Dive Brief:
- The Coca-Cola Company has appointed Sedef Salingan Sahin to the newly created role of chief digital officer, according to a press release. Coke adding a chief digital officer to its executive suite is part of a series of changes underway amid a CEO transition.
- Sahin, an over 20-year veteran who currently serves as president of Coke’s Eurasia and Middle East operations, will lead digital transformation efforts and focus on streamlining work between related functions. Sahin’s past work at the beverage giant has focused on digital transformation, including as it pertains to marketing.
- Henrique Braun, Coke’s incoming CEO, in a statement described the new role as “pivotal” to the soft drink marketer’s future. All of the new appointments, including Braun and Sahin’s, go into effect March 31.
Dive Insight:
Coke has frequently positioned itself on the leading edge of digital, mobile marketing and personalization. Now, it is creating a formal executive role that seeks to unify digital initiatives across the enterprise at a time of technological change for CPG brands.
Sahin’s first steps in her new job are to assess how Coke can strengthen execution, simplify work and deliver to consumers with precision and speed, according to Braun. Braun was named Coke’s next CEO last month, replacing James Quincey, who has been in the top post since 2017.
As chief digital officer, Sahin will take over some strategic duties currently overseen by CFO John Murphy and report to Braun. In addition, Coke is expanding the purview of CMO Manolo Arroyo to include some of Murphy’s customer and commercial leadership responsibilities. Arroyo’s title is changing from CMO to chief marketing and customer commercial officer as part of the transition.
Taken together, Coke’s structural tweaks — which also feature several operational leadership adjustments and the formation of two new market groupings — are intended to bring the organization closer to consumers and improve the rate of technology adoption at the enterprise level.
“We believe our ongoing growth depends on understanding consumers even more deeply,” said Braun in a statement. “We are evolving our operating organization structure and elevating digital leadership so we can move faster and work smarter across all markets.”
The company did not explicitly discuss the impact of artificial intelligence in the announcement, but it has been integrating AI more deeply into several areas of business, including marketing. For the past two years, Coke’s holiday campaigns have centered on AI-generated commercials, an approach that has drawn a mixed response from consumers but has been defended by executives.
Coke joins other marketers that are shuffling leadership in response to shifting technology demands and a desire for greater organizational cohesion. The Walt Disney Company earlier this week unveiled a new enterprise marketing structure that brings together Disney Entertainment, Disney Experiences and ESPN under a single leader.
