Maya Watson joins Clubhouse to lead its global marketing team

Clubhouse hired Maya Watson, a media and marketing veteran from Netflix and OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, to head up global marketing as the startup looks to solidify its new position at the center of the audio meetup world. On Sunday, Watson announced her new role at Clubhouse in a LinkedIn post that also appeared on Twitter and Instagram. “Thrilled to announce I’m the new Head of Global Marketing at Clubhouse,” Watson posted. “I am so honored and grateful to be joining this incredible team and global community. Let’s go!” Clubhouse is the audio-based app led by CEO Paul Davison. In 2020, Clubhouse grew mostly by word of mouth and an air of exclusivity, by only allowing people to join through personal invites. Clubhouse became one of the go-to platforms for Silicon Valley, media industry professionals and creators to congregate during the pandemic. The app allows people to set up rooms to livestream talks. It became a vibrant new channel for online communication, viewed as a virtual approximation of the kind of networking that had been lost while conferences and events were shut down. The interest in audio meetings has increased, and more companies are starting to mimic Clubhouse’s functionality. For instance, Twitter has been experimenting with Spaces, which is basically a clone of Clubhouse. The idea is that anyone can start livestreaming conversations around shared interests, and it feels like the next evolution of the podcasting craze. Brands have started to get involved on Clubhouse, too. In February, Fernando Machado, global chief marketing officer at Restaurant Brands International, spoke with RBI CEO José Cil about quarterly earnings at the company, which comprises Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes. Oprah Winfrey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla founder Elon Musk, and actor and artist Zendaya have all dropped in on Clubhouse. Watson was a longtime marketing exec at Harpo Productions. She was later VP of marketing and social media at OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. Since 2017, Watson was director of editorial and publishing at Netflix. Clubhouse execs did not immediately return requests for comment on Watson’s new role. Also this week, Clubhouse started accepting applications for a new creator program called Clubhouse Creator First. Clubhouse plans to pick 20 creators to help grow their communities on the app.

Maya Watson joins Clubhouse to lead its global marketing team

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