Don Buckley to Head Warner Bros. Theatrical Advertising and Publicity's New Media Department.

BURBANK, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--March 17, 1999--Warner Bros. has established a New Media department within its Theatrical Advertising and Publicity division, to be headed by Warner Bros. marketing veteran Don Buckley, senior vice president, Warner Bros. Theatrical Marketing and New Media.

The announcement was made Wednesday by Brad A. Ball, president of Warner Bros. Domestic Theatrical Marketing, and is effective immediately. Buckley will report to Ball and will divide his time between New York and Los Angeles, though he continues to be based in New York.

Ball stated: "We've created this department in response to the growing importance of the Internet, the World Wide Web, online services and other new media in helping to position and market our motion pictures and reach our audiences.

"Don has been a leader in developing our resources in this area from the very start; he has pioneered our entry into the use of new media and has introduced several features to our Web sites that have been tremendously successful and have now been widely adopted by others.

"In addition to Don's overall acumen in movie marketing, he is a unique resource for us at Warner Bros. and we are pleased to expand his influence with the creation of this new area of responsibility."

The New Media department will join its counterparts, Creative Advertising, Research, Media, Promotions and Publicity, in creating and executing the marketing plans for Warner Bros.' domestic feature releases.

New Media will continue its development of motion-picture Web sites, using the New York-based design team under Buckley's supervision, as well as outside vendors. They will develop promotional alliances with Internet-related and new-media companies, as they did successfully with the recent hit film "You've Got Mail!" and America Online.

They will develop various interactive strategies and will continue to work closely with executives in the publicity department to develop online publicity strategy and strong relationships with online outlets.

Among Warner Bros.' successful and award-winning new-media activities were the real-time, on-set interview with film maker/star Kevin Costner, which was a first in online history; and the "create your own home page" online community created for "Contact," as well as the America Online promotional tie-in for "You've Got Mail!"

Buckley joined Warner Bros. as New York advertising manager in July 1980 from Grey Advertising, where he was an account executive on the Warner Bros. account. He took over the East Coast Advertising and Publicity department in 1988, and was promoted to vice president of advertising and publicity in 1991. He helped create Warner Bros. Online in 1996.