Pia Chaozon Barlow has been named sr. VP of program marketing for HBO Max. She will report to Chris Spadaccini, chief marketing officer of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer. It is a homecoming of sorts for Chaozon Barlow, who was responsible for launching some of HBO’s most creative campaigns including Girls, Silicon Valley, Boardwalk Empire and The Newsroom, when she served as director of advertising & promotions at HBO until her departure for Netflix in 2014.
Chaozon Barlow will work alongside Peter Sherman, also SVP of program marketing for HBO Max Originals, to share responsibility for an expansive slate of upcoming shows. Each executive will be responsible for a selection of programs and tasked with guiding the overall strategy, including creative, media, events, partnerships, and social media.
“Pia and Peter make for a dynamic duo, and by dividing the slate, we’ll be able to efficiently manage the business at scale, while ensuring that we have expert marketing leadership dedicated to each show,” Spadaccini said.
At Netflix, Chaozon Barlow quickly established a reputation as an innovative marketer with a keen eye for building, mentoring and empowering the next generation of leaders. Over her five years at the company, she led integrated, global marketing campaigns across a range of genres including drama, comedy, documentaries, international and kids & family. She most recently served as head of nonfiction marketing, overseeing campaigns for such diverse programming as Queer Eye, Chef’s Table, Nailed It!, Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, Dave Chapelle: Sticks & Stones and Making a Murderer.
She also held a senior level theatrical marketing position at 20th Century Fox for a brief period between stints at Netflix, spearheading campaigns for acclaimed and popular films like Deadpool 2, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Greatest Showman and Love, Simon.
Peter Sherman
Before HBO Max, Sherman ran marketing strategy for TBS and TNT, focusing on initiatives that brought science to the art of marketing and ensuring that the whole marketing organization was using the most effective data-centric tools to optimize their effectiveness in reaching the right user with the right message at exactly the right time.
Sherman joined Turner after eight years at Google, where he was most recently the product marketing lead for YouTube Gaming. In his time at Google he also launched Chromecast, Android TV, YouTube on TV, as well as the cornerstones of YouTube’s monetization–TrueView ads, interest based advertising and the homepage masthead. Before that he had a career in advertising, managing the accounts for American Express, Miller, Pepsi, P&G, and Wrigley’s, among others
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HBO Max is WarnerMedia’s direct-to-consumer offering debuting in spring 2020. With 10,000 hours of curated premium content anticipated at launch, HBO Max will offer wide ranging programming, bringing together HBO, a robust slate of new original series, key third-party licensed programs and movies, and fan favorites from Warner Media’s rich library including Warner Bros., New Line, DC, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth and Looney Tunes.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More