Kevin Hart’s media company Laugh Out Loud (LOL) is bolstering its senior leadership team as the four year old company scales its services with advertising and brand partnerships.
Folayo Lasaki is appointed head of marketing and communications to oversee brand, content, and social media marketing as well as communications and strategic marketing partnerships across the LOL Network. Prior, Lasaki served as principal and founder of boutique marketing firm, Striped Elephant, and held positions at Rainn Wilson’s SoulPancake, Participant Media, and Variety.
Stephen Loguidice arrives at LOL to work as head of brand partnerships to build new revenue streams for the company while bringing in new partners to add to LOL’s brand partners, which include Lyft, P&G, Old Spice, Amazon, and Hydrow. The 8-year-veteran of the digital media industry served as an original member of the business team at BuzzFeed, and also held prior roles at both Viacom and Maxim.
Both Loguidice and Lasaki will report to LOL president & COO Thai Randolph. “Having scaled billion-dollar businesses and overseen dozens of large, strategic deals with Fortune 500 and Global 2000 brands, Stephen joins to drive innovation in LOL’s brand partnerships, while Lasaki leverages her entertainment, consumer and trade marketing experience to further our multi-platform business model — both with the mission to amplify our ‘Comedy in Color’ programming strategy and keep the world laughing together,” Randolph said in a statement.
Although these are not new positions at the company, their “best-in-class” experience This expansion marks a pivotal moment in LOL’s growth as one of the largest Black-owned media companies in the U.S. These hires are designed to enable LOL to build off its momentum by scaling its efforts on the content development and branded sales front front through revenue operations and marketing strategies.
Since launching as Hart’s production company, the company has diversified its offerings to span audio, TV/streaming, branded entertainment, experiential and OTT/CTV. Last year, LOL inked a multifaceted deal with NBCU Peacock which includes a first-look deal with the streamer, a branded channel on its Peacock service and an equity investment in the company.
The company also expanded its branded content and revenue business, expanding existing partnerships with Lyft and Old Spice to create comedic branded content through programming such as including Kevin Hart: Lyft Legend, the new Lyft Comics series, and sports talk show Cold As Balls.