BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JP Richards has been promoted to Executive Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, and Chief Data Strategist, Warner Bros. Pictures, it was announced today by Blair Rich, President, Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Pictures, to whom Richards will report.
In his new role, Richards will work closely with Rich on the development and execution of Warner Bros. Pictures’ marketing efforts. Additionally, Richards will further support Rich, who works with Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, on setting marketing strategy for the division’s releases. Richards will implement an innovative and collaborative approach to his new areas of oversight within Warner Bros. Pictures, including Worldwide Promotional Partnerships & Alliances, Integrated Marketing, Digital Marketing, Multi-Cultural Marketing and Marketing Services.
He will also add the job of Chief Data Strategist to his responsibilities, overseeing data strategies, data-driven media, audience intelligence and new approaches to the use of data in marketing for all of the Studio’s film releases, including Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema titles.
“JP is a born collaborator, dynamic marketing strategist and recognized leader, not only in the digital arena, where he has led ground breaking campaigns over the past two years, but across all of marketing,” said Rich. “This promotion will allow us to tap into—and benefit from—his broad marketing expertise. We’ll look to him to help us understand, adapt and create strategies to the changing ways people are interacting with content, media and marketing activations at every touch point of our global campaigns.”
Kroll added, “Now more than ever, our campaigns need to be fully integrated and customized around the new ways audiences connect with and are motivated by marketing activations. JP has a skill set that brilliantly combines strategic and innovative thinking with data-driven media to deliver creative, effective results. I’m excited he’ll be taking an expanded role on our marketing team.”
Prior to his promotion, Richards served as Executive Vice President, Worldwide Digital Marketing, Warner Bros. Pictures. In this role, he oversaw the domestic and international digital teams and led groundbreaking campaigns for “Wonder Woman,” “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” “Suicide Squad,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “San Andreas,” “Lights Out,” “Creed,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “The Conjuring 2,” “Central Intelligence” and “The LEGO Batman Movie.” In this role, he established new and strategic relationships with key partners, such as Google, Snap, Facebook, Oracle and other key marketing and technology partners. He has also spearheaded data-driven marketing efforts across Warner Bros. and Time Warner, serving as a key leader in this area of opportunity and growth for the Studio.
Richards joined Warner Bros. Pictures in January 2015. Prior to that, he spent 12 years at Universal Pictures, most recently as Senior Vice President, Digital Marketing, where he led digital campaigns for the “Bourne,” “Fast and Furious” and “Despicable Me” franchises, to name a few.
