With Disney’s recent appointment of its first-ever Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, the entertainment giant is signaling a monumental shift in its strategy. To unpack what this means for the future of brand management, we sat down with Milena Traikovich, an expert in demand generation and performance optimization. We explored the immense challenge of unifying marketing across juggernaut segments like film, streaming, and theme parks, the critical role of data in modern storytelling, and how to balance global brand consistency with nuanced local relevance in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.
Disney recently established its first-ever enterprise marketing organization to unify its segments. What specific challenges in today’s media landscape prompted this structural change, and what would your first steps be to integrate the marketing teams from films, streaming, and theme parks?
The media world today is incredibly noisy and fractured. Consumers are hopping between streaming services, social media, and real-world experiences, and they expect a seamless journey. Disney, with its vast empire, was likely seeing fragmentation in its own messaging, where a fan’s experience with a Marvel movie felt disconnected from their interaction with a Disney+ series or a visit to a theme park. This new role, as CEO Bob Iger noted, is about ensuring brand consistency so consumers can “seamlessly interact with our wonderful products and experiences.” My first priority would be to establish a unified data platform. You can’t create a cohesive customer journey if the theatrical team’s data doesn’t talk to the streaming team’s data, which doesn’t talk to the parks’ data. The first 90 days would be about auditing the tech stacks, identifying the overlaps, and building a centralized hub for consumer insights.
Your new role involves coordinating with the leaders of Disney Entertainment, Experiences, and ESPN. How will you balance the need for enterprise-wide brand consistency with the unique marketing goals of each segment? Could you provide a practical example of how a unified campaign might look?
That balance is the core challenge. The key is to establish a shared brand truth—a central promise that defines Disney—while giving each segment the autonomy to express that truth in a way that resonates with its specific audience. You can’t market an ESPN documentary the same way you market a trip to Disneyland. For example, imagine the release of a new Pixar film. A unified campaign wouldn’t just be about movie trailers. It would be a fully orchestrated ecosystem. Weeks before the premiere, the Disney Experiences team could launch a new character meet-and-greet at the parks. The Disney+ team could curate a collection of related classic films. ESPN might even feature the film’s stars in a fun, sports-related segment. It’s about creating a single, continuous story that a consumer experiences across every touchpoint, all reinforcing the core emotional promise of the film and strengthening the entire Disney brand.
The new strategy emphasizes innovation and data-driven insights. What specific marketing technologies or data analytics approaches are you most excited to implement across the company, and how will they enhance Disney’s signature storytelling and emotional engagement with global audiences?
This is where the real magic can happen. I’m most excited about predictive analytics and AI-driven personalization. Step one would be to consolidate audience data from all segments—what movies they watch, what parks they visit, what merchandise they buy. Step two is using machine learning models to understand not just demographics, but psychographics and emotional drivers. For instance, we could identify an audience segment that responds deeply to themes of “courage” or “family.” Step three is deploying that insight. Instead of a generic ad for a new movie, that “courage” segment might see a trailer cut specifically to highlight the protagonist’s bravery, while the “family” segment sees one emphasizing heartwarming relationships. This allows Disney to scale its signature emotional engagement in a way that feels incredibly personal, ensuring the story resonates on an individual level.
Drawing on your extensive experience leading marketing for both The Walt Disney Studios and Disney+, what were the most valuable lessons learned about connecting with consumers across theatrical, streaming, and brand initiatives? How will you apply those insights to create a seamless experience across all touchpoints?
The biggest lesson from leading marketing across both theatrical and streaming is that the line between these experiences has completely blurred in the consumer’s mind. They don’t see a “theatrical P&L” and a “streaming P&L”—they just see a story they love. The goal is to make the journey from the cinema to the couch feel like a single, delightful experience. For example, with a major film release, we can use the Disney+ platform to build anticipation with behind-the-scenes content beforehand, and then, after the theatrical run, welcome the film to the platform as a major “homecoming” event. Applying this insight more broadly means treating every Disney interaction as a chapter in a longer story. A visit to a theme park shouldn’t be a one-off event; it should be part of a continuous conversation that continues through the Disney+ app, merchandise, and future film releases.
Disney’s strategy aims for global scale while maintaining local relevance. Can you describe the process for adapting a major franchise campaign for different international markets to ensure it is emotionally resonant? What are the key metrics you use to measure success in achieving this balance?
Achieving global scale with local heart is an art. The process begins with identifying the universal emotional core of a story—the big idea that will resonate everywhere. Then, we work with local teams in each region to act as cultural translators. They don’t just translate language; they translate context. For a campaign in Japan, for example, we might lean into themes of community and harmony, while a campaign in Latin America might focus more on family and celebration. It’s about finding the right cultural lens to view the universal story through. Success isn’t just measured by box office or streaming numbers. We look at metrics like local social media sentiment, press coverage tonality, and brand-lift studies that measure emotional connection. The ultimate goal is for an audience in any country to feel that this Disney story is their story.
What is your forecast for the future of entertainment marketing?
The future of entertainment marketing is less about shouting and more about listening. It will be defined by hyper-personalization at a massive scale, where brands move from broadcasting a single message to millions, to having millions of individual, data-informed conversations simultaneously. Technology will enable us to create marketing that feels less like an advertisement and more like a service—a personalized guide to the content and experiences that will bring you the most joy. The brands that win will be the ones that can use data not just to sell, but to understand and serve the deep emotional needs of their audience, creating a lifelong, symbiotic relationship.
