Samsung Mobile’s Jayanta Jenkins to lead Disney+ content marketing
Samsung Mobile global executive creative director Jayanta Jenkins is joining Disney to head up content marketing at streamer Disney+ and several linear networks. This was announced as part of a broad restructuring and streamlining of Samsun Mobile’s general entertainment unit.
Jenkins is a prolific industry creative who served as Twitter’s first-ever global head of creative. He has held stints at places like HP, Apple’s Beats by Dre and Wieden + Kennedy, and will head up all content marketing for Disney+, as well as for linear brands like Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD and National Geographic. He joins the company in December.
The hire is part of a major overhaul of Disney’s General Entertainment Content unit that streamlines the company’s organization from being linear-channel-specific to centralized teams. Part of that will include a consolidation of the marketing, publicity and media planning teams into streamlined units.
“These units will operate like agencies, with each focused on a specific collection of our content to manage marketing, publicity, media planning, events, talent relations and awards strategies,” Disney’s chairman of general entertainment content Peter Rice said in a memo to staff announcing the changes.
Jenkins will head one such internal agency. Shannon Ryan, the president of content marketing and Hulu and general entertainment, will head another, overseeing marketing for all of the unit’s content that will be distributed on Hulu and across linear networks. Stephanie Gibbons, FX’s president of marketing, will continue promoting FX programming on the FX linear networks and FX on Hulu.
Meanwhile, Joe Earley, Disney+’s evp, Marketing and operations and one of Adweek’s 2020 Brand Genius honorees, who is not part of Disney’s General Entertainment Content unit, will remain in his role, focusing on brand and platform marketing, as well as consumer acquisition.
There are also changes on the development and production side. Disney Channels president and chief creative officer Gary Marsh has been given an expanded role as president and chief creative officer of Disney Branded Television, overseeing all Disney-branded television programming, including Disney-branded unscripted content and Disney+.
Courteney Monroe, the president of National Geographic Global Networks, will now oversee all National Geographic programming on Disney+ as well as on the linear networks president of National Geographic Content. She will report into Rice. Disney and ABC Entertainment’s Dana Walden has also gotten a new title: chairman of entertainment, Walt Disney Television, where she will oversee development and production of ABC Entertainment, Disney Television Studios, Freeform and Hulu Originals.
“This is a big change to our legacy television structure which was built around linear networks,” Rice said. “But as we look to the future and how consumers choose to watch their programming, this reorganization is an opportunity for us to fully focus on what we do best, making great programming for viewers wherever they choose to watch their favorite shows.”
The restructure comes on the heels of another major shake-up at the company that streamlined its media and entertainment business under the purview of long-time Disney vet Kareem Daniel. It’s one of a continued effort by media companies to reorganize their businesses to better address shifting consumer viewing habits and the way in which content is produced and distributed across platforms.
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