Can it be a coincidence that two consecutive MGOMD bosses left their media-owner jobs so quickly, asks the editor
In a recent media column for my previous employer Campaign, I wrote that Sky Media’s decision to hire Tim Pearson as UK managing director was part of a growing trend of media owners, particularly TV broadcasters, cherry-picking top agency executives and strategists because they needed to “sell” TV in ways they hadn’t had to do in the pre-Netflix era.
After having joined in March, it’s obviously curious that he has decided to leave within six months, as revealed by Mediatel News this week. Sky would not comment on why Pearson resigned or what its plan is for filling his duties from next week when he becomes an ex-employee.
When I first met and interviewed Pearson in January 2016, he had just become Manning Gottlieb OMD CEO, replacing his close friend Robert Ffitch who went to The Telegraph.
Notably, Ffitch also left The Telegraph abrubtly – he lasted little more than a year as director of advertising revenues.
What becomes immediately clear when talking to Pearson is that he is “one of the good guys”, meaning that he comes across as considerate, having strong ethical values, and genuinely sees himself as a supportive (perhaps paternal) leader who takes pleasure in building up others, rather than revelling in the limelight himself.
This is why you’d be hard pressed to find someone with a bad word to say about him.
While Sky and The Telegraph are very different businesses, it is surely no coincidence that successive MGOMD bosses have struggled when leaving to take on big roles at media owners.
Of course, network agencies require, as one executive told me this week, “eating a lot of shit”.
By all accounts, Pearson would have needed to trade his teaspoon in for a ladle.
Many are quick to point the blame at Pearson’s boss, Patrick Béhar, a former McKinsey management consultant who is chief business officer for UK and Europe.
Several sources have told me words to the effect of: “Tim realised the job was much different to the one he thought he was getting.”
Béhar is said by many to be direct, with a strong personality, and impatient to change Sky’s commercial operations or, as one very informed source said, “put the TV lifers on notice”.
“The average agency person is not ready to come in and start firing people,” the source told me. “There is a significant change-management job to do there.”
Pearson, who is proud to be known as a “‘people-first’ leader”, would not have been comfortable being a hatchet man, if that was in-deed the brief.
And yet, Sky does need to adapt in order to survive the streaming wars. Last week in this column, I pointed out how the US TV awards are already being dominated by content on streaming platforms.
Tech companies like Apple and Amazon have a distinct advantage over a Sky because they can push free trials or ads at iPhone or Prime users.
How else could Ted Lasso, a pisspoor sentimental comedy based on a reheated ad campaign (concidentally thought up by Sky sister company NBC), win an Emmy award for Best Comedy without being relentlessly promoted by a tech giant like Apple?
The jewel in Sky’s crown for almost the last 30 years, Premier League football, will also come under increasing competition in years to come.
BT Sport will be sold at some point, with streaming service DAZN extremely keen to get a foothold in football in order to break into the UK market. That is, unless the increasingly powerful Premier League clubs do not manage to negotiate their own broadcast rights in future – as the NFL does in the US.
So perhaps Sky needs a wartime general right now. In the meantime, John Litster, the man Pearson replaced, could conceivably be asked to come back and steady the ship.
In any event, Pearson will be fine. He is still very well thought of at Omnicom Media Group and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him return.
His old role as OMD Group CEO has never been filled since his departure; with OMG UK CEO Dan Clays opting instead to promote agency heads Laura Fenton (OMD UK) and Natalie Bell (MGOMD) from MD to agency CEOs.
“This is a good thing for our industry,” I wrote of Pearson’s appointment in February. “As painful as the Covid-19 pandemic has been for so many of us, we should emerge stronger and more diverse as a business as more people are encouraged to go outside of their comfort zone.”
But there’s discomfort and then there’s outright pain. Pearson’s decision to leave Sky Media after only six months should serve as the ultimate cautionary tale for agency executives looking to cross the divide into media owners.
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