GE Shifts CMO to NBC Universal Post

NEW YORK Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer at General Electric, has been named to the newly created position of president of the company's NBC Universal digital media and market development group. Her successor has not been named.Omnicom Group's BBDO in New York is lead agency on the GE ad account; recent ads have been tagged "Imagination at work." Last week, BBDO named former Interpublic Group executive Bill Power worldwide account director on GE [Adweek Online, Dec. 9].Power replaced Fiona Carter, who had helmed the GE global account since 2003. Carter moved to the Bank of America account team, the agency said.GE spent $140 million in U.S. media last year and $115 million in the first nine months of 2005, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. BBDO has worked on the account since 1920.Judy Hu, global executive director of advertising and branding, was Comstock's deputy at GE.Comstock will now report to Bob Wright, who serves as vice chairman of GE and chairman, CEO of NBC Universal. Her areas of responsibility will include digital media, strategic marketing, television research, television advertising and promotion, and communications. She will be responsible for driving NBC Universal's digital strategy and leading content onto new digital platforms. Comstock, prior to joining GE, was svp of NBC Communications. At the same time, Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group, was promoted to CEO, and Randy Falco, president of the NBC Networks Group, was named president and COO of NBC Universal Television Group.Falco will now supervise NBC Universal's owned-and-operated TV stations, worldwide television distribution and international channels, in addition to his previous duties, which included oversight of the Telemundo network, business development, network operations, sales and cable distribution. Falco will report to Zucker, who in turn reports to Wright. Zucker and Falco were already partnering in their leadership roles, but these moves and new titles formalize that partnership. Zucker said the moves were made to allow the organization to "make faster, smarter decisions" involving content and the distribution of that content, particularly in nontraditional ways. Zucker adds oversight of sports and the Olympics to his previous duties, which include supervision of the entire television network group, news, the TV studio and content creation."These moves help position NBC Universal for continued growth and accelerate our transition to a digital media company," said Wright, in a statement. "These changes also support the building of NBC network prime time, strengthen the strategic focus and operational effectiveness of our broadcast and cable networks, and improve the coordination between our content creation and distribution teams.

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GE Shifts CMO to NBC Universal Post

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