Robert Harper, the executive who has served as marketing president for 20th Century Fox for the past three years, has been promoted to the newly created post of president of worldwide marketing for Fox Filmed Entertainment.
Although Harper will retain his current title, he now will oversee the marketing for all areas of Fox Filmed Entertainment, which includes theatrical, home entertainment, licensing & merchandising, music and Fox Searchlight Pictures. He will continue to report to Bill Mechanic, chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, who announced the promotion Wednesday.
"Bob has done a terrific job selling movies with as wide a range as 'Independence Day,' 'Romeo & Juliet' and 'Soul Food,' " Mechanic said. "I am very pleased that Bob will be continuing to make his invaluable strategic contributions to Fox and that we will have the benefit of his marketing expertise in a wide array of areas for all of FFE's divisions. With this new position, we are formalizing a role that Bob has taken on for the past several months.
"His promotion is a further indication of stability within the company -- we believe the team we have put together is the fu-ture of Fox, and Bob is a critical part of that team which will take us into the next century."
It is understood that Harper has been mentioned, and even approached, for several high-level marketing positions around town, including the head of marketing at Warner Bros., formerly held by Chris Pula. Neither Harper nor Mechanic would confirm the length of Harper's new contract, stating only that he will be at the studio for "a long time."
"I am excited about taking on yet another role within a company where I have spent the bulk of my career," Harper said. "My confidence in the strength of the domestic marketing team has allowed me to take on these additional responsibilities. I am looking forward to working more closely with our marketing executives throughout FFE, which I believe are the most talented in the business."
Harper first joined Fox in 1985 as manager of trailers, and subsequently rose through the ranks as VP of creative advertising and VP of advertising before moving into the production arena as a veepee in 1988.
A year later, then-senior vice president Tom Sherak, who had served as mentor to Harper as he made his way up the executive ladder, promoted Harper to his first stint as president of marketing, a job he held for 18 months before returning to the production ranks under a three-year, first-look deal at Fox. His Featherstone Prods. produced the 1993 film "Rookie of the Year."
Harper rejoined Fox three years ago, when he was named president of marketing once again, filling the post vacated by Andrea Jaffe, who had exited the office three months before.
In this age of marketing budgets rivaling production costs, Harper came into his own in 1996, successfully managing the campaigns for Baz Luhrmann's "William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet" and Roland Emmerich's "Independence Day."
Since then, Harper has overseen the marketing of Fox's animated feature debut "Anastasia"; helped supervise the campaign for Fox Searchlight's hit "The Full Monty"; and provided input into the international launch of "Titanic."
Harper said he doesn't expect to hire anyone to fill his old post, adding that "I've kind of been doing this for the past eight or nine months, and I'm happy with everything the way it is running now -- each division is running at its strength."
He said his role will be more as a monitor of the various FFE divisions, ensuring that the marketing-publicity operations that begin with a domestic release are supported throughout the company's ancillary outlets.
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com