{"id":2466,"date":"2026-04-22T02:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T16:26:16","slug":"arn-accelerates-entertainment-strategy-with-major-digital-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/04\/22\/arn-accelerates-entertainment-strategy-with-major-digital-appointment\/","title":{"rendered":"ARN Accelerates Entertainment Strategy With Major Digital Appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ARN has announced the appointment of Ollie Wards as Director \u2013 Video and Social<\/strong>, a newly created role that is central to the company\u2019s transformation into a leading cross-platform entertainment business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting to ARN Chief Content Officer Kerri Elstub<\/strong>, Wards will define and lead ARN\u2019s digital video and social content strategy, growing audience reach and engagement across platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. With iHeart expanding into video in the coming months, he will scale and amplify ARN\u2019s content across the iHeart platform, while also driving distribution across Spotify, Apple Podcasts and beyond. In this role, Wards will strengthen partnerships with major platforms, develop innovative content formats, and deliver new revenue streams, shaping the next phase of ARN\u2019s entertainment offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a career spanning some of Australia\u2019s most influential media and cultural brands, Wards joins ARN from TikTok, where he served as Director of Music for Australia and New Zealand. There, he led the platform\u2019s music strategy, driving music and cultural impact through the growth of active artists, trends and industry partnerships \u2013 including the launch of TikTok Trending in collaboration with iHeart, the world\u2019s first TikTok radio station and now Australia\u2019s number one station for under 30s. Prior to this, Wards spent a decade at triple j as Content Director. Earlier in his career, he worked in commercial radio production and branded integrations in the UK with Global, where he created a number of award-winning campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The appointment comes as ARN continues to expand its digital ecosystem through its global partnership with iHeart, the world\u2019s largest audio platform, scaling video content production across its leading shows and podcasts. New iHeart features such as iHeart Highlights<\/em> \u2013 delivering short-form vertical video within the app \u2013 will complement the roll out of full-length video podcast distribution and upcoming video ad insertion, creating new opportunities for ARN content to be discovered, shared, and monetised. With access to iHeart\u2019s global product and engineering teams, Wards will help accelerate ARN\u2019s video and social content strategy, while unlocking new commercial opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerri Elstub, ARN Chief Content Officer, said: \u201cOllie is one of the most respected digital and content leaders in the country, with a sharp instinct for what audiences connect with and how culture moves across platforms. As we continue to evolve into a true entertainment company, video will play an increasingly important role in how our content is created, experienced and shared. Ollie will be instrumental in scaling that capability, amplifying the content we create every day in new and innovative ways, while also unlocking original formats and revenue opportunities beyond broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ollie Wards said: \u201cYou\u2019re reading this, but next time it\u2019ll be an awesome video in your feed! I\u2019m excited to be driving video and social for iHeart and some of Australia\u2019s most loved personalities and brands, plus building some new ones. We\u2019ll be evolving how ARN makes great content for wherever audiences discover it. You\u2019ll see!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wards has officially commenced with ARN and is based in Sydney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARN has announced the appointment of Ollie Wards as Director \u2013 Video and Social, a newly created role that is central to the company\u2019s transformation into a leading cross-platform entertainment business. Reporting to ARN Chief Content Officer Kerri Elstub, Wards will define and lead ARN\u2019s digital video and social content strategy, growing audience reach and engagement across … Continue reading “ARN Accelerates Entertainment Strategy With Major Digital Appointment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2468,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions\/2468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}