Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. (Deluxe) has named former NBC and ESPN marketing executive Brad Soroca its chief marketing officer. Bringing two decades of marketing and brand-building experience in media and technology, he will drive Deluxe’s brand and marketing strategies and identify market insights to inform development of new products and services that address the changing needs of global media creators and providers. Soroca is based in New York.
“Brad’s expertise is in building brands and products at the intersection of content and technology,” said Deluxe CEO John Wallace. “As the marketplace shifts and Deluxe evolves as a global services provider, Brad will keep the pulse of our customers to identify new products and services that meet their evolving and complex needs.”
Soroca has led startups and global media brands in initiatives to drive innovation and change across sports, entertainment, music, news and local media, supported by a range of monetization models including advertising, e-commerce and subscriptions. He is the former COO and CMO of eMusic & Wondering Sound, where he oversaw the cloud platform for downloading and streaming music. As SVP of marketing and research for NBC Local Media, he led the rebrand of 10 local markets, identifying opportunities to grow business through content, marketing, and product innovations; and restructured the NBC Local creative group to produce more content, more frequently by setting up an external production group that could shoot/edit/finish video for any platform. Prior to NBC he drove strategic digital marketing for ESPN.com, where he helped launch ESPN 360, an early OTT platform that would become ESPN3. Soroca began his career in advertising and joins Deluxe most recently from his CEO post at early stage tech startup Arazoo, a cloud-based workflow tool for design professionals.
Soroca said, “With the explosion in demand for content there’s a massive need for more tools, more services, and different types of talent to address the global and complex world of creation and distribution — and technology plays a key role in enabling these businesses as they evolve. With a long and strong history of innovation and an enormous amount of assets, Deluxe is in a rare and opportunistic position to shape the future of the media in this exciting time.”
Is “Glicked” The New “Barbenheimer”? “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Hit Theater Screens
"Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.
The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.
And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).
This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.
"'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."
As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More