Uber hired a former top marketing exec at Instagram who helped launch Stories

Dara Khosrowshahi

Taj Alavi, a marketing exec, has joined Uber as senior director and global head of marketing solutions.
Alavi was most recently Instagram's head of global brand marketing and led the Facebook-owned app's big campaigns to launch Instagram Stories and IGTV.
Instagram is hiring a global vice president of marketing who will report to Facebook's chief marketing officer, Antonio Lucio.

As Uber tries to rebuild its reputation, it has hired a former Instagram marketing exec who spearheaded several of the Facebook-owned app's biggest product launches in recent years.

Uber tapped Taj Alavi, formerly Instagram's head of global brand marketing, as senior director and global head of marketing communications, an Uber representative confirmed. She started this week and reports to Uber's chief marketing officer, Rebecca Messina, who joined the company in September from the liquor brand Beam Suntory.

Instagram and Facebook did not respond to press inquiries.

Taj Alavi Uber At Instagram, Alavi led marketing for some of the app's biggest launches as Instagram blew past Snapchat in user numbers and features. She started at Instagram in 2015 and two years later launched the first global campaign for Instagram Stories that included billboards, out-of-home placements, and digital.

More recently, Alavi oversaw Instagram's marketing that supported IGTV, Instagram's year-old longform-video feature.

"I'm honored to be joining Rebecca Messina and the entire Uber team to tell the next chapter of the Uber story," Alavi wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing her new job.

"Over the past three years, I built and led Instagram's brand team as we launched Instagram Stories, IGTV, and brought the warmth and community of Instagram to over one billion people. I am so proud of the great work my team and I did at Instagram and grateful for everyone's continued support. I look forward to continuing to work with many of you in my new role."

According to her LinkedIn, Alavi left Instagram in December and has since taken on adviser roles at Nike and Scaled Influence, a computer-science company. Before joining Instagram, Alavi had marketing roles at Intuit, The Clorox Company, and Johnson & Johnson.

Earlier this week, Instagram posted a job for a global vice president of marketing who "will lead the consumer marketing organization within the brand's high-performance, high-creativity, highly collaborative global environment," as well as work to "evolve the marketing function from performance-focused to a more even balance of brand-led and performance marketing."

The person will report to Facebook's chief marketing officer, Antonio Lucio.

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