Former Xbox strategy head Jennifer Creegan starts Sept. 7 as Head of Marketing Technology and Operations under CMBO Asad Ayaz — a new cross-division data role following the January marketing merger and April cuts of 1,000 jobs
The Walt Disney Company has appointed Jennifer Creegan as Head of Marketing Technology and Operations. Disney announced the hire on Thursday, Sept. 3. The position is newly created. Creegan starts Sept. 7 and reports to Asad Ayaz, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer of The Walt Disney Company.
The role grew out of the enterprise marketing organization Disney launched in January. The company pulled marketing functions that had been split across film and television, streaming, sports, parks and experiences, games, and consumer products under Ayaz, and Creegan's position sits on that organization's leadership team. The position was first announced earlier this year and is now filled for the first time. Disney said in its announcement that the role "marks another step in the evolution of Disney's global marketing organization" and reflects its continued focus on a more connected fan experience.
Connecting consumer data across film, streaming, parks and games
Creegan's job is the technology and data link between business units. According to Disney, she will partner with each of the company's businesses — film and television, streaming, sports, parks and experiences, games, and consumer products — and with its technology and data teams to accelerate innovation and drive scale. The company said the work will give teams "greater insight into fans," enable faster decision-making, and create new opportunities for growth and engagement worldwide.
A job listing Disney posted earlier this year shows the position is based in Burbank and is responsible for managing a portfolio of marketing technology solutions and for operational efficiency. In his Sept. 3 statement, Ayaz said there are "more ways than ever to experience Disney today," which he called an opportunity to bring fans closer to the brands and stories they love. He added that Creegan "understands how technology and data can come together with innovative marketing approaches," and that her experience would be invaluable in building a marketing team that uses technology to deliver a connected Disney experience.
Two decades in Microsoft Advertising, then Xbox strategy and insights
Creegan joins Disney from Microsoft. Most recently she was head of Strategy, Business Planning & Insights for Xbox. According to Variety on Sept. 3 (Jennifer Maas), that role involved "helping shape business strategy across product, content and monetization while evolving Xbox toward a more player-focused business." She previously spent more than 20 years in Microsoft's advertising division. Adweek noted that Creegan was a 2023 Adweek 50 honoree.
A background spanning ad technology and game-platform data lines up with what Disney said it wanted from the restructuring. The direction Disney laid out in January was to use data as a differentiator and to use technology to eliminate friction and reduce complexity.
January consolidation, then 1,000 job cuts in April with marketing hit hardest
Disney created the enterprise marketing and brand organization on Jan. 14 and named Ayaz its first Chief Marketing and Brand Officer. Ayaz had spent eight years as President of Marketing for The Walt Disney Studios, led marketing for Disney+, and served as Chief Brand Officer since 2023. In a Jan. 29 internal memo, Ayaz wrote that Disney would "show up as one unified storytelling brand" across its flywheel of film, television, streaming, parks, experiences and sports (Variety, Jan. 29).
The consolidation ran alongside cost cuts. CEO Josh D'Amaro announced roughly 1,000 job cuts across marketing, brand and other functions in a staff memo on April 14. It was the first major layoff under D'Amaro, and a significant portion of the cuts fell on marketing. The Wall Street Journal reported that the restructuring was known internally as "Project Imagine," aimed at reducing duplicated functions and reallocating spend toward digital and streaming-first priorities (as cited by MM+M, April 20). Disney has also reportedly offered early-retirement packages to longtime executives across Disney Entertainment, ESPN and corporate.
Linear ads down 1%, streaming subscriptions up 15% — where the budget is moving
Disney's fiscal third-quarter results, released Aug. 5 for April through June, show the basis for the shift. Entertainment advertising revenue fell 1% year over year, streaming (Disney+ and Hulu) advertising revenue rose 3%, and streaming subscription revenue rose 15%. Sports advertising rose 5% on record NBA and NHL playoff audiences, and Experiences revenue grew 10%. A year earlier, in fiscal Q3 2025, linear TV advertising revenue had fallen 20%.
Disney fiscal Q3 2026 revenue growth by line. Source: Disney earnings release (Aug. 5), Storyboard18
On the same day, D'Amaro laid out the "One Disney" model on the earnings call — an operating framework that unifies consumer data across studios, streaming, parks and consumer products to raise lifetime fan value. Creegan's position is the marketing-side data seat inside that framework.
Follows August SVP hire for consumer products marketing
The hire is one in a series under the unified organization. In August, Disney named longtime executive Joss Hastings Senior Vice President, Marketing, for Disney Consumer Products. Ayaz's January memo listed leaders for enterprise functions such as Brand & Franchise and Corporate Alliances; the marketing technology and operations seat remained open at the time and has now been filled.
Korean terrestrial ad revenue down 17% — budgets moving without an organizational merge
The advertising shift in Korea is running faster than at Disney. According to the fiscal 2025 broadcaster financial disclosures released June 19 by the Korea Communications and Media Commission(방송미디어통신위원회), total broadcast advertising revenue fell 12.3% to 2.0134 trillion won. Terrestrial broadcasters' ad revenue dropped 17.0% to 693.6 billion won, and program providers' (PP) ad revenue fell 9.6% to 1.1331 trillion won. From 2021 to 2025, broadcast ad revenue declined at an average annual rate of 10.6% while mobile advertising grew 7.5% a year. Terrestrial broadcasters posted an operating loss of 117.4 billion won, their third straight year in the red.
Korean broadcast advertising revenue. Source: Korea Communications and Media Commission, fiscal 2025 broadcaster financial disclosures (June 19)
The revenue decline is comparable or steeper, but the organizational response differs. Disney merged business-unit marketing into one organization, cut headcount, and only then brought in an outside technology and operations chief. Martech arrived as the result of consolidation, not its starting point. Korean terrestrial broadcasters, general-programming channels and the CJ ENM group still run marketing and data teams by channel or genre, and marketing technology spending is often decided channel by channel. Buying tools without consolidating the organization leaves each channel building the same data separately.
Marketing organization at Disney versus Korean players. Compiled from Disney announcements and reports and Korea Communications and Media Commission data
The profile of the person in charge differs as well. Creegan came to the job with two decades in ad tech and platform monetization at Xbox. Once Disney defined the marketing organization's core function as "insight into fans" and faster decisions, it chose someone who had run user-level behavioral data rather than a content marketer. Data teams at Korean broadcasters mostly grew out of scheduling and ratings analysis. For the merged TVING(티빙)–Wavve(웨이브) service, the case is a reference point for where to find a marketing data lead.
Ayaz's "one unified storytelling brand" means tying film, television, streaming, parks, experiences and sports to a single data layer. In Korea, the companies closest to that structure are not broadcasters but agencies such as HYBE(하이브) and SM Entertainment(SM엔터테인먼트), whose fan platforms Weverse(위버스) and bubble(버블) already tie concerts, merchandise and content to one account.
Broadcasters have fan-data touchpoints only through their own streaming services and live-event or IP businesses, and no organization yet exists to fold those into marketing data. The sequence Disney followed — a unified organization first, a technology chief eight months later — gives Korean media groups a benchmark for where to start when they rework their own marketing structure.
Sources
· Adweek, "Disney Adds to Revamped Marketing Org, Jennifer Creegan to Lead Martech" (Bill Bradley, Sept. 4, 2026)
· Variety, "Disney Taps Xbox Exec Jennifer Creegan as First Marketing Tech and Operations Chief" (Jennifer Maas, Sept. 3, 2026) https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/disney-marketing-technology-jennifer-creegan-1236850561/
· TheWrap, "Disney Appoints Jennifer Creegan to New Head of Marketing Technology and Operations Role" (Sept. 3, 2026)
· The Walt Disney Company press release, "The Walt Disney Company Establishes New Enterprise Marketing Organization; Names Asad Ayaz Chief Marketing and Brand Officer" (Jan. 14, 2026)
· Variety, "Disney Outlines Mega Marketing Group Leadership Structure Under Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Asad Ayaz" (Jan. 29, 2026)
· MM+M, "Disney's 1,000 role cuts underway, marketing and brand functions impacted" (April 20, 2026; includes citation of The Wall Street Journal)
· The Walt Disney Company, Q3 FY2026 shareholder letter and earnings release (Aug. 5, 2026); Storyboard18, "Disney Q3 ad revenue tops $2.8 billion as ESPN offsets Entertainment advertising decline" (Aug. 2026); CNBC, "Disney (DIS) earnings Q3 2026" (Aug. 5, 2026)
· Korea Communications and Media Commission(방송미디어통신위원회), fiscal 2025 broadcaster financial disclosures (June 19, 2026); Edaily and Digital Daily reports of June 19, 2026
· Disney Careers listing, "Head of Marketing Technology and Operations" (Req ID 10143664)
Text in quotation marks is a reported statement or announcement; unquoted text summarizes reporting.