Vicky Free Named Disney/ABC Marketing SVP

Disney/ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution has named Vicky Free senior vice president of marketing, it was announced by Janice Marinelli, president, Disney/ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution. Reporting to Marinelli, Free will be based out of the company’s Burbank, Calif., headquarters. 

In her new post as head of the marketing department, Free has marketing responsibilities for both studio and television content distributed by The Walt Disney Studios and The Disney/ABC Television Group. She will oversee in-home creative strategy, digital marketing and customer relationship management to drive sales, ownership and consumption of the company’s theatrical releases across all platforms from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Disneynature.

Her team is responsible for the creation and implementation of all creative advertising and bonus content. In addition, Free will lead the overall marketing strategy and execution for the company’s first-run and off-network syndicated television content from ABC Studios, ABC Entertainment, WABC, Freeform, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior in the U.S. and Canada. Free’s oversight includes all trade and consumer campaigns, creative assets, digital and social marketing, affiliate relations and communications.

Free joins Disney/ABC from Viacom’s BET Networks, where she served as EVP and chief marketing officer since 2011. During her tenure at BET, Free directed the brand, marketing and creative strategy across all platforms. Between 2005 and 2011 Free held several top marketing posts at Turner Entertainment Networks, including VP of entertainment marketing and VP of emerging markets and promotions, helping to shape TNT, TBS, TCM, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim’s brands. She also spent more than eight years at McDonald’s beginning in 1997, where she worked as director of women’s initiatives and headed multicultural brand management.

Free holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina. She is actively involved in the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications and is a graduate of NAMIC’s Executive Leadership Development Program offered in partnership with UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management.

In addition, she has been recognized by various publications and organizations for her executive leadership and marketing expertise, including Ad Age, Ebony, UpTown, NAMIC and PromaxBDA, and was named to CableFax’s 50 Most Powerful Women & Minorities in Cable (2008-2016). She is a graduate of the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing’s (CTAM) executive leadership program at Harvard University and is a member of the board of directors for PromaxBDA.