Apple TV+ has just named Ricky Strauss as its next head of marketing. Strauss, an entertainment industry veteran, will commence his new role starting Tuesday.
The streaming service giant is wasting no time in 2023, having already made its first major appointment in leadership ranks. The new head of marketing is a man with more than 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry.
Strauss will lead consumer marketing campaigns, creative advertising, and media and promotions across original series and films for the service. The streaming service is currently under the direct supervision of Heads of Worldwide Video, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht.
The newly appointed marketing head will work with the leadership of several teams, including heads of programming and head of publicity and awards, as part of Apple’s Marketing Communications team under VP Tor Myhren in Culver City.
Strauss is moving away from the role of president of content and marketing for Disney+, where he developed the strategic content vision for the service. More importantly, he was one of the people spearheading the launch of that service.
He was also president of programming for Hulu and Disney+. In total, he spent nine years at Disney, where he assisted in developing of the initial programming slate, and content acquisitions.
Strauss was leading the marketing strategy and campaigns for several high-profile Disney titles such as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” “The Avengers,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “The Jungle Book,” “Cinderella,” “Maleficent,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Frozen,” “Moana,” “Incredibles 2” and others.
Before joining Disney, he spent seven years as the president at Participant Media, where he oversaw work on several Oscar winners including “The Help”, “An Inconvenient Truth”, “The Cove” and “Waiting for Superman"
“With our new structure and the changes to my role, the reorganization does not provide me with the opportunity to do the kind of work I love to do and to continue making the intended impact I have been so fortunate to have achieved at Disney.” Strauss said in his departure memo.
Just last year, Bob Iger was named Disney’s CEO again, replacing Bob Chapek after his two years of leadership.
