Disney is consolidating its marketing teams into a single, enterprise-wide organisation, bringing a more unified structure to how the company promotes everything from films and streaming shows to theme parks and sports.
The overhaul is designed to connect marketing operations across Disney Entertainment, Disney Experiences and ESPN, with shared capabilities and tools intended to create a “more connected approach” to reaching audiences worldwide.
A new top job built for brand consistency and “seamless” consumer experiences
At the centre of the shake-up is a new leadership post: Disney has appointed long-time executive Asad Ayaz as its first Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, putting him in charge of the unified division.
In announcing the move, CEO Bob Iger framed the role as a response to how Disney’s businesses and customer touchpoints have evolved – arguing the company needs a company-wide function that keeps the brand consistent and helps consumers move smoothly between Disney’s products and experiences.
Cohesion, agility and innovation in a disrupted market
The stated ambition is bigger than a re-org chart. Disney is positioning the change as a way to increase cohesion across its portfolio, while also boosting agility and innovation in how its many properties connect with audiences around the globe.
In practical terms, a single enterprise organisation can reduce duplicated effort, centralise best practices, and move faster when consumer behaviour shifts – an increasingly common reality across entertainment and technology.
A question hanging in the air: will roles be eliminated?
The scope of the changes is understood to be significant, but an immediate operational detail remains unclear: it was not confirmed whether the restructure will involve layoffs or role eliminations.
For employees – and for an industry that has seen waves of cost-cutting – this detail matters, because centralisation can sometimes mean fewer layers, fewer overlapping responsibilities, and a leaner team footprint.
For now, Disney has not publicly clarified those implications.
AI wasn’t in the headline, but it’s in the background
Artificial intelligence was not explicitly referenced in Disney’s announcement about the new marketing organisation, yet the company is clearly exploring the space more aggressively.
In December, Disney struck a three-year licensing agreement with OpenAI that allows Sora to generate short, user-prompted videos drawing from a set of more than 200 characters spanning Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars – along with related elements like environments, costumes and props.
While that deal sits in the broader entertainment-and-tech conversation about how iconic IP can be used in AI-native formats, it also hints at why Disney would value an enterprise-wide marketing function: as new channels and creation tools multiply, brand consistency becomes harder to protect – and more expensive to repair when it breaks.
Why Ayaz, and why now?
Ayaz is not a symbolic appointment. Disney points to his more than 20-year tenure at the company, and Marketing Dive notes he was named Disney’s first Chief Brand Officer in 2023 while also serving as president of marketing for The Walt Disney Studios for the past eight years.
They have overseen large-scale brand moments – such as Disney’s centennial celebration – and is credited with shaping marketing strategy for major releases, including the recent holiday titles “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
In other words, Disney is placing a familiar operator – someone steeped in both brand stewardship and blockbuster marketing – at the top of a structure designed to make the company feel like “one Disney” to consumers, even as its businesses span radically different experiences and audiences.
The wider industry backdrop: consolidation and a fight for scale
Disney’s move lands during a period of consolidation across entertainment.
Paramount and Skydance completed their merger in August 2025, forming a new combined entity and underlining the industry’s ongoing push for scale and efficiency.
Meanwhile, the battle over Warner Bros. Discovery has become a live example of how high the stakes have become. Reuters reports that Netflix has a proposal valued at around $82.7 billion, while Paramount Skydance has pursued a higher hostile bid (reported around $108.7 billion), with the dispute spilling into legal action over disclosures and deal details.
Against that backdrop, Disney’s marketing consolidation reads as both a brand play and a competitive one: the company is tightening internal alignment while rivals reshuffle ownership, assets and distribution power.
Conclusion: a single voice for a multi-world brand
Disney is betting that a unified, enterprise-wide marketing organisation – led by newly appointed Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Asad Ayaz – will help the company stay coherent, fast and inventive as entertainment and technology continue to collide.
The strategy centres on brand consistency and smoother consumer journeys across Disney’s vast portfolio, while questions remain about how the restructure may affect roles behind the scenes.
With AI partnerships emerging and industry consolidation accelerating, Disney’s message is clear: in a noisier, more fragmented market, the company wants to speak – and move – with one voice.
