The Marketer Behind The Disney+ Story Machine

Emma Quartly, VP of Marketing, Direct to Consumer, EMEA at Disney+ is busy reimagining how stories are told at the 100-year-old entertainment powerhouse - part of a career that’s taken her through some of the UK’s most influential broadcasters and deep into the business of audience attention.

But this wasn't quite the original plan. Quartly trained in film & TV with ambitions of becoming a filmmaker, before two realisations shifted her trajectory: the first, that she lacked the patience for the painstaking rhythm of production. And the second, more enduring, that her real fascination lay elsewhere - in the psychology of storytelling itself. Not how stories are made, but how they land, land with meaning, and linger with audiences long after the credits roll.

“Through film, we can tell people what we want them to know, or we can show them in a way that they implicitly understand it. That that idea captured me, it’s a combination of two things, that impatient nature of mine and this need to tell stories and to understand how viewers absorb and process stories led me into advertising,” she says.

From agency to client side

Her entry into advertising, like many of the more interesting careers in this business, wasn’t exactly mapped out. A short work experience stint at Saatchi & Saatchi turned into something more permanent, and from there she was pulled properly into the industry. Her background in film gave her an early advantage on set and an instinctive fluency in how things should look, feel and come together when the cameras were rolling. Over the next four years she cut her teeth on a string of big-name brands, working across Carlsberg, General Mills cereals, and Sony Ericsson.

Next, she moved to WCRS, where she considers her true marketing journey to have begun. Over four years she led work on Sky and also worked on helpline 118118 account. She feels that both Saatchis and WCRS cemented a belief in the power of creativity and strategy, and the importance of protecting ideas. But as an account handler, she craved more ownership of the strategic and commercial levers.

Then, the agency’s biggest client Sky offered her the opportunity to move client side, one she grasped, joining at pivotal moment to unlock growth for Sky and delivering a major campaign that reframed the product’s benefits. She went on to lead TV product launches and the early evolution of on‑demand ‘box sets’, working across content, product, and technology.  This period also included the hiring of long-time brand ambassador Idris Elba who remains its frontman today. Later, Quartly would play a key role in the launch of Sky Q, deepening her experience in customer‑centric product design.

She admits to having initially underestimated the leap from agency life to becoming a client‑side marketer, assuming it would feel much the same - same stakeholders, same creative conversations, just from a different seat in the room.

What she hadn’t anticipated was the weight of responsibility: the realisation that the business outcome now sat squarely with her. She had to choose the work, justify the spend, and exercise judgement with far greater consequence - because the money, and the responsibility for what it delivered, was now hers. The transition was eased by her deep familiarity with Sky and its stakeholders, but there was a profound shift in accountability.

After a decade at Sky — including a four-year stint at NOW TV following maternity leave — she had built a career that connected creativity, content, product innovation and the fast‑moving world of streaming, leading the marketing team for Europe for Disney+

Telling great stories

Quartly is now in her fifth year in role, during which time she has led the development of several magical campaigns that evoke the storytelling from that 100-year heritage of the Walt Disney Company, working with adam&eve\TBWA and now VCCP in the process.

This has led to the development of the platform ‘A Lifetime of Great Stories’ and the latest ad ‘Under The Bed’, directed by Stefanie Soho through Smuggler, in collaboration with VCCP’s content creation studio Girl&Bear. It celebrates the library of blockbuster movies, new originals, and exclusive hit shows available on the company’s streaming service.

“We’ve been focused on defining our point of difference and our brand promise to consumers. Disney is a masterbrand that means so much to so many, and we wanted to honour that heritage at the same time as building something uniquely ownable to Disney+. A lifetime of great stories is the culmination of that thinking,” Quartly explains.

Since the launch of Disney+ six years ago, it has seen accelerated growth while contending with the fragmenting of audiences who are inundated with content – underlining the need for the platform to cut through against its myriad of competitors. To do so, Quartly is leaning into the emotional resonance that the Disney brand can evoke to create lasting connections.

She adds, “By harnessing the power of our master brand, which has deep connections with people all over the world, this campaign highlights our mission to continue delivering world-class storytelling. From iconic stories audiences grew up with and loved, such as Monsters, Inc, to modern, award-winning series for adult audiences that many are discovering and enjoying today, including Grey's Anatomy, Andor, Rivals and Shōgun, it reinforces Disney+ as the home of quality storytelling that stays with you and continues to resonate over time.”

The platform strategy and this new campaign has been activated by local teams who aim to show up in relevant ways - from selecting the content that connects most strongly in each market, to developing bespoke social activations, working closely with key platforms, and collaborating with locally relevant influencers and creators who help bring the stories into everyday culture.

This includes choosing formats that let the storytelling lead. In Germany, a TikTok filter has been launched to invite people into the story, while in France, a live show has bveen developed with Twitch, leaning into the energy of real-time viewing and shared experiences. Across IMDb and YouTube, high-impact, interactive placements will run to capture audiences during their viewing moments while in the UK at Waterloo Station, 15 high-impact, large-format outdoor installations centred on storytelling.

She states her pride in the paid influencer activity that is taking place for the platform too. It is a new way for Disney to tell stories, even if it is still in a test and learn phase. “There was no perfect ‘off the shelf’ measurement approach, so we’re breaking new ground and learning fast.”

Influencer recommendations are driving viewing habits and amplifying talkability around Disney+ content, with the team creating a test to significantly increase investment in paid to measure its impact.   

“At its heart, it's rooted in an understanding of how stories fit into people's everyday lives - ensuring the campaign feels emotionally engaging, culturally relevant and meaningful wherever audiences encounter it, while remaining unmistakably Disney+,” she continues of the overall work.

The world of marketing according to Emma Quartly

Creative Salon: Disney+ has made an annual ritual of releasing a Christmas campaign – How do you go about planning those and what is the aim of the creative?

Emma Quartly: In many ways, Disney and Christmas have always felt closely connected. It's a moment rooted in tradition, togetherness and shared experiences, and there are very few brands that have been part of people's lives across generations in the way Disney has. Disney+ is about bringing together world-class stories for everyone to enjoy.

From festive favourites like Home Alone, which people return to year after year, to critically acclaimed series such as The Bear, it brings that idea to life in a way only Disney can.

As with any major campaign, planning begins many months in advance. What makes Christmas distinct is that it's experienced differently across our region, so we're always mindful of local traditions, habits and milestones, ensuring the work feels culturally resonant while staying anchored in a shared idea.

What was so successful about ‘A Lifetime of Great Stories’ that made you decide to continue with the platform?

'A Lifetime of Great Stories' really resonated emotionally with consumers, because it speaks to a few simple truths; firstly the importance of stories in the fabric of our lives and secondly in a deep-rooted customer belief that Disney is a mark of enduring quality. It invites us all to remember the stories we still return to time again, the ones that have shaped us and the ones we can’t stop talking about right now.

What for you makes a Disney+ campaign?

For me, it always starts with storytelling. At the heart of everything we do is the belief that great stories matter, that they stay with people and become part of their lives over time. That’s something Disney has always done exceptionally well, and it’s what continues to set us apart.

From there, it’s about being bold in how we bring those stories into the world. That means having the confidence to try new things, take creative risks and adapt as audience behaviours and culture evolve. We build on what we know resonates emotionally, while constantly pushing ourselves to go further and raise the bar, creatively and strategically.

Ultimately, what defines a Disney+ campaign is that balance. Staying true to what is uniquely ours, the emotional power of storytelling only Disney can deliver, while being brave enough to innovate and challenge ourselves to keep moving forward.

That's also the beauty of such a diverse region as EMEA. There's so much energy, passion and collaboration across markets, and it's that shared ambition and pride in the work teams create together that makes doing this across EMEA so special

What excites you as a marketer?

You know, it’s genuinely two things. First, I love getting the data and the insight. I love understanding the problem, but all of that is theoretical until someone with a brilliant creative mind finds a way to turn it into work. These days that could be an influencer piece, traditional AV, a stunt, or a premiere moment that really captures people. Something memorable that connects the dots and brings a problem to life or positions our product or brand as the solution.

I still get butterflies when I see an idea and think: “That’s it”. It’s quite an intangible feeling; that moment when you just know you’ve got a brilliant idea. And I’m lucky: I see that every day in the work from the team here, from a content point of view in the film and TV this company produces, and in the work from my own team.

Is there a particular moment in your career that you're really proud of and you'll always look back on as a real highlight?

I’d say there are two, and I’ve taken different lessons from each. The first was actually a Sky example. We were creating a Sky+ campaign and the agency came to me with an idea completely outside the main work. It was a media idea: a terrestrial TV roadblock. The brief was to show the benefit of Sky+ — that you could pause live TV, which at the time felt radical.

The idea opened on what looked like a normal ad break. Then it began to rewind, and you realised it was a dog rewinding the break to rewatch a sausage commercial. Silly, but the point was to fool people into thinking their live TV was rewinding. It had the old rewind lines and everything. I took it to a senior creative who didn’t want to make it, but I realised we could do it with the agency for almost no extra cost — literally a few hundred pounds. I decided to take the risk, and it became the most celebrated part of the campaign.

It worked brilliantly. Our chief executive famously asked his wife if she was sitting on the remote. It was disruptive at a time when that was hard to do in a linear TV ad break. It was fun, memorable, and held up for years as an example of taking a smart risk. The lesson I’ve carried with me is that sometimes you have to challenge the “no” and find a way — that Saatchi mantra of ‘nothing is impossible’. It’s easy to give up when something feels hard, but that example showed me how worthwhile it can be when you don’t.

The second example is the work we’re doing now for Disney+ on its repositioning and new brand vehicle. This work has been a year or two in the making. It took time for us to feel ready to fully embrace what Disney+ stands for in a cluttered, noisy market full of brilliant content from every direction.

Finding Disney+’ unique role — the thing only we can stand for — has been a real journey. But the work coming out now is designed to connect with consumers on a much more emotional level. And early results show it’s doing exactly that, which is incredibly exciting.

What makes the ideal creative agency partner, or media agency partner?

For me, the most important thing day to day is having a strategic partner. One of my observations about being client‑side is how quickly you can end up talking to yourself. You can easily lose sight of the broader context, not just within your own industry, but beyond it. Having someone who can question our data or point to another data point that suggests a different answer, is really important.

It’s crucial to have an open partnership where you share as much information as possible, even if you don’t think there’s anything in it. A great strategist can spot something you’ve missed because you’ve been so focused on one problem. That requires a strong relationship — someone who feels able to challenge you.

When we went through our most recent pitch process, this was one of the key things I talked about. I need someone who feels able to say, “We think this is wrong,” or “There’s another way.” It doesn’t mean we always take that route, but they have absolute permission to challenge me and my team — in fact, I want them to.

And I’m lucky. We have that with VCCP, our brand agency, and with Publicis Imagine, our media agency. I’m surrounded by people who feel able to be honest.

What frustrates you most as a marketer?

You know, I often hear people say the challenge in marketing today is that people don’t understand the value of brand or the value marketing brings to a business, and that they’re constantly fighting for every dollar. I can honestly say I’m incredibly lucky to work in a company where brand is the cornerstone of everything. This is an organisation with a brand over 100 years old that has endured huge change — and it’s a brand of other brands: Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Nat Geo, Hulu, FX. These are juggernauts.

Because the company understands brand and places so much importance on it, they also understand marketing. I’ve never had to fight for its importance or justify it. That doesn’t mean I don’t use data to support every dollar spent — that’s a responsibility all marketers should take seriously — but there’s already an implicit understanding of its value.

If anything, the frustration isn’t a lack of opportunity but too much of it. We have tools, data and growth levers everywhere, and they’re multiplying all the time. No business can do everything. So I sometimes feel frustrated leaving potential on the table or saying no to a good idea or piece of content, because I have to prioritise what will make the biggest impact. That takes discipline, and sometimes I don’t get it right, but it’s something I focus on every day.

What is your favourite Disney film?

It honestly changes all the time. At the moment the Zootropolis films are big family favourites. And as soon as Gazelle appears, and that Shakira soundtrack kicks in, it's impossible not to sing along with my daughters.