix is reportedly seeking his replacement as he remains with the company in a transitional role.
Bennett’s was the latest of several executive-level changes at the company, which hired Spencer Neumann of Activision Blizzard as chief financial officer in January and saw its director of original series Tehmina Jaffer depart for Disney+ approximately two weeks ago. Last December, former ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey came aboard as vp of original content.
The precise reasoning behind the brand marketing decision remains uncertain, though Netflix has been known to regularly reshuffle its departments and leadership teams with little or no explanation. This move would appear to be part of such a reorganization, and it is not clear where the duties previously performed by brand marketing will now fall.
With the conclusion of Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox and Apple’s entry into the TV streaming world, Netflix will face several new challengers. CEO Reed Hastings confirmed earlier this month that Netflix would not join Apple TV.