Richard Hunwick, Nine’s former high profile director of sales for total television, is joining TV ad measurement outfit Adgile as chief commercial officer.
He resigned from Nine in May, having originally joined the broadcaster in December 2010 as director of sales in Brisbane, and starts his new role next week.
He joins Adgile’s executive leadership team alongside founder and MD Shaun Lohman, chief customer officer Craig Service and COO Mark Schanzl.
Hunwick said towards the end of his time at Nine - which he told AdNews he "thoroughly enjoyed" - he started looking at where the opportunity was in the broader digital video ecosystem.
"The landscape is obviously moving very quickly and provides an incredible opportunity for advertisers, but it's also providing a few challenges for them," he said.
"I've known the boys at Adgile for quite some time and their solution is really starting to produce outcomes that are helping to enhance client performance through data insight in that broader video space.
"We're in a world that is becoming increasingly digital and that movement is not going to stop, but at the same time there's still a significant opportunity and offering in the linear space.
"I love video, I love television in all of its forms and the capacity to be working within what I think will be the next phase and working through that total television conversation as the move to digital accelerates is really where I wanted to be."
Adgile partners with more than 300 advertisers, along with multiple agencies and publishers in the Australian market.
In July of last year, the adtech partnered with Omnicom Media Group, providing a suite of tools for real-time measurement of total video performance.
Hunwick said the fragmentation of offering in the digital space is going to continue as clients are making decisions about where their money's going but without the right answers as to how much, where it should go and how quickly.
"I think the move towards streaming for both the free to airs and the digital-only players is inevitable over time, but I think clients are going to be increasingly looking for more insight and a more robust understanding of what they're getting for their money in and around that space," he told AdNews.
Looking back at his time at Nine, the senior sales leader said that to have been part of the "incredibly effective" journey Nine have started in terms of a digital transformation of the business is something he is "very proud of".
"Playing my role within that over the last eight or nine years was probably the highlight," he said.
"It's been a great space to be involved in and it's been really quite rewarding to be challenged and learning and successful in that space.
"There's incredible value in the offering the free to air companies have got there, but as people like (Foxtel's) Mark Frain are building out the Video Futures Collective, the entire space is going to evolve rapidly.
"There's a very real opportunity for independent, transparent measurement and data insight to help clients and agencies navigate that journey and to also prove the power of ‘new television’ on behalf of the publishers and the broadcasters.
"Video remains the single most powerful opportunity for brands to get their messaging across, but some of the old rules need to be looked at and challenged and rethought to enhance the performance and the outcomes for clients in this new world."
Hunwick said that ultimately he remains "very grateful for the opportunity" he was given by Nine chief sales officer Michael Stephenson.
"I'm very much looking forward to working with a lot of people I've worked with historically and it's actually not as massive a step as it may look from the outside," he said.
"My heart remains very much within the broader television landscape and I'm looking forward to contributing."
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