Channel 4 names Mark Watts regional sales lead
Channel 4 has promoted Mark Watts, its customer and commercial leader, to the role of sales leader for the nations and regions.
He succeeds Ewan Douglas, who left the business this summer amid a wider restructure of Channel 4’s sales staff that also saw the exit of commercial leaders Chris Braithwaite and Martin Luck and head of streaming and social propositions Fatima Dowlet.
As Douglas’ successor, Watts will be tasked with spearheading Channel 4’s independent agency activity, and leading and amplifying its Manchester office presence.
Watts has worked at Channel 4 in various sales roles since 2013. Before that, he was planning director at MediaCom North.
The promotion takes place as Channel 4 accelerates its efforts to engage with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the agencies that serve them.
Speaking to The Media Leader from Channel 4’s new St Michael’s Manchester office, Watts estimated that 54% of the broadcaster’s new-to-TV advertisers last year came via independent agencies, suggesting that strong relationships with both indies and larger network shops are key to success.
Acknowledging that TV has historically been a challenge for SMEs to break into, he explained that Channel 4 aims to “democratise access to TV advertising and diversify its advertiser base”. It will lean on an “advertiser-first, agency-aligned” sales strategy in tandem with new technological developments intended to make TV buying easier.
These include the roll-out of generative-AI ads for SMEs to develop creative faster and for a fraction of the cost, partnering Comcast and other public-service broadcasters on a new SME-oriented marketplace, and the development of an outcomes-based measurement methodology.
Apart from those efforts, Watts indicated that he is keen to amplify Greenhouse, an initiative that aims to support new-to-Channel 4 advertisers with additional assistance and consultation on working with the media owner.
Expanding out-of-London footprint
For Watts, Channel 4’s positioning in the out-of-London market is key to the broadcaster’s success and its commitment to represent the whole of the UK.
Ten years ago, Channel 4 had “probably less than 25 people based outside London”, he admitted. Today, there are over 500, with a commitment to grow that number to 600 “over the coming years”.
The Manchester office, which formally opens soon, has capacity for 110 desks — double its previous venue. Non-London growth has also come from the opening of new headquarters in Leeds (2021) and creative hubs in Glasgow (2019) and Bristol (2020).
Rak Patel, Channel 4’s chief commercial officer to whom Watts report, noted: “Channel 4’s commitment to all of the UK runs through its core.”
He continued: “Central to this is harnessing the tremendous commercial potential of the out-of-London advertising sector. Mark’s deep understanding of the media landscape and proven ability to drive transformation make him the ideal leader to help us navigate these opportunities.”
An increased presence outside the capital has helped Channel 4 grow the number of independent agencies it works with by 24% over the past four years, leading to a 46% increase in the average size of a VOD booking from those agencies, Watts explained.
“The focus on new-to-TV advertisers has always been a really important part of what we do in the Manchester sales office and that’s not changing,” he added.
Most of Channel 4’s nations and regions sales team is based in Manchester, covering both indies as well as network agencies’ regional offices.
According to Watts, Channel 4’s indie agency footprint has grown not just in terms of revenue but in terms of the number of shops the broadcaster works with. Indies have tended to invest a higher proportion of media budgets into TV, he observed, in part because of demonstrable positive impacts on behalf of new-to-TV clients.
“When a new brand goes on to TV for the first time, the impact that brand gets is off the scale,” Watts said. “Search volume goes up, web visits go up, sales go up, awareness and consideration go up.
“It’s a proven driver of successful brands.”
Podcast: Channel 4 at Cannes — a new SME marketplace and ‘superpower’ of friction
