Anne Globe – CMO, DreamWorks Animation

From “Dream” to Reality

By Caroline Cox

Anne Globe is in love with the silver screen. As chief marketing officer at movie-making giant DreamWorks Animation, she’s the one in charge of getting people into theatres for the studio’s animated, computer-generated and 3D major motion pictures. She’s been instrumental in marketing campaigns for blockbusters like Kung Fu Panda 2 – the #1 animated movie and among the best-reviewed films of this year – and the newly released Puss in Boots.

But it’s not all fun and games for Globe. With consumers tightened purse strings thanks to a shaky economy, she and her team have to be more creative than ever to draw crowds today. But not only is she up to the challenge – she’s looking forward to it.

Here, she talks to PINK about hiring in the entertainment industry, why success to her means happiness and how being a teenage news anchor got her into the movie business.

PINK: What’s your success secret?

Anne Globe: I have had the great pleasure of loving the work that I do. The old adages of working hard and persevering have paid off for me. I can’t say I have any other success secrets other than hiring really smart, creative people and providing an environment where they love to work.

PINK: What’s the biggest issue facing working women now?

AG: It’s probably the same as it has been for years: the ability to multitask and find balance. Many working women have families, which means they basically have three full-time jobs: being an executive or running their own business while being a wife and a mother. My biggest challenge has been trying to do all three jobs well.

PINK: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

AG: I’ve had great mentors in my career. One piece of advice that sticks out is: make your point succinctly – say enough and don’t say more. Make your point and zip it. (Laughs)

PINK: What’s your leadership style?

AG: My leadership style is to promote team spirit and mentorship within the group. We all have Life/Work pressures and an ambitious workload, so people operating as a team yields the best results. I focus on treating others as I would like to be treated. Oftentimes, that means being very straightforward and brutally honest when needed, but also being as compassionate as possible in other circumstances.

PINK: How big is your team?

AG:Approximately 85 people here at DreamWorks Animation. I also work very closely with the team at Paramount Pictures.

PINK: How do you keep everyone motivated and empowered?

AG: Delegation and empowering strong managers is key. We also have several weekly meetings to keep people informed and develop new strategies. The structure is to share current information and then to have everyone in the meetings contribute. We also have a big email culture here, so a lot of the work gets done in a quick-response email mode.

PINK: How do you hire?

AG: We look for bright, energetic people who are both knowledgeable about whatever the discipline is and extremely motivated. We’re always looking for ways to do something new and different and breakout from the competition, so creativity is key. Someone who comes in not just with knowledge and discipline but with a spirit of innovation is really appealing. As a side bar, I also look for people who genuinely like entertainment. Even if they’re coming into a supporting position or a business that’s not necessarily on the frontline of the movie or television marketing side, I look for somebody who, in their spare time, is going to the movies and has an innate interest in what we’re doing.

PINK: What’s your biggest weakness as a leader?

AG: I’m extremely tenacious, and sometimes I have to have that moment of knowing when to let go. I’m always in pursuit of the next big thing and pushing myself to fix problems. Sometimes, you have to recognize when you’ve given it all you’ve got and move on to the next thing.

PINK: What is your budget?

AG: Approximately $150 million globally for print and ads per movie.

PINK: With the shaky economy, how have you adapted marketing strategies to keep people coming to movie theaters?

AG: We make two to three animated movies a year. Each time, we’re looking to reach the broadest and widest audience possible. Social media platforms have provided us with great opportunities to connect with many different segments of our audience where they are already spending time. From one movie to the next, there is always a new program in this area that we’ve been able to activate, which makes the job exciting.

PINK: What are some particularly successful strategies you’ve used?

AG: We’ve done several tie-ins with Zynga games, which have a terrific online user base. We had about 15 million users play the Megamind Farmville game. We followed that with a Cityville game for Kung Fu Panda, and it got 45 million views. We were able to triple the engagement in a six-month period. It goes to show you the social environment is ever-shifting. For Puss in Boots, which opened on October 28, we did another game tie-in. It’s a great platform, especially now, with more people gaming on mobile phones and tablets. It’s yet another door that’s opening for us on the movie marketing front. Just two years ago we didn’t know this was such a big opportunity for our business. I can only imagine that two years from now there will be yet another fabulous invention to help us engage our audience.

PINK: How do you achieve Life/Work balance?

AG: As someone who works full-time and is a mother [of daughter Sophie, 9] and a wife [of Brad Globe, president of consumer products at Warner Bros.], my days are full. As a mom, any free moments get filled up with family time. I love to watch my daughter play tennis, or sit and watch a television program [with her]. The moments when your child wants to spend time with you are fleeting, and I’m really focused on taking advantage of that.

PINK: How has your background resulted in your choices and success today?

AG: I had the great fortune of having parents who instilled a lot of self-confidence in me. They always made me feel like I could take on any challenge and follow my dreams, and that proved to be good advice. I started taking an interest in entertainment in high school. I was actually doing some on-air news at a local cable station when I was a high school student, which got me interested in television. That was my original career direction. I pursued that in college then got a job at a movie studio. I took it and fell in love with the movie business.

PINK: How do you relax and rejuvenate yourself?

AG: I love just hanging out at home with my family. This weekend I took a neighborhood walk with my daughter and the dogs [Frankie, a shitzu and Ruby, a golden retriever]. We also have the good fortune in southern California to be able to hang out at the pool for most of the year. I do a lot of cooking on Sundays, with some success I’m pleased to say. My daughter was making cupcakes, I was trying to make some new recipes and the only thing I burned was myself! (Laughs)

PINK: Where do you like to vacation?

AG: Holidays are usually driven by my daughter’s school break sessions, so we go for spring break to Hawaii. We went to Nantucket this summer and that was a lot of fun.

PINK: What book are you currently reading?

AG: I recently read all three books in the Hunger Games series. They were interesting – a fun read.

PINK: What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

AG: I’m a long-dedicated Buffalo Bills fan. [The season is] actually going better for us this year.

PINK: What’s a personal goal you still want to achieve?

AG: I’d like to have greater involvement in philanthropic organizations and causes. It would probably be women- or children-related, because I feel a natural connection to those causes.

PINK: How do you define success?

AG: Working in an environment where you’re allowed to think differently, you love what you do, you can work with great people everyday and you’re happy.