Disney has officially finished its latest round of layoffs, and company leaders are telling their teams what changes were made — and why.
The cuts affected divisions across Disney, though marketing was hit especially hard. CEO Josh D’Amaro told staffers on Tuesday that the company decided to “streamline” its enterprise marketing and brand groups to “serve consumers in an even more connected way.”
Asad Ayaz, Disney’s chief brand and marketing officer, gave employees more context about the changes in a memo on Wednesday night.
“Over the past few months, the marketing leadership team and I have been working together to design a thoughtful go-forward structure for our unified marketing organization that will unlock innovation, reduce complexity, and build critical capabilities,” Ayaz said in the memo, which was obtained by Business Insider.
Ayaz added that Disney’s leadership studied how marketing is changing “to meet the disruption happening across all industries” and build an organization that’s “nimble and modern.”
After that review, Ayaz said Disney “found overlap in some roles and functions,” adding that some remaining staffers have been offered “new roles or responsibilities to ensure we have the necessary capabilities to take us into the future.”
Ayaz was promoted this year to become Disney’s chief marketing and brand officer, a newly created role that was designed to consolidate its marketing across its entertainment, sports, and experiences divisions. He previously served as the company’s chief brand officer.
At the time of Ayaz’s promotion in January, former CEO Bob Iger said Disney needed a companywide role to ensure “brand consistency.”
Some Hulu staffers were affected by this week’s layoffs. Disney has been integrating Hulu into Disney+ to build a one-stop shop for streaming subscribers that it hopes will boost engagement.
Besides growing the streaming business, Disney also must win back Wall Street by keeping the parks business humming while preserving declining profits in its traditional TV business.
Read the full memo from Ayaz below:
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