The Fishbowl: Guy Thurlow, Next-Gen Media

The Fishbowl

The Media Leader’s interview series asks the media industry’s top salespeople 10 revealing questions, drawn from our fishbowl. The questions will be drawn at random and contain some tricky posers set by the commercial chiefs themselves.

This week, it’s Guy Thurlow, founder and commercial director at Next-Gen Media.

Thurlow co-founded Next-Gen Media with Andy Francksen in 2020. Next-Gen Media operates a network of more than 340 full-motion digital screens at education and university locations across more than 60 towns and cities in the UK.

The company’s goal is to connect brands with young people in a trusted media environment.

Before Next-Gen Media, Thurlow also tried his hand at entertainment: he was a founder of Bristol club night Utopia.

Why are you passionate about media?

Media as an industry is constantly evolving, with a huge range of opportunities for businesses to make an impact. As an entrepreneur, the ability to leverage those opportunities and break into the industry with new ideas was inspiring.

Since starting Next-Gen Media, I’ve seen a huge range of new entrants enter the industry, bringing innovative ideas that are causing disruption.

I’ve also always wanted to make a positive impact, not just through building a new business but also to make a positive impact on society. From the start, we’ve been focused on using our network screens for good across university accommodation and colleges.

One example is our partnership with Media Smart, an organisation we are passionate about due to our own link with the next generation. We’ve been proud to support two important campaigns this year that are helping to educate young people about online scams and political advertising in the run-up to the election.

What keeps coming up in conversations with clients at the moment?

Attention is a big buzzword we’re hearing a lot about — which is great for OOH. Clients are coming to us for advice about how best to engage with young people and they are very open to trying new things.

Even though brands know that younger consumers and Gen Z are spending so much time online, they recognise that, to actually capture their attention and win them over, they need to reach them in other key moments through offline channels in real life.

What is a unique skill you bring to your job?

As a co-founder and entrepreneur for the last four years, I bring business knowledge to the sales function and sales expertise to the wider business. These go hand in hand.

As a young commercial leader, I also bring a Gen Z perspective to media sales and a deep knowledge of the audience we’re engaging with. These two aspects combine to make me pretty unique in media!

Describe three qualities that make a brilliant salesperson.

Authenticity — people buy from people. Creativity — bringing new ideas and a fresh approach to brand challenges. Accountability — delivering on your promises and building trust.

If you could learn any new skill from scratch, what would it be?

I would love to be fluent in another language, particularly Spanish, which I’ve been dabbling in for ages. I love Spain as a country and its culture, while there are loads of places on my bucket list that I would like to speak like a native in. This would also help us expand Next-Gen into Europe and beyond!

What’s your advice for someone who wants to do your job one day?

Combine patience with ambition, curiosity and humility.

When I first started the business, I expected instant results and that created a lot of unnecessary pressure. Building great things takes time. You need to find the right balance between doing things well and doing things quickly.

You must also accept that there are lots of things you don’t know and use that to your advantage by not being afraid to ask for help and advice.

Leave your ego at the door, but also trust your instincts.

In a world where change is omnipresent and reinvention is consistently a theme, what would you like to retain?

People and relationships. There is so much talk about AI, but we still need people to get the most out of it and use it in the right way. Everyone focuses so much on technology rather than people; we mustn’t forget that our ultimate aim is still engaging people rather than AI talking to itself.

If you could work with any other media owner on a collaborative campaign for an advertiser, who would it be and why?

I would love to collaborate with TikTok as we have a similar audience, format and full-motion capability. We know that social and entertainment platforms and OOH work well together, combining the power of online and offline. For brands, they would only need to adapt their existing creative to add a real-life environment and amplify their communication.

Through our work with Media Smart on scam ads, for example, creative agency Livity created online assets and adapted it to play on our network.

What is a challenge you wish more business leaders were openly vocal about?

Recruitment — we started as two co-founders and are expanding quickly. Identifying the right roles, the right person for the job and the right person for the business is really challenging.

It’s also important to know when to hire and at what level of experience and salary. We’ve currently got a great blend of young people together with experienced advisers supporting us, but this is on my mind as we need to scale up again to support our ambitious plans.

What advice would you give someone starting their career in sales?

Immerse yourself in knowledge of your medium and your clients’ challenges. Always put yourself in learning environments and out of your comfort zone. Learn from people you respect and network to find who you can learn from best.

Say yes and put yourself in uncomfortable situations, being present and visible.

Read more Fishbowl interviews here and see what media’s top salespeople say about working in the industry and what concerns their clients. To suggest an interviewee, contact [email protected].