Dive Brief:
- Mattel has named Natalia Premovic as its chief consumer products and experiences officer, starting Jan. 5, the toy company announced Thursday.
- Premovic will manage global consumer products, publishing, experiences and location-based entertainment. She will report to CEO Ynon Kreiz.
- Prior to joining Mattel, Premovic served as head of consumer products at Netflix for the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She also led e-commerce globally for Netflix. Premovic brings more than a decade of experience at The Walt Disney Company as well.
Dive Insight:
As Premovic begins her new role at Mattel, the toy company will draw from her expertise to derive more value from its intellectual property.
During her tenure at The Walt Disney Company, Premovic spearheaded new business models across Disney’s franchise brands, initiated retail partnerships like the Disney Stores at Target and helped shape the company’s online store.
At Netflix, she led teams that launched more than 150 partnerships globally and helped turn hit shows like “Squid Game,” “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things” into “multibillion-dollar franchise ecosystems,” the announcement said.
“We welcome Natalia to Mattel at an exciting time for the company, as we continue to expand our entertainment offering and capture more value from our IP,” Kreiz said in a statement. “Her expertise building and scaling global consumer products businesses at pace bodes well for Mattel’s next chapter as we accelerate our growth in entertainment.”
Mattel has recently tapped into its IP for other projects. The company teamed up with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to develop a Polly Pocket live-action feature film, the company announced in October. Mattel recently enlisted actor Vin Diesel to write, produce and star in a live-action Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots feature film. Next June, the toy company will release its live-action feature film “Masters of the Universe” in theaters in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios.
In Mattel’s most recent quarter, the company reported an almost 6% year-over-year drop in net sales to $1.7 billion, and net income dropped 25% to $278.4 million.
With Q3 earnings falling short of expectations, the sales decline implied “riskier dynamics heading into holiday season,” according to UBS analysts led by Arpine Kocharyan. Furthermore, evolving U.S. tariff policies have posed another challenge for the company, prompting Mattel to handle the importing and warehousing of goods, according to CFO Paul Ruh.
