ATLANTA: Coca-Cola has promoted Doug Busk, previously director of connections innovation for the company’s global marketing team, to serve as group director of digital communications and social media.
Busk has succeeded Ashley Brown, who left Coca-Cola in June to join technology startup Spredfast as VP of social strategy.
Reporting directly to Ben Deutsch, VP of corporate communications at Coca-Cola, Busk will oversee the company’s Journey online magazine and other social and digital channels and initiatives. Busk, who started in the role last Friday, has a team of three staffers reporting directly to him.
Deutsch said Busk brings a "fresh perspective" to Coca-Cola’s social media and digital efforts, particularly because of his expertise in both traditional and real-time marketing.
"He’s really strong and has a great understanding of technology and the link between social technology and great storytelling," Deutsch explained.
Most recently, Busk oversaw initiatives that helped Coca-Cola’s marketing employees around the globe engage consumers in real-time, according to an internal memo from Deutsch to staffers.
In his previous role at the company, he also "spearheaded the creation of the Hub Network, the company’s social listening, knowledge-management, and engagement platform, connecting the work of more than 2,200 social media marketing team members worldwide," the memo stated.
Prior to Coca-Cola, Busk held business-development and product-marketing roles at Amdocs and SinglePoint.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Busk served as an outside strategic adviser for the mobile efforts of the Obama for America campaign, according to the memo.
Shortly after Brown’s departure in June, Ashley Callahan, global manager of digital communications and social media at Coca-Cola, left the company to take on the newly created role of content strategy manager at Chick-fil-A.
Deutsch said the company is in the process of identifying candidates for Callahan’s position.
