Nicolle Pangis, a former CEO of the cable-ad-sales entity Ampersand, will join Netflix as its new vice president of advertising. Pangis will oversee ad sales in the U.S. and Canada. “Nicolle has a great reputation within our industry, both for the depth of her relationships with clients and partners, and her data-driven approach to streaming advertising,” said Amy Reinhard, president of advertising at Netflix, in a statement.
“Together, we’ll continue to build and scale a great ads business for our clients and Netflix.”
Netflix entered the video advertising market two years ago, but media buyers say the streamer has not matched the success of rivals like Amazon. Although Netflix offers its ad-supported option globally, it has yet to achieve the level of consumer impressions that big advertisers require. Netflix has reshaped its ad-sales team, replacing the senior executives initially hired for the effort.
Peter Naylor, a veteran with experience at NBCUniversal, Hulu, and Snap, has taken a leading role amid the ongoing industry “upfronts,” a period where media companies seek to secure advertising support for the coming year.
Nicolle Pangis joins Netflix advertising
Jeremi Gorman, his predecessor, set foundational efforts for the ad-supported tier, which saw a 34% growth in subscriptions in the third quarter of 2024.
Executives are optimistic about achieving the scale advertisers desire by 2025. “It takes time to build new initiatives to the point where they’re significant, given that we already have a fairly large core business,” said Greg Peters, co-CEO of Netflix, during the company’s recent earnings call with investors. “Ads are a great example of how we approach growing these seeds.
It takes a lot of work, but we know the path, and we’re hustling to move down that path as quickly as possible.”
At Ampersand, Pangis created new businesses from the ad-sales practices of its backers, Comcast, Charter, and Cox Communications, focusing on “addressable” advertising governed by specific consumer data. Previously, she held senior roles at GroupM, part of the British advertising giant WPP, and serves on the board of Madhive, a company aiding advertisers in optimizing their spending. Pangis holds an MBA in Strategic Management and Marketing from Rutgers University and a BS in Communication with an English minor from Boston University.
