Netflix’s Friend joins MarketCast
December 3, 2020
MarketCast has announced the appointment of Zoë Friend to its senior leadership team as Senior Vice President of Custom Research and Insights. In her new role, Friend will lead MarketCast’s custom research practice across all of its business segments and will be responsible for guiding its future direction, growing and nurturing the team, and elevating MarketCast’s research for leading media, sports and brand clients.
“Zoë’s experience building a high performing research team at one of the world’s most tech forward media companies will be invaluable as we continue to aggressively grow and transform our business,” said John Batter, CEO of MarketCast. “Zoë brings the right balance of research acumen and client service expertise to our lineup, and we are thrilled that she has chosen MarketCast as the next chapter in her life and career.”
Friend led the Netflix Content and Marketing Research and Insights practice for 5 years, growing the team to more than 40 researchers during a period of massive transformation. While there, Friend was part of Reed Hastings’ senior leadership team and was responsible for delivering consumer research that guided billions of dollars of investments in Netflix original series and movies, helping the streamer experience explosive subscriber growth and positioning them as an entertainment powerhouse. Prior to joining Netflix, Friend served as senior vice president of research and strategy for Paramount.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with the MarketCast research team and seeing the incredible work they do firsthand as a longtime client,” said Friend. “MarketCast’s reputation as a research leader and their vision for transforming media and brand research through a combination of primary research, advanced data science and technology innovation will be game changing for creators, brands and marketers alike, and I look forward to helping shape and bring this vision to life.”
Friend will join a growing MarketCast organization, which includes former leaders from Nielsen, Gracenote, IAC, NRG, Inscape, Dreamworks and Comscore.