After almost four years in the role, Kenny Mitchell is departing as Snap’s chief marketing offer “to pursue another opportunity,” the company announced. The Snapchat parent is promoting Colleen DeCourcy to lead marketing at Snap, after she has served as chief creative officer since February 2022.
Mitchell will officially depart Snap next month following the company’s NewFronts presentation on May 2. As Snap’s new head of marketing, DeCourcy will report directly to CEO Evan Spiegel.
“Kenny is a dedicated, thoughtful and determined leader who has built our marketing team, helped us to launch countless products and created some of our most impactful campaigns, including ‘Real Friends’ and ‘Open Your Snapchat,’” Spiegel said in a statement. “Perhaps most importantly, he is a true team player and has worked tirelessly to support our team. I will sincerely miss working with Kenny.”
Regarding DeCourcy’s appointment, Spiegel said: “Colleen has already made a significant impact since joining Snap, and I am eager to see what she will accomplish leading our marketing team.”
News of the marketing leadership change comes ahead of the company’s fifth annual Snap Partner Summit this Wednesday (April 19) being held in Santa Monica.
Mitchell, a consumer-marketing veteran, joined Snap in June 2019 as the company’s first CMO. He previously worked at McDonald’s, Gatorade, NBC Sports Group and NASCAR.
DeCourcy, as Snap’s marketing leader, will retain the tile of chief creative officer, which she also previously held at ad agency Wieden+Kennedy.
Since joining Snap, she has led Snap’s global creative efforts, building out its creative marketing capacities and launching new campaigns. That has included Snap’s 2023 brand campaign, “Wait’ll You See This,” centered on “celebrating the joy, irreverence and spontaneity of communicating with your real friends in fun, unexpected ways,” per the company.
In 2022, DeCourcy launched Snap’s first Oscars commercial spot, inspired by Apple TV+’s “CODA,” the first motion picture starring a predominately Deaf cast in leading roles, which ended up winning the Academy Award for best picture. The ad shows people using Snapchat’s augmented-reality Lenses to learn American Sign Language.