National CineMedia announced that its president Cliff Marks will retire, effective July 1, and that Scott Felenstein has been named president, sales, marketing and partnerships, as part of the company’s succession plan.
Felenstein, who was executive VP and chief revenue officer at National CineMedia, will be succeeded by Mike Rosen, NCM’s senior VP of East Coast sales.
The changes come as people return to movie theaters, where NCM sells cinema advertising.
Marks will continue working with NCM as a consultant through a multi-year agreement with his new strategic media and marketing company, CMarksCo., LLC.
“Scott has been successfully leading our sales team to new heights as CRO for the past four years, and he was hand-picked by Cliff as his trusted successor and is ideal to take over the reins to lead NCM’s Sales and Marketing organization,” said NCM CEO Tom Lesinski.
“With a strong summer movie season anticipated on the heels of a great Memorial Day at the box office, both Scott and Mike are already highly engaged in driving revenue and were instrumental in helping get NCM through the most difficult time in our industry to emerge as an even stronger, more diverse media company,” Lesinski said. “As the availability of quality video GRPs in the ad marketplace continues to decline, Scott and Mike will continue to lead the charge to help marketers reach national movie audiences at scale on the big screen and beyond. NCM is in great hands.”
Felenstein joined NCM in 2017 after 17 years at Discovery Communications. He previously held posts at Excite@Home, CBS Sports, Ogilvy & Mather and Bozell.
Rosen joined NCM in 2020 from Roc National. Before that he was with NBCUniversal, GM Planworks and Starcom.
Marks joined NCM 19 years ago from ESPN.
“Cliff has been the champion of cinema advertising in the U.S. from the beginning and has been instrumental in turning it into the extremely successful premium video medium it is today,” Lesinski said.
“He has helped countless brands harness the storytelling power of the big screen to reach young, diverse, cord-cutting movie audiences, and built NCM into the largest cinema advertising network in the world. He has always said he wanted to retire early, but anyone who knows Cliff knows that he loves this business and is not the type to sit still, so I am thrilled that he will continue to have an active advisor role with NCM. I am grateful for his many contributions to NCM, I look forward to continuing working with him as a partner as we grow our business and expand our business verticals,” Lesinski said.
