Google and Twitter Vet Erin Moran Helps Shape the Future of Warner Music Group's WMX

Moran arrived at Twitter before its initial public offering took place, back when the company was in the early stages of building and scaling its revenue operation. "I often found myself wearing many hats and was challenged to quickly develop new skill sets," Moran recalls. "This included advising on product development and building a global sales organization to service strategic accounts outside the U.S. In doing so, I built a broader horizontal organizational perspective and expanded my scope beyond sales leadership."

Just before joining WMX, Moran spent five years serving as Google's Head of Industry for the Education Sector. "I focused on continuing to develop as a leader and a people manager," she says. "Leading through the pandemic reshaped the role of leaders and empowered us to be nimbler and more empathetic."

This experience gives Moran a key advantage. As Ben Blank, WMX's President of Media and Creative Content division, explained back in November, Moran is "a much-needed asset as we open our doors to massive growth opportunities for our current and future advertising partners."

"It's been incredible to see how much the industry has evolved over the past 15 years," Moran notes. "Ad tech capabilities have advanced significantly. But what's more, consumer behaviors have also shifted dramatically."

Keeping up with the evolution, she says, "requires more than just reading the trades and attending industry events. I've found that it's most effective to immerse myself in all the new formats, technologies and experiences that have been rolling out. For example, WMG has formed strategic partnerships with a number of platforms, such as Roblox and The Sandbox, which I'm engaging with first as a consumer while thinking through the opportunities for brands. I've drawn from these experiences -- both professionally and personally as a consumer -- to shape WMX's culture, inform our go-to-market approach, and build partnerships with advertisers."

Now, with six months under her belt, Moran says the launch of WMX has been one of the most exciting opportunities of her career. After all, WMX is now the No. 1 entertainment media company in the U.S. among adults 18-34, with more than 269 million monthly visitors and more than 57 billion monthly video views, according to Comscore March 2022 data.

Moran explains that she's particularly excited about WMX, "because it fulfilled a market need for advertisers with a comprehensive 360 offering. No other media company marries powerful audience and insights [with] culture-driving content from influential publishers, innovative formats and experiences, as well as premium video on every screen in one single destination.

"We have the unique ability to reach young, influential audiences, engage with them and earn their trust," she continues. "They're choosing to spend more than four million hours with our content each month."

Moran is representative of the rise of women to the highest echelons of tech and media. "WMX has been very progressive in advancing women in leadership, starting with our President, Maria Weaver," she notes. "As part of the culture at WMX, we're focused on inclusive hiring practices, formalized mentoring programs, upskilling our employees for advancement within the organization, and educating our leaders on the benefits of DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] for their teams."

The future of WMX is nothing but bright, Moran says. "We're setting a new standard for how to collectively serve artists, fans, and brands in this time of rapid change in the music industry. With our diverse range of capabilities, WMX will remain the premiere destination for artists looking to build their brands and nurture fan communities, while also leading the way in advertising with unmatched offerings that put brands at the forefront of culture," she concludes.

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