Elon Musk has tapped Linda Yaccarino, till this week the pinnacle of promoting at NBCUniversal, to interchange him as CEO of Twitter, he introduced in a tweet Friday.
“@LindaYacc will focus totally on enterprise operations, whereas I concentrate on product design & new expertise,” the tweet learn, partially.
Yaccarino made her first public comments about her new function over the weekend. On Twitter, she responded to Musk’s announcement, saying, “I’ve lengthy been impressed by your imaginative and prescient to create a brighter future. I am excited to assist carry this imaginative and prescient to Twitter and rework this enterprise collectively!”
She additionally famous that she’d acquired new followers. She now has almost 400,000 followers on the platform.
Musk’s preliminary announcement of a successor got here after the billionaire on Thursday tweeted that he had discovered somebody new to steer the social media platform, including that “she will probably be beginning in ~6 weeks!” Musk, who accomplished a deal to purchase Twitter last fall for $44 billion, will transition to govt chairman and chief expertise officer of Twitter.
NBCUniversal additionally announced Yaccarino’s departure from the corporate, efficient instantly, on Friday.
“We’re grateful for Linda Yaccarino’s management of NBCUniversal’s Promoting Gross sales enterprise, and for the revolutionary crew and platform she has constructed,” Comcast president Mike Cavanagh mentioned in an announcement. “Linda has made numerous contributions to the corporate throughout her twelve yr tenure, and we want her the very best.”
“It has been an absolute honor to be a part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead probably the most unimaginable crew. We have remodeled our firm and the whole trade—and I’m so pleased with what we have completed collectively, and grateful to my colleagues and mentors, particularly Brian Roberts, Mike Cavanagh and the whole NBCU management crew,” Yaccarino mentioned.
What’s her background?
Yaccarino, a graduate of Penn State College, served because the chair of worldwide promoting and partnerships at NBCUniversal, performing as “the strategic and operational bridge throughout everything of NBCUniversal’s world networks, properties, and enterprise models,” in response to her profile on LinkedIn. Her function concerned monetizing the corporate’s networks, digital and streaming platforms, distribution and commerce partnerships, and shopper relationships. That included overseeing all of its world, nationwide and native advert gross sales.
Isaac Brekken/Selection/Penske Media by way of Getty Photos
She managed a 2,000-member crew that, since she joined NBCU in 2011, has generated greater than $100 billion in advert gross sales. She additionally helped launch the corporate’s ad-supported streaming service, Peacock.
Her LinkedIn profile additionally signifies that she “made large investments in knowledge and expertise capabilities.”
On the interpersonal entrance, she self-describes as a “sought-after connector, collaborator, and counselor,” in addition to “a dedicated change agent and consummate unifier” inside her trade.
As chair of the Advert Council, a nonprofit that promotes public service bulletins, she garnered assist from varied entities, together with the White Home, to design a vaccination marketing campaign that includes Pope Francis that reached greater than 200 million People.
Earlier than becoming a member of NBC, Yaccarino spent almost 20 years at world leisure firm Turner.
Is she the correct individual to steer Twitter?
Yaccarino final month interviewed Musk at a advertising and marketing convention in Miami. “In some ways, at the moment is your introduction to the promoting neighborhood,” Yaccarino mentioned after she welcomed him on stage.
“I pleasure myself on my work ethic. However buddy, I met my match,” she informed the CEO of House X, Tesla and Twitter. She then went on to speak about “the problem of the fragile steadiness of a rebrand” of a broadly identified and broadly used product like Twitter.
One Wall Avenue analyst mentioned Yaccarino could be a “homerun rent” for Twitter given her huge expertise overseeing billions in advert income yearly.
She would “slot in very nicely to the general Twitter technique and monetization wanting forward,” mentioned Wedbush expertise analyst Dan Ives.
Her expertise launching new income streams for NBCU, together with Peacock, and deep data of find out how to monetize services and products makes her a superb option to helm Twitter, Ives added.
It is key that Twitter overhaul its digital promoting technique whereas additionally monetizing its consumer base after main advertisers jumped ship since Elon Musk took over.
“There’s heavy lifting forward for Twitter on the digital promoting entrance because the platform now must get again advertisers whereas monetizing its consumer base,” Ives mentioned. “Twitter wants a CEO that may hit the bottom working and attempt to turnaround the Twitter platform with a key 6 to 12 months forward.”
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