Paramount’s expansion and restructuring of the sales team has seen the creation of two new divisions - the Paramount ANZ Sales Group and the Paramount ANZ Brand Studio.
AdNews spoke to chief sales officer Rod Prosser and GM of ad sales Nick Bower about a continued focus of client centricity, Paramount’s “best-in-class” internal culture and the current state of the television advertising market.
Prosser said the sales team shakeup was prompted by the evaluation of Paramount’s current competitor set, which is “vastly different” from what it was six to 12 months ago.
“We've got greater breadth in terms of platforms and with that comes significant depth in content and the distribution channels are far greater.
“The assessment around structure was really what does that competitor set look like and how do we tackle that? The second part is we’re truly anchored into a global business and with that comes structures and streamlining processes into all parts of the globe.
“We set ourselves a task of making sure that we were really client-centric and responding to what the demands of our clients are. How do we extract the most out of this global network and global business that we have?”
Prosser said that the focus of the sales team is always to offer a strategic partnership with its clients, working closely with agency partners and clients on what their desired outcomes for the year are.
“With that, we need a leadership team that that can deliver some really specialty insights in certain areas. The structure that we've put together is one that’s centred on clients, and then around that is these specialists that are able to really go much deeper in terms of marketing solutions."
Bower said: “Whether it's MTV, Nickelodeon, our free to air partnership and channels across Network Ten and supporting channels, or through Paramount Plus and 10 Play, very few businesses in this market have the depth and breadth and the brands that we have under our Paramount umbrella.
“The amount of opportunity we have for our customers and clients to interact with audiences across our network is significant, so what we've done is create the ability to reshape and future-focus our sales team in order to be best meeting the needs of our clients moving forward.
“Our team is led by some phenomenally successful salespeople that have wonderful relationships in market and great understanding of their clients’ businesses. We want to supercharge and energise that by having that central sales team looking at all of our client businesses, but then have the ability for them to push and pull specialists within our business to ensure that we can meet the needs of our clients, but also give them access to the unique offering that only Paramount has.”
Bower, who joined Paramount in September 2021 as sport sales director, said he is “thrilled” about his new role as it’s a “wonderful time” in the business to be making the step up to GM of ad sales.
“My role and remit will be threefold - firstly, of course, is sales leadership and specifically responsible for broadcast budgets in that space, leading the client and agency conversations in market and taking up that charge as we adapt our team for the future.
“The second part is sports sales. That will remain with me as it has done for the last 18 months at Paramount and leading those conversations across our iconic brands. We have the Australian Formula One Grand Prix coming up, the Melbourne Cup carnival and of course, the home of football, which is exactly what our brands and partners want to see.
“There’s also a third remit and that is a really important one as I focus on team and market engagement across the board. That focus is really to ensure that not only our internal people but our external clients, partners and future clients fall in love with the house of Paramount.”
Bower (pictured right) said that his promotion to a more senior role in just 18 months at the company speaks to the internal culture at Paramount.
“We've got the products that we’ve talked about, the brands that are so powerful and impactful, but we're also leaders in DE&I and we're all proud to work for an organisation that leans into that space.
“We're leaning into our people, we're ensuring the culture here at Paramount is best in class and it's clear that we recognise that Paramount's power is in its people. These changes that we're working on solidify that position and ensure that everyone in our team has the best chance for success in the future.”
Prosser: “It's really important for us to listen to the market, and Nick has a lot of credibility in the market. From our point of view, he’s one of the best and we want to ensure that we’re promoting the right people into the right roles and we’re confident that with this new structure, we’re becoming a really client centric team, but also meeting the demands of the market.
“That's really important as we unveil new products, new platforms and look to provide a really robust marketing solution for our clients and agencies.”
Prosser said that the team is also “really excited” about Paramount ANZ Branded Studios, a global division that will be headed up by Michael Stanford.
“The role Michael's taken, there's three core components to his department. The first is our integration and amplification division run by Tamar Hovagimian, head of integration and partnerships, which is I think best in class and delivers some really great results for clients, particularly around sponsorship and partnership.
“The second is this strategy team led by Namita Sopal, head of advertising strategy, that works with the client team on looking at all platforms, all networks, all assets and all brands across all of our ecosystem and really creates a really great narrative and responds to some significant big briefs that are in market.
“The third is led by executive producer Rachael Brand. It’s a production area which has all the capabilities to produce TVCs and branded content, but really importantly is looking at creating tailored content for brands that will sit in longform and not just on Ten – it could land on Paramount Plus or it could be on one of our FAST channels.”
Prosser said that despite the challenges that the total television advertising market has had in the first quarter, Paramount are hopeful about the second quarter and beyond, especially as its revenue pricing is “improving”.
“Those challenges just comes down to general economy and consumer sentiment - there's nothing more to it. I think that as we move through that, we’ll certainly see a change in the winds.
“We look at total TV - so what is total TV doing, what is our subscription business doing, what is 10 Play and our BVOD division doing and what is our linear business doing? We kind of bundle it all up and even though there's been challenges at the start of the year, I'm really confident about the second half.
“Survivor’s doing wonderful things for us; as we get through to Easter, we’ve got a major sporting event, which will be a great launchpad to our next big franchise of I'm A Celebrity, and then we go straight into Masterchef and the schedule just gets better and better, so we're really thrilled with what's yet to come.”
Prosser said he’s also confident about the roadmap Paramount unveiled at the end of last year around ad product innovation, with the company set for “an amazing year ahead in terms of ad product delivery”.
“You're going to see a lot more for us in that space because we're moving more and more to a connected TV environment, so what we can actually do in terms of ad delivery and ad units, it's just second to none.”
Bower: “That innovation is phenomenal within our digital arms of our business across our BVOD services, and even through Paramount Plus as well. It doesn't stop on the broadcasting side either - you're going to see some innovation within our Australian Formula One Grand Prix coverage this year, which is something we've not done before.
“We're going to be able to stay with the race through the commercial break for our broadcast partners and have a really innovative structure and model that will see not just our broadcast partners have their commercials play through the race itself, but in addition to that, a real sweet spot of value proposition for them, because the demand for that has been phenomenal.
“We are absolutely innovating across all pillars of our business moving forward and that's something that we're proud of.”
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