Airbnb poaches Coca-Cola’s Jonathan Mildenhall as chief marketing officer
Airbnb has appointed Jonathan Mildenhall, previously VP of global advertising strategy at Coca-Cola, as its chief marketing officer.
Mildenhall will take over from Amy Curtis-McIntrye, who currently holds the CMO role and is set to leave on 1 June.
"Jonathan is one of the leading brand experts in the world, he's been responsible for many of the world-class marketing campaigns of the past five years," said Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. "Jonathan truly understands what it means to be community driven and he's insanely passionate about what we're trying to achieve at Airbnb. We're thrilled to welcome him to the team."
Coca-Cola has so far not revealed plans for a replacement for Mildenhall, who oversaw integrated marketing and design excellence for the North America business unit.
He said of the move: "You don't take the decision to leave The Coca-Cola Company lightly, a company that's renowned for transformational, creatively driven marketing on a global scale.
"However, this is exactly what the team at Airbnb is doing. Airbnb is rapidly becoming a global SuperBrand, one that not only changes the way the world thinks, but also the way it behaves. I truly believe I will do the best work of my career at Airbnb, and coming from seven great years at Coca-Cola, that's a really exciting prospect.”
Prior to joining Coca-Cola, he spent 15 years in the advertising industry working on global accounts such as Audi, Smirnoff and Playstation