Disney has formally unveiled the structure of its newly centralised global marketing operation, putting newly appointed chief marketing and brand officer Asad Ayaz in charge of the company’s entire brand, franchise, media, data and creative engine across film, television, streaming, parks and sport.
As Variety reports, staff were sent a memo earlier this month, in which Ayaz confirmed the creation of a powerful new Enterprise Marketing group designed to knit together Disney’s historically siloed divisions into what he describes as one unified, data-driven storytelling machine.
For a company that now spans Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, parks, cruises and consumer products, the shift signals something much bigger than a reshuffle.
“We will show up as one unified storytelling brand across our flywheel – film, television, streaming, parks, experiences, and sports – aligned to how consumers experience the company today. We will engage with them in more relevant ways, when they want, where they want, making it seamless and intuitive for them to connect with our characters, stories, products, and experiences,” Ayaz wrote.
Asad Ayaz
From silos to flywheel
The memo builds on Ayaz’s elevation earlier this month to Disney’s first-ever chief marketing and brand officer role. But this is the first time the full architecture of what he now controls has been laid out.
Instead of each division running largely independent marketing operations, Disney is now aligning everything around a centralised enterprise spine that owns brand, franchise strategy, media, creative execution, partnerships and insight, with divisional teams plugging into that system.
That matters commercially.
As Disney fights to grow its streaming business, protect theatrical, monetise ESPN, fill parks, and keep consumer products humming, the company can no longer afford campaigns that optimise one business while undermining another.
“We will continue to be industry-leading in collaborating with brands, influencers, and creative partners to amplify their presence across Disney and maximise the value of every relationship, leveraging our scale and brand strength to outperform our competitors,” Ayaz wrote.
“We will amplify what’s working and respond dynamically to market shifts, using data as a differentiator to make informed decisions and leveraging technology to eliminate friction, reduce complexity, and elevate our team’s experience.”
It is also a quiet acknowledgment that modern marketing at Disney now looks less like classic studio publicity and more like a global performance marketing, data and partnerships operation – with creative, tech and analytics sitting side by side.
The five chiefs who now sit at the top
Under the new model, Disney’s five most powerful marketing executives now have dual reporting lines – to Ayaz and to their respective division heads.
They are:
• Ron Faris (Disney Consumer Products)
• Scott Hudgins (Disney Experiences)
• Martha Morrison (Disney Entertainment Studios)
• Shannon Ryan (Disney Entertainment Television, Disney+ & Hulu)
• Tina Thornton (ESPN)
These leaders retain control of their segment-specific strategies but now plug into Ayaz’s enterprise-wide flywheel, sharing data, creative resources, media investment, and long-term franchise planning.
For markets like Australia, this means Disney+, ESPN, theatrical releases, consumer products, and park-led campaigns are increasingly designed as a single, continuous global funnel rather than as separate marketing efforts.
Inside Disney’s new enterprise marketing brain
Working alongside the five segment chiefs is a newly assembled enterprise team designed to provide scale, speed and consistency across the whole company.
“These leaders and their teams will partner closely with the segment and international marketing functions to deliver scale, modern processes, resource flexibility, and innovation that drive impact,” Ayaz wrote.
“These functions will be comprised of subject matter experts and dedicated segment resources where needed.”
The key enterprise roles include:
Brand & Franchise
Joanna Balikian will oversee enterprise brand campaigns, franchise synergy, and fan engagement, with responsibility for activating Disney’s biggest IP across every platform.
Corporate Alliances
Becca Vodnoy continues to run Disney’s global partner and promotional strategy, managing relationships with brands, platforms and creators that extend Disney’s reach beyond its own channels.
Creative Execution
Carrie Brzezinski-Hsu now leads Disney’s unified creative production ecosystem, bringing together cross-segment agencies and ESPN’s Creative Studio into one high-velocity production engine, with dual accountability to Tina Thornton.
Media
Kimberly Flaster takes on a newly expanded role running Disney’s unified global media investment strategy, including cross-channel buying, optimisation, planning and trade desk operations.
Research & Insights
Andrew Ferguson will lead enterprise-wide consumer, brand, and franchise intelligence, guiding initiatives from audience testing and campaign measurement to long-term storytelling strategy.
There is also one major role still to be filled: a leader for marketing operations and technology, tasked with building the systems, analytics, KPI frameworks and end-to-end campaign infrastructure that will make this model actually work.
What it really signals
Officially, Disney says this is about collaboration, data and scale. Unofficially, it is about power.
By putting media, creative, data, brand and partnerships under one CMO-style leader for the first time, Disney is treating marketing as a growth engine, not a support function. In a world where franchises now live simultaneously in cinemas, on streaming, on social, in parks, in gaming and in retail, this structure is designed to stop money and audiences leaking through the cracks.
What remains unclear is the extent of internal disruption this triggers. Ayaz’s memo notes that teams will continue to report to their segments, but the creation of a powerful enterprise spine raises obvious questions about duplication, efficiency, and whether some roles become redundant over time.