Yahoo Movies Lauren Anderson Expands Remit At Amazon After Streamer’s Push Into Advertising
Amazon Prime Video’s push into the advertising space was heavily documented at the recent Upfronts with star turns from the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell.
The streamer has now rejigged its executive team following this push.
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Lauren Anderson has been named Head, Brand and Content Innovation. In the new role, she will managed Amazon MGM Studios’ collaboration with brands as they partner on its originals.
The news was revealed in a memo from Amazon MGM Studios Head of Television Vernon Sanders.
Anderson was previously Head of AVOD Programming and Studios Unscripted across US Prime Video and Amazon Freevee.
She will continue to oversee the AVOD originals teams.
Christel Miller, who continues to report to Anderson, will lead a newly named Scripted Hybrid team, which will included brand-funded scripted projects.
Jenny Falkoff and Alysia Russo will continue as Head of Reality Series and Head of Docu-Series, respectively, and will also continue to report to Anderson.
MEMO FROM VERNON SANDERS:
Team –
In keeping with “Day 1” culture, our org continues to evolve, as we seek to deliver the entertaining content our customers crave. This includes both our global audience and, with the introduction of advertising in Prime Video, our advertisers. It is imperative that we are creating a world class experience for our brand partners and the agencies with whom they work. With this in mind, I am pleased to share that Lauren Anderson’s remit is expanding to support those efforts for Amazon MGM Studios.
In the newly created role of Head, Brand and Content Innovation, Lauren will manage Studios’ creative collaboration with brands, helping them find engaging moments to partner across our Originals slate. In close partnership with the Amazon Ads, Prime Video Ads, and Studios Marketing teams, Lauren will drive Studios’ efforts to generate advertising sponsorships, integrations, custom content, and brand-supported Originals for our AVOD, FAST, and SVOD customers across Film and TV. This new endeavor will be supported by a single-threaded partnerships team. Additionally, Lauren continues to maintain oversight of her AVOD Originals leaders and their creative teams who have been integral to building many, differentiated Original programming successes for Prime Video, Amazon MGM Studios, and Freevee:
Christel Miller will continue to report to Lauren, leading the newly named Scripted Hybrid team, whose remit will be tailored to titles that reflect bespoke business models, hybrid formats, and custom-built opportunities. This team will lean into unique, financially-efficient creative and production, including brand-funded scripted.
Jenny Falkoff and Alysia Russo will continue in their roles as Head, Reality Series and Docu-series, respectively, maintaining their reporting structure and helping to oversee the robust Unscripted slate.
Benoit Landry will lead the newly created Branded & Talk group. Remaining a direct report to Lauren, Benoit’s group is designed to be a one-stop Studios destination for our development of brand-centered Originals as well as a resource for creators seeking to meaningfully leverage brands within their series.
Justin Holt will lead Creative Ad Operations. In addition to their on-going work supporting the operational needs of our titles, this group will obsess over the bespoke ways in which ads are integrated into the creative. Justin will also maintain oversight of the ad-supported S&P process on which our partner teams rely when selling custom packages.
Claudine Atout will continue to lead Business Operations for the Brand and Content Innovation team, serving as the hub for information sharing, mechanism building, and high-level organizational support across the group, with a special focus on the relationship between Studios, Amazon Ads, and Prime Video Ads.
As part of these changes, Traci Blackwell, who will continue as Head of Targeted Content, will now report to Kara Smith, Head of Co-Pro development for Amazon MGM Studios.
Finally, Lauren will continue her oversight of Amazon MGM Studios 1P FAST Programming delivered to Prime Video and Freevee. FAST is an increasingly popular way for customers to engage with content in a lean-back environment and we want to ensure our owned titles, inclusive of the MGM library, are being packaged in a way that both customers and advertisers find compelling. As they help grow our offering of 1P/Exclusive programming for Amazon MGM Studios’ FAST Channels, this single-threaded team will continue to partner closely with the Prime Video FAST team.
Please feel free to cascade this information to others in our organization.
Thank you to Lauren, her leaders and their team members for working so diligently on these important efforts on behalf of all of our customers.
Vernon
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