[Webcast] HBO Max: Championing Representation in the Industry

Join Katie Soo, Co-Chair of Asia Society Southern California and SVP of Growth Marketing at HBO Max, as she moderates a panel on HBO Max’s communities-first approach to developing marketing campaigns that reach underrepresented audiences. Hear from Andrea Chen, VP of Campaign Planning & Management, Jeniffer Kim, SVP of International Originals, Billy Wee, SVP of Animation, and Pia Barlow, SVP of Program Marketing, who will come together to discuss HBO Max’s commitment to representation in leadership roles and the importance of diversity of thoughts and voices across WarnerMedia.

These development executives and entertainment marketing experts will dive into the need to act as one collective conscious to move culture forward and champion representation. Our featured panelists will also share how they successfully convey HBO Max’s ideology of organically embracing diverse audiences by emphasizing how programming continues to reflect diverse communities all year round, not just when culturally convenient.

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Speakers:

Andrea Chen serves as Vice President of Campaign Planning & Management, Growth Marketing at HBO Max, where she is responsible for driving consideration and maximizing audience opportunities through 360 and audience driven campaigns to generate volume and support subscriber acquisition. Her team oversees HBO Max social channels and content merchandising efforts to promote library, licensed and original programming. Chen also leads collaboration with Fusion, an AT&T Corporate Synergy group, through internal and external partners to expand reach and works to develop and test new audiences through owned social channels, influencers, and promo partners.

Chen is a seasoned marketer and digital storyteller with a passion for creativity powered by data. Her success comes through aligning strategic visions and growth touchpoints across design, editorial, acquisition and lifecycle, and business insights. Prior to joining the HBO Max team, Chen held director positions in International Digital Marketing and Social Media for Warner Bros. Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures where she oversaw 50+ international digital campaigns for films such as “Wonder Woman,” “The Conjuring” Universe, “Rampage,” “The Meg,” “Creed II,” and “Aquaman.”

Earlier in her career, Chen worked for Sony Pictures Entertainment, managing international digital marketing campaigns beginning from strategy through execution for a diverse slate of films ranging from blockbuster franchises like “Hotel Transylvania” and “007” to “Whiplash” and “Django Unchained.” Chen is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside where she received a B.S. in Business Administration with a focus in Marketing.

Jeniffer Kim is Senior Vice President, International Originals for HBO Max, responsible for leading International content development for the streaming platform, working in tandem with the U.S. originals team, and responsible for finding co-production opportunities in the non-U.S. markets. She continues to work on a few U.S. comedy originals, focusing on comedy standup specials.

Prior to joining HBO Max, Kim served as SVP of Original Programming for TBS, playing an integral role on the rebrand of the network and earning a reputation as a trailblazer, working on such culturally resonant series as “Search Party,” “Angie Tribeca,” “American Dad” and the Emmy®-winning “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” among many others.

Kim began her career as a comedy coordinator at Touchstone Television (now ABC Studios) and is a bay area native now living in Los Angeles, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Visual Arts from University of California, San Diego.

Bill Wee is Senior Vice President, Original Animation for HBO Max, responsible for overseeing all original animated programming for the WarnerMedia direct-to-consumer offering, including adult animation, kids & family and anime.

Previously, Wee served as Vice President of Original Programming, TBS, where he joined in 2016. There, he developed both live-action and animated shows including hit series “The Last OG,” anthology comedy series “The Guest Book” and animated space epic “Final Space” for TBS and Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Prior to TBS, Wee was a producer at Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks TV and Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison, where he developed and produced the popular hit series “The Goldbergs” for ABC. At DreamWorks TV, he oversaw drama series “The Borgias” for Showtime and “Terra Nova” for Fox.

Pia Barlow is SVP, Originals Marketing for HBO Max, responsible for guiding the overall marketing strategy for HBO Max Originals.

Barlow worked at HBO for nine years, launching consumer marketing campaigns for award-winning programming including Girls, Silicon Valley and Boardwalk Empire. She then became Director of Originals Marketing at Netflix, overseeing award-winning, global marketing campaigns for series including Orange is the New Black and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and later focused on international originals. She later served as an SVP at Twentieth Century Fox Film, shepherding campaigns for films like Bohemian Rhapsody and The Greatest Showman before returning to Netflix as director of Global Creative & Social Marketing. She joined the HBO Max team in January 2020.

Moderator:

Katie Soo is an award-winning global media and tech marketer with a proven track record for breaking trends, forging new technology partnerships, and launching large-scale, disruptive business models and brands.

Soo, Senior Vice President of Growth Marketing for HBO Max currently oversees growth marketing for WarnerMedia’s direct-to-consumer platform, HBO Max. Her areas of focus include media, subscriber acquisitions, consumer engagement, digital campaigns, social media and audience development, partner marketing, and retention strategies.

Since the launch of HBO Max, Soo helped HBO/HBO Max domestic subscribers grow from 33 million to 41.5 million as of the end of 2020, with total subscribers already passing AT&T’s projected figure for 2022. The 8.5 million increase is a larger growth in subscribers than the past 10 years combined. She launched a fresh approach to editorial marketing by leveraging human curation and on-channel marketing to directly impact media strategy and audience development efforts for HBO Max. Under her leadership, she helped build a core growth engine that enabled end to end consumer marketing, powering subscriber growth through break-through media campaigns, social stunts, and a reimagined editorial experience.