‘I didn’t know you did that!’
Greg Grimmer, the new CEO of Mediatel, talks about being the new boy and the joy of work
So, what’s this new job all about?
I’m sure anyone who, like me, has started a new job in the last month has had to answer this question too.
And, if like me you’ve taken a slightly different path from the past, you’ve had to think about your answer more carefully.
Luckily for me the role has been described by various friends and ex-colleagues as either ‘perfect for you’ (thanks Mike) or ‘perfect for Mediatel’ (thanks Tess).
Anyway, good luck to everyone who has taken the plunge into a new role recently and I hope you feel as fortunate as I do. Although before I started, two of my particularly cynical mates came up with these two bon mots, relevant for all of us.
“Remember it’s called work for a reason.”
And even better:
“All jobs are a little bit shit.”
However, like the people I’ve spoken to, I think that Mediatel is the perfect role for me at this time, and this is probably because Malcolm Gladwell would hopefully regard me as one of his ‘Super Connectors’.
I love our industry and over 30 years have built up friends and contacts across agencies, broadcasters, publishers, clients’ brands, tech, digital, creative and every type of media you can think of.
Just like Mediatel.
Depending on who you ask, you can get four, five or perhaps even six different answers about what we do – and that’s because we do so much to connect the wider industry.
If I’m a super connector, then Mediatel is a Mega Connector – it does so much.
It’s a data business.
It’s an events business.
It’s a trading platform.
It’s in audio.
It’s in OOH.
It’s where you read Mills on Monday.
It’s all of these things and some others, and it has evolved in so many different directions that it can sometimes be hard to pin down its true essence.
But one thing is clear: Mediatel sits at the heart of the Media industry.
Media with a capital M for a reason.
As a data business, it is used daily by 48 out of the top 50 agencies in the UK (if you are one of the two – you know who you are and I am coming to see you!)
As a publisher, we deliver daily news, analysis and thought leadership from some of the smartest thinkers in media and advertising to a global audience.
As an events business, we have become the home of industry debate, connecting thousands of delegates and speakers in 3 different continents.
We’re the trusted supplier of the audio industry’s trading platform, J-ET, and the digital creative delivery system Audiotrack.
Throw in our work on SPACE and the Route API consolidating key data for the OOH industry, or our web development via our team of coders, and you can see why I saw so much potential to take Mediatel and supercharge its growth.
I took over as CEO from Derek earlier this month. He has grown the business to where we are today and as Chairman, I am sure will encourage me (daily, probably) to continue this growth trajectory.
I intend to have some fun on the way as well and do hope we will become an even more valuable partner to you tomorrow than we are today.
We want to deliver more to the industry in its widest sense and have a talented and ambitious team to make that happen.
I host my first Mediatel event in September, the inaugural Media Leaders Lunch at the Science Museum, which hopes to lead on from where our extremely popular The Year Ahead event left off earlier this year.
In the meantime, if you have a view on any area of the Mediatel business and how we can work better together, then please let me know.