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EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures is restructuring its marketing department this morning. Michael Moses will be promoted to Co-President of Marketing. That makes him number two to Eddie Egan, who has been President of Marketing since 2007. Maria Pekurovskaya will be named Head of Creative Advertising, and is being upped to executive vice president.
Finally, Jackson George has been hired away from his post as Head of Creative Advertising at Overture Films to become senior vice president of Creative Advertising for Universal. He and senior vice president Scott Abraham will report to Pekurovskaya, while executive vice president of Creative Advertising Frank Chiocchi will continue to report to Egan. Pekurovskaya and Moses will also report to Egan. Egan reports to Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson, who with co-chairman Donna Langley and her production team are trying to give that marketing team better pictures to sell as the studio tries to turn things around. Got all that?
Moses has been executive vice president of Publicity and Marketing at Universal since 2002. He joined the studio in 2000 after previous publicity stints at Disney and Warner Bros. Pekurovskaya has been part of Universal’s Creative Advertising department since 2002 and before that was a writer and producer at Ant Farm, with earlier stints at MGM and Columbia Pictures.
Egan will announce the promotions this morning to staff. I got an early peek at his statement.
Of Moses, Egan said: “Michael is an incredibly gifted strategist, I trust his instincts and know he has the creative capacity and experience to help me lead this team.”
Of Pekurovskaya, Egan said: “We identified Maria as a huge talent from very early on, and her abilities have continued to grow in the nearly 10 years she’s been at the studio. She and the entire team comprise what I feel is one of the most formidable creative departments in the industry.”
Jackson spent two years at Overture and before that spent nine years at In Sync Advertising working on a long roster of movie ad campaigns.
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??Universal Pictures Came Back!!
Finally, getting their shit together. As you said, now all they need is the movies…
Congrats to Moses! He’s been one of the best to work with over the years. Sharp dresser to boot.
Kudos to Uni for 3 strong moves in one day. Any studio would be happy to have any one of them.
Well done.
Pekurovskaya.. failing upwards. not well like withing the studio
Adore Maria. Truly talented…Well deserved.
Michael Moses is one of the smartest executives I’ve ever worked with and is a huge asset. Folks at Uni are thrilled by this move. Congrats to Moses…he has our full support and we’re inspired by his promotion.
I have worked with Moses for a long long time and can tell you he is the smartest, most creative executive I’ve ever worked with in any of the three studios in which I’ve worked.
I can say with confidence that there are a lot of inspired, excited folks at Universal today knowing this company recognizes strength from within and promotes accordingly.
The Egan/Moses team is one we are proud to be a part of…
If these guys can’t get Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to open to at least 45 million, they should ALL BE FIRED.
As a journalist, I covered entertainment marketing for several years. Eddie Egan and Michael Moses are two of the most talented marketing executives in town. Congrats to both.
Oh, please, Moses is the king of squirrels, he just happens to be Eddie’s best friend…this is just pure cronyism at work.
Love dis studio. Go!Go! Universal.
I don’t know Michael but Maria and Jackson are as good as it comes. Good for Universal!
This is an great day for Universal. Michael = amazing. Maria = amazing. Jackson = amazing. Nice work Adam and Donna.
Concur with all of the above. Great team, good, strong people with a pretty decent work ethic. Far better than the viper pit at WB theatrical, and the “we only do great stuff for spiderman” vibe at SPE.
Michael is first-class both personally and professionally. It’s not often I have anything good to say about a rival studio exec but he is one of the true all-stars, now if Adam and Donna can just give him good movies to sell…
Let’s not forget the incredibly talented Frank Chiocchi! Who is still one of the most talented and creative exec’s in town……
I find this whole “making a point that Frank Chiocchi does NOT report to Maria” very interesting.
Really? Does this mean Uni will start to actually open films?
People who blame their failures on the quality of their pictures alone are clueless. That’s just a cop-out for the people working there. Yes they’ve had some horrible films (it doesn’t get worse than The Fourth Kind). But their creative advertising and media buying priorities are a joke.
A Perfect Getaway was a great movie and could have been a sleeper hit had any other studio released it. Same can be said for Drag Me to Hell. I don’t know how you screw up the incredibly marketable Green Zone, Land of the Lost, or Repo Men – but their marketing people somehow managed. With every trailer of theirs I feel like I just saw a Bunny Short of the whole thing and no longer need to see the long version. And I think we all know what this Despicable Me multi-teaser-trailer strategy is going to bring them. Probably the first 3D CGI movie to bomb.
Maybe if they actually showed a little commitment to their projects, farmed out creative to more shops, and spent more on online ad buys and promotional tie ins, they wouldn’t suck so badly.
Head of Creative Advertising?
Is Maria responsible for all of Creative Advertising, except for Franks movies?
Maybe her title should be Head of “some” of Creative Advertising.
Leave it to Universal to place politics before success.
There is no such thing as marketing in movie advertising. Not one of these people would survive as madmen.
At Comcast bean counter.
Well, movies are a bit different, aren’t they? There’s no James Cameron of Diet Strawberry-Kiwi Shasta. Movie advertising has to REACT a lot more to what was made as opposed to driving it from the beginning. And the market place changes in unique ways that movie ads try to adjust to. Movies are a product in many ways but they’re also – in their best expression – a form of art and the people who create them are catered to to a degree in this business that’s sometimes good, sometimes bad, but is just that way it is. No doubt drives bean counters crazy. But if you want that Barton Fink feeling…
You’re right, though. None of us would survive as madmen. Nor would we want to.
Scotch you are not an artist. You are expensive overhead and will be counted as such.
Wow. Good luck with your TPS reports. I hope your firings go really well.
Michael has always had a mind that is just a little more average, then the average bear. Everything he does turns golden. Always has. Always will.
Jackson George has explosive talent and is a GREAT hire for Universal. Give this team something to work with and results will follow.