Podcast company Acast has promoted Jack Preston to global head of Acast Creative, the company’s in-house creative ad solutions team. Acast first launched Acast Creative for its European markets in 2019 before expanding into other regions, including the United States.
Preston has more than a decade’s experience creating multi-channel campaigns for brands. Since joining Acast, he has led an overhaul of its advertising offering for clients — helping move the business from ads and sponsorship alone to a greater focus on branded content and 360 partnerships. Before joining Acast, Preston was in charge of content and social strategy at Virgin.
In April, Preston led Acast Creative’s first global Sounds Creative event, guiding and educating brands on creative best practices in podcast advertising. The event followed the publication of new research from Acast Creative looking at the impact and importance of ads explicitly created for podcasts versus those re-used from other media channels.
Acast says that Preston will continue developing Acast’s relationships with clients and work closely with Acast’s regional creative directors, developing strategies tailored to each market and client.
“When we enter into a partnership with a brand and a creator,” said Preston, “we don’t just want people to hear the campaign — we want them to be truly listening, watching and experiencing them everywhere. A podcast can now be so much more than something you listen to, so while all our campaigns will continue to have audio and storytelling at their heart, we want to work with creators and brands on bigger, more ambitious executions across multiple platforms.”
