Head of Online Advertising, Europe

A new year, a new challenge.

2009-01-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.

Its fair to say that a lot has changed since I last posted on here.

However, the FT has every reason to be optimistic. Firstly, there is no one better qualified to understand and interpret the current financial crisis than the FT and secondly, and most importantly, we're set up commercially at the FT with a diverse revenue base and as such are not overly reliant on one source of revenue.

All this means that, despite the current economic challenges, there couldn't be more going on the the FT regards future developments.

Today we've announced the launch of our new mobile site (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jan/28/financialtimes-mobilephones), which is a massively expanding area for the industry and we're proud to have a product that is at the forefront of this industry - very much a case of watch this space for developments.

We're also working on a number of projects that look to expand the reach, richness and range of audiences we can target on behalf of our advertisers. Watch this space for more news...

All in all, we enter what is unquestionably the most challenging economic climate for as generation, full of energy, enthusiasm and faith in our ability to continue to be at the forefront of the digital media industry and working for the FT remains one of those things you can help but love.

I'll try and post a little more reguarly in the future with changes and updates, but bye for now.

Oh, almost forgot, the obligatory video... A recent staff entertainment session at google - its good, really really good, so enjoy.

Life at the FT rumbles on

2008-10-06T03:02:00.000-07:00

Since I last posted we've cracked out 09 operating plan, come runners up in the AOP sales team of the year award, held our annual Central and Eastern Europe sales conference and hired a new online specialist in Germany.

This has taken me respectively to hell and back, the Hilton Park Lane, Slovenia and Frankfurt.

Its fair to say, working at the FT offers you the chance to experience many things, including visiting a country where they have more tractors per head than anywhere else in the world.

Our focus at the moment is on Q4 and what is a large target - a target that demonstrates just how quickly the FT is growing and far we've come in such a short space of time.

Roll back just 2 years and we were a team (across Europe) of just 6 with a healthy target for the year. Fast forward to today and our German recruitment makes the team 19 strong and our Q4 target this year is only slightly short of the total 06 target. Rapid growth indeed.

We're also starting to look forward to next year and the launch of a range of new products, services and, best of all website. 09 is going to be a jam packed year and (rather sadly) I'm getting excited about it!

And unless you've been sleeping in an alternative universe recently, you'll appreciate its going to be a tough year, but I'm 100% confident that with our quality content, unrivalled brand and most importantly, amazing sales team, we're better placed than most to make the most out of these tough times. Watch this space for reports on our successes this year.

I'll leave you now with another video. This was the guy doing the entertainment at the recent awards I mentioned. Of no educational value to you, but he was amazing so I thought it worth sharing.

Speak soon

Stu

Well, another jam packed week at the FT.

2008-09-15T01:11:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned last week, I took part in 'the launch' this week. The launch is an event tied to our company induction, which gets new employees to spend 4 hours in a group, coming up with, planning out and then presenting a new product for the FT to a panel of senior FT staff.

I've been part of 3 or 4 of these now, this time leading it, and each and every time I'm amazed, given that these people are both new to the FT and don't know each other (they come from sales, IT, finance, editorial etc...) that they can come up with so many high quality ideas. Proves to me that the FT has a knack of always employing talented people.

The other thing I mentioned in my last post that took place this week was the M&M Europe Awards, and I'm pleased to be able to tell you that our client won. They scooped the award for 'best campaign within financial and consultancy sector' for their trading game, of which we were the media partner. On a personal note at the awards, I had a brilliant time and damn well murdered that dance floor. Reckon I'm getting too old for it now though as the recovery time spread into 2 days!

I also attended another event last week; the RightMedia Publishers breakfast forum.

RightMedia are a technology provider who, to cut a long story short, offer an eBay type model for trading online inventory. A very clever idea and it will catch on in a big way in 2010 (you read it here first) and I can see some real benefits to the FT for using it. As with all things, we'll need to be careful and smart about its application as we have a brand to protect and a yield to maintain, but its exactly the kind of thing we're going to need to be doing if we're going to grow at the level people would like us to.

Talking of growth, I got involved last week in our quarterly review of revenue and predictions for the remainder of the year. First time i've been involved and it was a real eye opener!

Aside from all of the above, a fairly normal week. This week promises a number of internal meetings looking at various departments and sectors (research, our travel category guys etc...), all with a view of looking at what's needed in terms of budget and what's achievable in terms of growth for 2009. We're about to enter op plan 2009 planning, so watch this space for lots of talk about numbers!

I'll leave you now with another video (don't get used to this, I won't be doing one every week!) which, for those of you either interested in or confused by the phenomenon, attempts to explain the wonder of 'web 2.0'. Enjoy.

Stu

2008-09-08T00:24:00.000-07:00

Well, what a week.

The life of a sales person is never dull, and that was never more true than last week.

A week in which we saw the introduction of a brand new booking, delivery and billing system which revolutionised our business process, the team nominated for the AOP (association of online publishers) Sales Team of the Year (one of 5 sales, commercial and editorial awards we're up for) and finally closing the biggest ever deal in FT.com history!

I could say something horribly cheesey here like "they're all already winners in my eyes" but even I, Mr Cheddar, cringe a little at this one.

To put our new booking system into context for you, its only taken 3 (long, hard, challenging) months to get live, which is about half the normal amount of time needed for one of these projects, and it replaces 4 legacy systems, 5 manual inputs of the same data and over 390 individual line items. Booking times are reduced from about 2 hours to 10 mins. Revolutionary indeed and an example of how the FT is constantly striving to not only be the best, but to always have the best in terms of support and systems.

As for how are we doing from sales point of view - in general, the market remains tough but the quality, ability and ambition of the team means we're still performing very well, especially in context of the UK publishers in general. Last weeks deal (which I'll tell you more about once we've done the whole PR thing on it) should help a lot as its starts in November this year. Well done on this one guys.

This week promises to be another busy week, with another awards ceremony on Thursday (M&M Europe awards) where one our clients (BGi) have their trading game, to which we were media partner, up for a creativity award, followed by leading 'The Launch' on Thursday, which is a regular event at the FT which offers new starters the chance to meet people from other areas of the business and take part in a competition to create a new product for the FT. I've also got a number of internal and external meetings discussing subjects as diverse as a concierge service for FT.com users to Europe wide trading agreements.

As I said at the start, life is never dull!

I'll leave you now with a video that might be of interest. A light hearted look at collecting and then using data from you clients. Something we do, and do very successfully, but not to this extreme!

Speak to you next week.

Stu

2008-08-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

Hi, and welcome to the FT sales blog.

Hopefully it will act as a good insight into life within the FT sales department.

I'll endeavour to update once a week with details of what's going on, what's new and innovative, what's not so new, but equally stimulating and successes from the past 7 days.

Feel free to comment as much as you like - I'm also open to feedback!

Stu