Audible Promotes Susan Jurevics to Global Brand Chief

With the audiobook market set to hit $35.05 billion by 2030 and a podcast explosion that simply won't quit, Amazon wants your ears. That's why the business has appointed Susan Jurevics to oversee global brand strategy for its listening platform Audible. Jurevics joined the company in 2019 to oversee its international business. She has spent the past three years leading the unification of Audible’s product offerings and marketplaces outside the U.S. Now she will continue this remit with a fresh focus on unifying Audible's marketing strategy across the 180 countries it operates in. She is the first person to hold the role. Her promotion follows the departure of ex-Audible CMO John Harrobin in 2021, who left to join Frontier Communications. With its roots firmly in audiobooks (of which it now hosts 770,000 titles), Audible has been expanding into original and podcast content over the last few years. In the last 12 months, Audible has developed 850 original slates, with two-thirds of these titles coming out of the U.S. Recent exclusive launches have included Coupledom, a podcast with Idris and Sabrina Elba, and an audio drama reimagining of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel Little Women. Audible Gets Delightfully Vintage to Pitch Audiobooks as Glamorous Vacations However, the platform is facing increased competition from Spotify, which launched its own audiobook proposition in the U.S. in September after acquiring audiobook business Findaway in 2021. Listeners can browse a library of 300,000 titles from publishers large and small. Spotify's model is based on a payment system, rather than the credits-based subscription Amazon offers. However, with the Swedish streaming giant coveting the lion's share of the music listening market, its push into other formats presents a significant challenge to Amazon.Ex-Pottermore and Sony marketer Jurevics told Adweek her new remit will be to deepen Audible's grip on the "storytelling" market across the globe. This will be done by taking a more "centralized" approach to marketing the platform to listeners, creators and businesses—the latter of which can buy ad inventory across the platform. The company will balance a more joined up strategic approach with localized pushes tailored to different countries and languages. Jurevics pointed to Japan as a "nascent" market ripe for growth. "Audible is a brand uniquely beloved by audiences worldwide who listen to Audible storytelling in 47 languages,” the marketer said. “The opportunity to continue to spread the joy of listening inspires me every day. My team and I look forward to the exciting work of evolving our brand globally and with strategic focus." A fresh chapter The business has also hired James Finn in the new role of head of global brand and content marketing, overseeing Audible’s global social, creative and U.S. content marketing teams. He joins from 20th Century Fox, where he was most recently head of marketing at FoxNext. Audible's marketing reshuffle follows on from WPP agency Wavemaker picking up Audible's $500 million global paid media account in May 2022, with the charge of bringing a "nuanced, individualized approach" to its biggest markets. “During her tenure at Audible, [Jurevics] has made a tremendous impact growing and developing our international business,” said Audible CEO Bob Carrigan. “As [she] is also a veteran entertainment and brand executive, her multifaceted expertise will take our brand to the next level as we continue to scale globally.” “Critical reception to our content marketing campaigns continues to gather momentum under [Finn's] leadership, so expanding his influence across all of our touchpoints and stakeholders will further unify our brand expression globally,” he added.

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