Asia-Pacific Power List 2021: Jessica Beaton, The Walt Disney Company

Jessica Beaton

Director, APAC media and marketing, DTC
The Walt Disney Company
Singapore
New member 

Jessica Beaton has taken charge of the APAC media and marketing strategy of Disney’s biggest bet in recent years—streaming service Disney+—at a critical stage of its growth. So far it has launched in Australia and New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia (as well as India, where it is Disney+ Hotstar)—with rollouts in Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan still to come. And while it made a splashy entrance with huge out-of-home takeovers, Beaton’s challenge will be retaining customers after its initial promotions subside.

This is a relatively new remit for Beaton, who until April was leading the APAC marketing of Studio releases across Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight. In the past year, that has included conceptualising the digital marketing strategy for films such as Soul, Mulan and Raya and the Last Dragon—an enviable task. Behind-the-scenes, Beaton has spearheaded a major innovation in performance and reimagined digital processes and relationships that has set Disney up well for the future.

Outside of Disney, she has been challenging the industry to adapt to the seismic changes happening in marketing, media and measurement via work with the IAB, where she was a board member throughout 2020, and through industry engagement as a digital marketing instructor and speaker at General Assembly, and on juries from Spikes to the MMAs.

Beaton joined Disney in January 2020 from Dentsu X where she was general manager in Singapore. She is an experienced media and content strategy professional with stints across agencies, brands and publishers across Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore.