Snap Loses Another Executive as VP of Marketing Exits Company

Snap Inc. VP of Marketing Steve LaBella is set to exit the company, a company spokesperson told TheWrap on Friday. The move adds to a growing list of executive departures for the Snapchat parent company this year.

LaBella will leave Snap at the end of November. He joined the company in May 2016, after several years as a VP at Mattel. Cheddar first reported the story on Friday morning.

Snap declined to comment to TheWrap on LaBella leaving the company.

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LaBella’s exit comes at a difficult time for Snapchat. Shares of Snap stock are trading at an all-time low, with Wall Street pointing to lagging advertiser growth and the always-present threat of Instagram as signs of trouble. Snap is also coming off a quarter where it lost 3 million daily users following its much-maligned app redesign earlier this year.

The growing pains have been exacerbated by a string of high-level departures. LaBella’s exit comes after chief strategist Imran Khan stepped down last month, and its chief financial officer left the company in May.

CEO Evan Spiegel, in a 6,000-word internal memo obtained by Cheddar on Thursday, outlined Snap’s path forward, including an emphasis on full-year profitability in 2019. Despite being wildly popular with teenagers, Spiegel said it’s imperative Snap attract older users that may see Snapchat as “frivolous or a waste of time” to jumpstart its business. “Changing the design language of our product and improving our marketing and communications around Snapchat will help users understand our value,” wrote Spiegel.

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With Snap set to report its third quarter earnings early next month, investors will be carefully watching to see if it can report better-than-expected revenue for the second straight quarter.