Lee Parker has spent the bulk of his career working at some of the world’s biggest media companies – Fox, Sky and now Disney Plus. In his new role at the streamer, he serves as creative director, Disney Plus UK and EMEA. And his first assignment is a big one: get audiences across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa fully acquainted with Hulu as Disney Plus replaces the Star brand with Hulu around the world.
But Parker seems up to the task, having already spent more than two decades at global content powerhouses. Disney feels a bit like going home as Parker gets to market content that he and his family have loved their entire lives and still watch together as a family.
Parker joined Spotlight for a chat about his new gig just ahead of the return of Nominations Night at the Broadcaster in London on October 16 and the 2025 GEMA Awards TV/Streaming UK at the Brewery in London on November 7.
Read the entire edited interview below.
Spotlight: You joined Disney Plus UK EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) about five months ago, but you obviously have quite a bit of experience marketing video content in the UK and EMEA market after years with Sky and Fox. What marketing and branding lessons that you learned while working with these traditional broadcasters did you bring with you to Disney+?
Lee Parker, creative director, Disney Plus, UK and EMEA: I’ve spent the last 25 years of my creative career working internally with in-house marketing and creative teams. I’ve launched such shows as Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead with Fox across EMEA. I also spent 12 years at Sky Creative where I worked across all genres from sports to cinema and product launches to establishing such Sky Originals as Day of the Jackal, Chernobyl and much more.
The key lessons I’ve brought with me are consistency and confidence. Consistency when it comes to your brand, staying true to what you are and what you are not, and not complicating it for the consumer. Confidence that if you get the marketing campaign right for a brilliant show the audience will find it. We live in a cluttered world of streamers and free-to-air networks but you can always be confident that great word of mouth about a great show will lead viewers to it.
Spotlight: How would you describe the television environment in EMEA in general? How would you say it compares to what is happening in the US? Do you think people in EMEA are more used to a very diverse media environment? The US has obviously changed but it used to be much more monocultural – I feel like Europeans have always been more culturally nimble just because of the size of European countries and how easy it is to go from one to another.
Parker: EMEA, like the States, is a very crowded streaming market and it’s our job to lift the Disney Plus brand above the noise. We are aware that our customers are used to choice – across our key EMEA markets there are five big providers who dominate the marketplace, the usual Netflix/Prime but the free-to-air (FTA) streamers also have massive numbers. In Germany, the combined streaming platforms of ARD, ZDF, ARTE and 3sat now reach more than 60% of the German population aged 14 and above, putting them ahead of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, according to a study reported in Broadband TV News. In France, TFI Plus has 35 million subscribers. Thus, we are changing how we work with FTAs across EMEA. In the UK, Disney+ has struck a landmark deal with ITVX to carry each other’s streaming services, in the form of a promotional selection, billed as a ‘Taste of ITVX’ and a ‘Taste of Disney+,’ respectively. The agreement puts acclaimed British and global hits on both platforms to expand viewer choice and celebrate the best of British and international storytelling.
Similar deals have been done in Germany with ZDF and ARD, offering more than 3,000 new shows on Disney Plus, and with Atresmedia in Spain, bringing local originals to Spanish customers with very short windows.
Given Disney Plus skews younger than the FTA streamers from an audience perspective, it’s a really beneficial way to get our content to consumers who are older. The benefits work both ways as we are also helping the FTAs extend their reach whilst bringing their iconic content to our younger customers.
Spotlight: Right now, Disney Plus is phasing out the Star brand and phasing in the Hulu brand on the Disney Plus platform across the globe (although not in the US). How are you guys managing that major change from a marketing perspective?
Parker: Well, firstly, it’s exciting because Hulu is a great brand to work with. Across the globe it’s known as a signifier of great adult entertainment content, but our job is now to cement this awareness across EMEA. Our approach very much focuses on driving that association between Hulu and adult entertainment on Disney Plus, showing, not telling, and letting the incredible content Hulu is famous for (from Only Murders in the Building to High Potential) do the talking.
As I said earlier, consistency is key. We’ve been working across all of our EMEA markets on a consistent brand toolkit that we can use to start landing the Hulu brand across all of our content marketing. In customer channels, we are creating content promos and range spots in the app that remind our customers we have these great shows. The thing they all have in common is that they are Hulu shows and they are here.
The big point of difference and what really excites me about Disney Plus is our new brand positioning. No one has a legacy like ours – more than 100 years of quality storytelling from a brand you can trust that’s spanned generations. We truly offer a lifetime of great stories and Hulu adds to this legacy. The quality of Hulu storytelling is second to none: Only Murders in the Building, Grey’s Anatomy, High Potential, Abbot Elementary… the list is endless.
Spotlight: How challenging is it to market all of the diverse series and movies across the Disney Plus platform – from the family-friendly and kid-oriented titles of Disney Branded Television to the mature series targeting adults on Hulu and Star – while maintaining Disney’s overall global brand integrity?
Parker: Let’s make no bones about it: Disney Plus is known for family content and movies, and as a safe space for kids. We want this to continue to be true, while we also expand this perception. With our new brand marketing campaign, which runs across all of EMEA, we are really focused on building content awareness and perception. We are evolving Disney’s brand positioning to connect with the consumer and really highlight our point of difference that will make customers want us alongside Netflix and Prime.
Across EMEA in September, we launched our “A Lifetime of Great Stories” campaign. All EMEA markets consistently ran the same campaign.
In addition, everyone’s time is precious. It takes the average household 10 minutes to make a choice when streaming so you need to know you are going to get quality. With Disney Plus you know you can trust the people behind such shows and movies as Toy Story, The Bear, Grey’s Anatomy and on and on.
From our launch in September, we’ve already seen some great results so it’s a really promising start. In the run up to Christmas, we are launching a live-action brand spot that will help drive talkability. Across all of our markets we’ve looked at all of our branding materials and language and created a bespoke toolkit to help everyone launch the new brand line.
We’re also doubling down on the importance of PR events and social influencers to drive authentic connections and conversation. We’ve committed to more EMEA-wide events, stunts, activations and creator partnerships. “The Bear Copenhagen Experience” was a great example that utilized the knowledge of our local market team and led to so much coverage across press and social channels. Whether it’s local or global, we are all tuned to the same message and approach for these campaigns – and it’s a real joy to work with these creatives across all of these regions. That was always a highlight of my Fox days and something I really missed whilst at Sky.
Spotlight: Do you feel like younger viewers still identify with Disney in the way that we did as kids (not that I know how old you are) and does that brand affinity help attract them to the platforms of Disney Plus?
Parker: They do. I have three daughters, 10, 17 and 21, and they all love a good story. It was really special when the live-action Lilo and Stitch came out this year, as my 21-year-old and my 17-year-old have totally different relationships to that film than my 10-year-old does, but there they all sat, in the cinema wide-eyed watching the new imagining of this classic. Not many films or brands can do that. To me, that’s the unique thing about Disney Plus, it does have content for everyone but it is mine and the marketing team’s job – which is a massively exciting one – to make the consumer realize it also has shows for adults too. I’ll get home in the evening and my 10-year-old will be watching Jessie and then later in the evening, my 17-year-old and I will sit and watch Only Murders in the Building. What a range of choices! And again, that’s about Disney’s legacy of great storytelling!
Spotlight: Do you approach the marketing of series that are produced in Europe or even in local regions differently than Disney’s many US imports? Do you feel like EMEA audiences receive these series differently?
Parker: One of strengths at Disney Plus is its commitment to local originals across the EMEA markets. This is where the EMEA marketing and creative teams really come to life.
I was in Warsaw the other week during the launch of Breslau, a local original for the Polish team, and I was blown away by the quality of the work and it was everywhere – seriously everywhere – and the results have been amazing. It really does add that local element when you see a local original marketed alongside the likes of US shows like Paradise or The Bear. Again, it comes down to quality storytelling but we’ve found across the EMEA regions that the customer wants quality local stories and they trust us to bring these to life. There is totally the time and place for Emmy-award winning shows like Shogun but at the same time, original series from local markets are key.
I implore you to see the marketing campaign for Nemesis, the first Dutch scripted original drama we launched this year. The marketing and creative campaign was brilliantly original and also won best 360 campaign at GEMA in San Sebastian this year.
That was a really proud moment for the team and the show. It was a real shop window for how creative teams can be when you have such high quality shows to work with.
Spotlight: In the few months that you have been at Disney Plus, what has been the series, film, or campaign (or all of the above) that you have been most excited about marketing? What are you most looking forward to at Disney Plus in the next year?
Parker: It’s been so so busy but at the same time massively enjoyable. I’m so lucky to have joined at a time when we are launching the new brand positioning and I can play such a key role. I don’t want to labor the point, but, as our new tagline states, we really have a lifetime of great stories – no one else in the marketplace can match what we have. It lifts us above the noise and into a position of trust with our viewers. It’s an attractive proposition. Seeing how this came to life at first with a content spot in September and now into a live-action campaign for Christmas has been beyond exciting.
We are pushing the brand and really hitting emotions we’ve not hit before. That’s unexpectd from Disney Plus, so watch this space.
Join Lee and other top creative executives at the GEMA UK TV/Streaming Awards on November 7 at The Brewery in London. Don’t wait! Secure your spot!
