Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) has appointed Dino Bernacchi, 47, to the newly created role of chief marketing officer for the company’s U.S. operations. Based at the company’s Irvine, Calif. headquarters, Bernacchi will report to MNAO president and CEO, as well as Mazda Motor Company’s global CMO, Masahiro Moro. Bernacchi’s appointment is effective on May 1, 2017.
In this new role, Bernacchi will oversee all aspects of brand communications for Mazda in the U.S. Specifically, he will be tasked with examining every touch point that affects a customer’s interaction with Mazda, from the earliest discovery phase of new-car shopping, through the research and purchase, to ownership and ultimately through to repurchase, and developing an overarching strategy to deliver clear, precise, consistent messages that support the Mazda Premium brand vision. His responsibility will be more than conventional marketing, and Russell Wager, currently VP, Marketing, who will report to Bernacchi, will continue to oversee Mazda’s external communications activities.
In addition, Bernacchi will have responsibility for the design, development, and execution of the strategies and processes required to deliver Mazda messaging in the ever-evolving multi-channel world; enhance customer engagement with Mazda; and respond to accelerating changes in technological and digital innovation and rapidly changing consumer behavior.
“The need to hone our company’s focus as a provider of exceptional customer experiences at every touchpoint with our brand, through our communications, with our vehicles and handled by our network of Mazda dealerships, has never been more clear,” said Moro regarding why the addition of a CMO to the MNAO team is critical to the company’s future success in the U.S. “As customer tastes and expectations change, and Mazda moves itself to a new, more premium, position in the industry, it is critical that Mazda be laser-focused in our approach to how we tell our proud brand story at every touchpoint in the customer’s journey with us. Dino’s leadership experience in doing exactly that in the past is why he is perfectly suited for this role at Mazda.”
Bernacchi joins MNAO with 23 years of experience in marketing communications, and proven successes in telling compelling brand stories in order to capture customers’ interests, ultimately leading to brand and sales successes. He has worked on both the agency, supplier and in-house aspects of the communications business, with skills honed at Campbell-Ewald Advertising, Visteon, General Motors and, most recently, as marketing director at Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More