The staffing structure at Disney marketing is looking increasingly like a DreamWorks production.
DreamWorks studio chief Stacey Snider has by now hand-chosen at least four executives to take top publicity and marketing positions at Disney, reporting to marketing president MT Carney.
They include Stephanie Kluft in publicity, Anthy Price in media buying, Kevin Campbell (left) in marketing strategy and most recently Frank Chiocchi (below) overseeing creative advertising.
Also read: Disney's MT Carney, Grilled — 'A Baptism by Fire'
All have ties to Snider from her past career running Universal (Campbell, Chiocchi and Kluft) and DreamWorks, though they report to Disney marketing president MT Carney.
The team-within-the-Disney team effectively gives Snider a direct hand over the direction of marketing strategy, publicity, media buying and visual design for her movies, including “The Help,” "War Horse” and “Real Steel.”
And like it or not, it reinforces the impression of Carney as a marketing president not entirely in charge of the nitty gritty of marketing Disney’s movies.
The changes stemmed from Snider’s dissatisfaction with the level of responsiveness she was getting from within the marketing team, and the conclusion that the corporate approach under Rich Ross did not mesh with Snider’s more demanding, hands-on style.
Snider is used to seeing “marketing people with bags under their eyes,” as one knowledgeable individual put it.
It’s been an undercurrent throughout Carney’s tenure, since she was recruited from the advertising world over a year ago.
The marketing division has had to seek out big guns for support, including Sony’s ex-marketing chief Valerie Van Galder, to guide Jerry Bruckheimer’s summer blockbuster, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.”
Carney’s approach seems to be to work across Disney’s divisions to help support movie marketing, whether that means tapping ESPN for a partnership, using the theme parks or tying in to consumer products.
That may well be what the new Disney regime was going for in hiring the advertising executive and parachuting her into the intensity of the studio marketing world. Ross, and in turn Disney CEO Bob Iger, seem clearly to be steering the studio into a high-altitude, corporate approach to marketing.
That’s not the way DreamWorks is accustomed to working, according to one individual inside the tent, and underlines a cultural divide between the movie worker bees and corporate suits.
Disney declined to comment for this article, but one Disney insider noted that the four executives were a small part of a vast marketing and publicity staff.
The individual noted that Disney shares resources from a senior team for research, strategy and media planning with small teams on the marketing and PR teams – both on DreamWorks and on animated titles with Pixar.
(That may be true, but the same line of gossip trailed Carney with the release of “Tangled,” with insiders saying that campaign was run by Pixar rather than Disney.)
Here at WaxWord, we wish Carney the best of luck — she has not been granted any favors in her inaugural year joining the Hollywood shark tank.
But the latest word is not going to help support the impression that she's the woman in charge.