4Sales restructures to capture more digital and partnership ad spend
4Sales, the commercial division of Channel 4, has restructured to better sell branded content and targeted digital advertising.
4Sales restructures in anticipation of increased digital spend and branded output
In 2018, Channel 4 recorded its highest-ever digital revenue growth (up 11% to £138m) and is now putting increasing emphasis on this side of the business.
Jonathan Allan, Channel 4’s chief commercial officer at Channel 4 said the restructure reflected the need to “accelerate the focus of our teams towards selling the benefits of TV direct to advertisers”.
In order to better function in an environment where “viewer behaviour [is changing] and digital technology opens up new opportunities” C4 is trebling the headcount of its integrated sales team to talk clients through the power of advertising on the medium, whether that's linear or through All4.
Matt Salmon, head of agency and client sales has installed new lieutenants in sales leaders Chris Braithwaite, Angus Mitchell, Kirsten Gillard and in charge of nations and regions sales, Ewan Douglas.
Meanwhile, David Amodio has been appointed as deputy head of digital and innovation. Reporting into Jonathan Lewis, head of digital and partnership innovation, he will look to leverage new data and programmatic capabilities on the C4 network, chiefly, making it easier for advertisers to target audiences based on their own first-party data on the VOD platform.
Reflecting the increasing focus on programmatic TV, the linear and VOD sales teams have been combined to better integrate campaigns across both channels. VOD is increasingly used to reach demographics that linear is having less luck with.
Furthermore, the brand partnerships team has been bolstered. Rupinder Downie has been promoted to brand partnerships leader. She will work with agencies and clients to create effective sponsorship strategies.
And finally, two new areas of emphasis are the branded content and creative solution wings. A leader will be installed to that role in the coming months.