Amazon Studios has brought on board Greg Coleman as its global head of franchise marketing, where he will be tasked with overseeing the team in charge of TV and film fantasy and sci-fi originals — including the upcoming “Lord of the Rings” series.
In leading Amazon’s genre-focused marketing, Coleman and his team will look to engage mass audiences across the world via the streaming studio’s marketing campaigns and support global expansion of the fantasy and sci-fi brands in its portfolio.
The marketing exec was most recently vice president of worldwide marketing and franchise management at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he built franchises and campaigns around major Disney properties, notably blockbuster animated features “Frozen” and “Frozen 2.” Prior to that, Coleman held senior positions in marketing strategy and worldwide for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and previously worked in marketing strategy and research at MGM Studios.
When Coleman begins on March 1, he will report to chief marketing officer Ukonwa Ojo. Marketing veteran Ojo was named CMO for Amazon Studios and Prime Video last September, joining the company from the top marketing post at MAC Cosmetics. Coleman is Ojo’s first major hire since she joined Amazon Studios in the fall.
“I am excited for Greg to help take our fantasy and sci-fi franchises to new heights,” wrote Ojo in an internal memo to staff on Thursday.
The hotly anticipated “Lord of the Rings” series released its official synopsis last month, with the epic’s events taking place during the Second Age of Middle-Earth’s history. It will be thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings.” and will, per the studio, “take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.”