Laura Molen, co-president of ad sales and partnerships at NBCUniversal, will be leaving the company, she told staff Friday.

Molen, who has been with NBCU for 10 years, said it was time “for me to re-prioritize my focus, have more family time and fully explore my numerous passions.”

NBCU has spent the last few years changing the way its ad business works, adding technology and data-based products and uniting them on a single platform. 

After several months of discussion, Molen has agreed to stay with the company through the first quarter as it looks at how best to organize itself around its One Platform under chairman Linda Yaccarino and presidents Mark Marshall and Krishan Bhatia.

“Long before One Platform was created, Laura was uniting groups to help us function as one team and rolling out the Red Carpet for every partner,“ Yaccarino said in a memo to staff. “She’s been an advocate for women leaders and multicultural audiences, fighting for them to be valued by the marketplace. She’s strengthened programs like SeeHer and helped to create the Empowerment and Inclusion Council. She’s pushed innovation forward, spearheading massive undertakings like introducing Peacock to the marketplace.” 

“As a leader, Laura has built teams and mentored talent to make our division stronger. And she’s been just as committed to our partners, representing the agency perspective in every single room. Still, this note barely scratches the surface,” Yaccarino said. “Laura, we’re lucky to have had your leadership and will be cheering you on and supporting you in every possible way.” ■

Here is Molen’s note to staff:

Dear esteemed colleague, partner, mentor, and friend,

I have some new to share. After deep thought and contemplation over the past months, I have decided it’s time for me to leave NBCUniversal.

This was not an easy decision for me to make – yet, once decided, one I am extremely confident (and excited) about. These past few years have been full of enormous changes for all of us, both personally and professionally. While I love NBCUniversal and this team, it is time for me to re-prioritize my focus, have more family time and fully explore my numerous passions. I’m particularly interested in utilizing my expertise to partner with others and help companies succeed, including taking on more Board advisory roles, like so many leaders I admire.

These past ten years at NBCUniversal have changed my life. I’m immeasurably grateful for the mentorship and support from Linda, our NBCU executive leadership team, and every one of my colleagues and partners. It has been an absolute privilege to be on this journey with all of you. Your partnership and, more importantly, your friendship has made this an incredible experience I will never forget—and I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished together. Thank you. 

Long before I got here, this company was innovating, shaping culture, and transforming the marketplace. I know you will continue to do so. To ensure a smooth transition, I am staying on as an advisor through the first quarter of 2023. Rest assured that even beyond my formal departure next March, I’m always a text, a tweet, or phone call away.

I often say that all you need is LOVE in this world. My love for this team runs deep and always will.

With love and gratitude,

Laura

The media sales landscape is noisy. But whether it’s launching NBCUniversal’s One Platform streamlined transaction model, evolving the ways brands connect with audiences on Peacock or reorganizing her team for optimal success, Laura Molen leads by listening and collaborating.

“Really getting into the weeds, taking feedback from our customers and our teams — to me that is really critically important so we can continue to evolve,” Molen said. 

The nine-year company veteran, who has been in her current post since 2018, also helped kick-start NBCUnified, the company’s holistic, first-party identity platform that hit the field during the Super Bowl and Olympic Games. And she continues to elevate brand integrations — including binge, pod and spotlight slots — for Peacock, which snagged $500 million of NBCU’s record $7 billion 2021 upfront. 

All of these moves are the result of Molen’s meticulous attention to integrating the needs and desires of all stakeholders involved. She recently stepped up that commitment, launching feedback mechanisms including customer surveys, open forums and individual meetings with teams organized around the company’s evolving strategy.  

“Laura [has] always impressed me with her out-of-the-box thinking, positive attitude, ability to drive sales and deliver for clients,” said NBCU vice chairman Bonnie Hammer.

Driving a Ratings Rethink

Molen is putting the same collaborative spirit to work as she champions a re-examination of data and measurement at NBCU — and the industry at large. “We’re not looking at measurement as just one thing,” said Molen, who was instrumental in the establishment of the company’s Measurement Forum through which executives from NBCU, brands, agencies and organizations share learnings. 

“We’re making tremendous progress bringing alternatives into the marketplace,” she said. “It’s a lot of education. We’ve had to go in and talk agency by agency, client by client, about how we can work together to test and learn with new partners.”

Molen’s passion for inclusiveness parallels her work ethic, said Linda Yaccarino, NBCU’s chairman, global advertising and partnerships. 

“Laura completely inspires everyone around her to be more courageous,” Yaccarino said. “Her team continues to drive NBCU and specifically Peacock’s growth nationwide; she’s helped us build a new market-leading business strategy and on top of that all, she’s an advocate for women and people of color in every part of the industry.”

This past year, Molen reorganized her division to best optimize the One Platform, layering additional flexibility into what others might consider an already challenging remote work landscape. 

“Whether it’s hiring working mothers who took a break to raise their families, job shares, days from home, whatever, Linda and myself have been open to these things for years,” said the mother of two and early backer of the Association of National Advertisers’ #SeeHer movement. 

“I’ve always been an advocate for flexibility and as a working woman, diversity and inclusion are huge things I’ve leaned into naturally,” Molen said. “There are so many women in media today, but in leadership as you climb up there’s less and less women having a seat at the table.”

Elevating Fresh Voices

To help partners tell informed, inspiring stories about women and people of color, Molen recently announced the creation of NBCU Advertising and Partnerships’ Empowerment and Inclusion Council. 

“What we were hearing was that marketers wanted purpose-led marketing. But they are also in the business of making money,” she said. “So how do we bring them opportunities and platforms that focus on things viewers care about? The council is a collaborative space of people at all levels that focuses on elevating new diverse voices.” 

Case in point: Molen partnered with maternal health company Frida Mom to help deliver its first TV commercial about the trials of breastfeeding — a spot that had been turned down by other media players. After the initial ad ran on NBC during the 2021 Golden Globe Awards, Frida Mom came in with another integration, this time with Telemundo. 

“On every initiative, in every meeting and during every deal — Laura leads with passion and fearlessness,” said Krishan Bhatia, NBCU president and chief business officer, advertising and partnerships. “She advocates for her business partners and champions her teams to be the best in the business.”

No matter the task at hand, Molen’s North Star is a constant. “What motivates me most is the people, particularly the future generations and the future of our business,” she said. “That’s what keeps me going.” ■

MIAMI — With the media-technology world fixated on the growing number of consumer options for streaming video, NBCUniversal continues to beat the drum that its (largely) free-to-consumer, ad-supported model for its upcoming Peacock OTT service gives it an edge over the competition.

“Consumers are going to choose content wherever and whenever, and Peacock is a step in that direction,” said Laura Molen, president of ad sales and partnerships for NBCUniversal, speaking Wednesday at the annual National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) conference. “It brings together our entire ecosystem, and the ad-supported supported model gives us a unique space in the marketplace. This is an opportunity to offer it to consumers for free; and an opportunity for marketers to put their ads on this blank canvas.”

Molen’s comments came less than one week after Comcast and its NBCU division unveiled the major details behind Peacock at an investor event in New York.

Peacock will be available in two tiers: Peacock Free and Peacock Premium, and will feature more than 600 movies and 400 television series, and live and on-demand content (across news, sports, late night and reality).

Peacock Free is ad-supported option will offer more than 7,500 hours of programming (including next day access to current seasons of freshman broadcast shows, classic series, movies, curated daily news and sports programming).

Ad-supported Peacock Premium, which is offered at no additional cost to Comcast and Cox subscribers, will include full-season Peacock originals and tent-pole series, next day access to current seasons of returning broadcast series, early access to late night talk shows, and additional sports programming. The cost is $4.99 per month, and users can purchase the ad-free experience directly for $9.99 per month.

And NBCU has been out aggressively beating the drum ahead of the service’s April launch. Before the investor meeting last month, NBCU ad chairman Linda Yaccarino was at CES in Las Vegas, also explaining how advanced advertising will give Peacock an edge over Disney+, HBO Max and the other subscription services crowding into the OTT market. 

“At the highest level, we’re partnering with marketers to really break legacy and create an entirely different space for advertising,” said Molen, who refers to Peacock as ‘giving advertisers a seat at the table to learn about what audiences want from the commercial experience.”

“This is a chance to innovate together,” she said. “We have a rich history in this space. Going back to the very beginning, NBC was the first network to even air a commercial on air, which was for Bulova watches. And we have always been on the forefront of change.”

Peacock has announced State Farm, Target, Unilever and Apartments.com as the first batch of confirmed advertisers for Peacock.

“We are going to be working together with a streaming council to really add to the ad experience,” Molen said. “We are going to be trying new formats, and we will be working together to understand frequency capping, where to place content, and new ways for consumers to interact with content.”

Molen cites the “Prime Pod,” a 60-second standalone break, which will be the foundation for advertisers at Peacock. There will be five Prime Pods in one hour on Peacock for traditional ad units, and there will be new ad units created to maximize the advertiser experience at the streamer.

“We want to offer the consumers a deeper ad experience at Peacock,” she said. “All different kinds of things that will re-explore and reimagine ads. The more we lean into giving consumers the content when they want and where they want, the more they are going to interact with content in all the places that it exists. We have all the ingredients…content, technology and the experience to make this all work.”

With the concentration of the TV business, and the consolidation of advertising sales teams at those companies, a handful of top sales executives now control more than $22 billion in commercial inventory in the cable business.

Most of that inventory will be negotiated and sold over the next few months in the upfront market, determining the financial fates of those companies or the coming year.

Here is a Multichannel News scorecard of the executives responsible for selling cable advertising and what kind of hand they’ll be bringing to market for next season.

Donna Speciale

Title: President, Turner Ad Sales
Company: Turner
2017 Ad Revenue: $4.033 billion**
Outlook: A top media buyer before joining Turner, Speciale has been on a quest to make the television experience better for viewers and Turner’s portfolio of networks more attractive to media buyers. Turner has been among the early movers by cutting commercial clutter at truTV, creating audience-targeting products and building up branded content production studios. She sees her competitors moving in her direction and ad dollars flowing as a result.

Jon Steinlauf

Title: Chief U.S. Advertising Sales Officer
Company: Discovery Inc.
2017 Ad Revenue: $3.809 billion**
Outlook: Steinlauf, who had been in charge of ad sales at Scripps Networks Interactive, became head of sales for Discovery when the latter company acquired Scripps. The two companies both feature nonfiction programming that is viewed live; as a single company, it will continue to emphasize that advertising works on strongly branded networks because much of it is contextually related to the content, and because fans are receptive to the messages they see in their favorite trusted shows. Discovery’s respected head of sales, Ben Price, will leave after the upfronts.

Sean Moran

Title: Head of Marketing and Partner Solutions
Company: Viacom
2017 Ad Revenue: $3.699 billion**
Outlook: Under Sean Moran, Viacom is looking to build a variety of marketing services that go beyond selling spots. Viacom acquired WhoSay, a social-media influencer marketing company, and VidCon, a place where content creators convene. It has also put together a shopper marketing unit. Viacom expects its Advanced Marketing Services to generate $300 million in revenue this year and that after years of shrinking ad revenue. Viacom forecasts that ad revenues for the fourth fiscal quarter will actually be up.

Laura Molen, Mark Marshall

Titles: Executive VP, Lifestyle and Hispanic Advertising Sales Group, NBCUniversal; Executive VP, Entertainment Advertising Sales, NBCUniversal
2017 Ad Revenue: $3.397 billion**
Outlook: Cable networks are an integral part of NBCUniversal’s expansive television portfolio. Entertainment networks, including USA Network and Syfy, are ratcheting up high-profile programming. USA recently announced a new country-music competition show headlined by Shania Twain and Jake Evans. Its lifestyle networks — Bravo, E!, Oxygen — boast strong connections with consumers that benefit advertisers. With NBCU joining the OpenAP audience-targeting consortium, advertisers will have a broader pool of viewers they can reach using data-driven buying techniques.           

Ed Erhardt

Title: President, Global Sales and Marketing
Company: ESPN
2017 Ad Revenue: $2.609 billion*
Outlook: Live sports events continue to be attractive as on-demand viewing reduces ratings of on-demand programming. That leaves ESPN in a pretty strong position, despite its well-publicized decline in subscribers. Under new president James Pitaro, ESPN continues to position itself as an alternative to primetime for a broader range of products, not just beer and razors, with a large number of women tuning in. In April, ESPN launched its new app and its direct-to-consumer streaming product ESPN+, designed to capture the attention of sports fans and cord cutters and create additional advertising opportunities for sponsors.

Peter Olsen

Title: Executive VP, Advertising Sales
Company: A+E Networks
2017 Ad Revenue: $1.491 billion *
Outlook: At its upfront event in March, Olson promised media buyers that A+E Networks was planning to deliver “no gimmicks, just results.” The company’s networks, led by A&E, History and Lifetime, are doubling down on real-life story telling and it has signed deals with prominent women including Leah Remini, Elizabeth Vargas and Gretchen Carlson. A+E has also been aggressively pressing its work with Data Plus Math, the company getting attention for its attribution platform, which should provide marketers with a scorecard on what media work best and, within TV, which networks and shows really make the cash register ring.

Marianne Gambelli

Title: President, Advertising Sales
Company: Fox News
2017 Ad Revenue: $1.068 billion*
Outlook: With a hurricane of political news blowing across the nation, the category is gaining audiences, and those curious eyeballs are attracting ad dollars from additional advertisers looking for big numbers and live viewing. President Donald Trump’s favorite network has maintained its ranking as the No. 1 cable news channel and viewership is increasing for Fox Business Network. Fox News Channel has also been updating its digital product to attract users and advertisers. With tightly contested midterm elections coming up in November, viewership is expected to rise even more on Fox News and its cable news competitors, all of which will be offering special election-year political news and results packages at premium prices to sponsors.

Scott Collins

Title: President, National Advertising Sales
Company: AMC Networks
2017 Ad Revenue: $960 million**
Outlook: Known best for The Walking Dead, AMC has parlayed owning television’s No. 1 scripted series into big increases in ad rates over the past few years, despite declining viewership for the zombie apocalypse drama. And at a time when “peak TV” conditions are ratcheting up competition for viewers, AMC is doubling down on burnishing its reputation for airing high-quality scripted programming at scale on networks that gladly accept advertising. This year, AMC is also rolling out its data-driven advertising unit, featuring Aurora software that optimizes campaigns across networks.

Ed Georger

Title: Executive VP, Advertising Sales and Digital Media
Company: Crown Media Family Networks
2017 Ad Revenue: $505.9 million *
Outlook: Like the little engine that could, Crown Media’s Hallmark Channels keep increasing viewership with family-friendly and advertiser-safe programming, especially during the fourth-quarter holiday season, which is crucial to a whole range of marketers. Hallmark Channel continues to prosper with its focus on other holidays — Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc. — and its support of pet-related projects, including its Kitten Bowl. Crown is producing additional movies for its maturing Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel and, at a time when many are looking for skinnier bundles, is pushing another linear network with Hallmark Drama.

Louis Carr

Title President, Media Sales
Company: BET
2017 Ad Revenue: $313.0 million*
Outlook: With linear ratings rising for the past three quarters, BET has maintained its status as the No. 1 cable network among African-Americans, a title it has held for 17 consecutive seasons. The network continues to emphasize how its viewers are avid consumers in many categories, including movies. BET special events — such as the BET Awards, the Hip Hop Awards and the Soul Train Awards — also pull big numbers. BET is big on social media and digital, and its BET Experience is the prototype in Viacom’s strategy for bringing fans to live events.