Former Ignite Media Brands CEO Brian Gallagher joins SCA as chief sales officer
Veteran media industry player and former Ignite Media Brands CEO Brian Gallagher is returning to the industry a year after walking away, taking on the chief sales officer role at Southern Cross Media Group from July 15.
The move is the first senior appointment by former Network Ten CEO Grant Blackley as the new CEO the radio and regional TV owner (ASX: SCA), who recently replaced Rhys Holleran. Blackley was director of sales at Network Ten when Gallagher was strategy and development manager there in the early 2000s.
Blackley said in a statement: “I have set a refreshed and intensive focus on sales as a key priority for me as I step into the CEO role and Brian Gallagher is the right person to deliver that focus and fresh thinking across all of the group’s operations.
“We’re thrilled to have a media sales executive of Brian’s calibre and experience across both traditional and digital media join our business. He will bring to SCA a new focus on the way we operate as one sales team nationwide and we look forward to his insights into driving revenue growth across all our traditional media, integrated solutions and digital sales platforms”.
Gallagher resigned from Ignite Media Brands at the end of 2013 after Viacom International Media Network (VIMN) moved its last remaining subscription TV channels, MTV and Nickelodeon, over to MCN leading to redundancies at the group. The sales house subsequently closed in April last year after rivals MCN confirmed it has taken the account for youth website network Sound Alliance.
In an interview with AdNews in May last year, Gallagher said ““I don’t want to sell another advertising spot as long as I live,” after a cycling accident left him severely injured.
Since finishing up with Ignite Media Brands, Gallagher spent over around a year-and-a-half as director for coffee company Double Roasters Online, also working as director for data driven transmedia company Context Media.
He also previously worked for Ten as the strategy and development manager, a role he held for over five years during which he launched the channel’s ‘Business Development Unit’.
On his appointment Gallagher said: “I’m incredibly excited to join Grant and the Southern Cross Austereo team at an important stage of the company’s development. I’ll be looking to drive sales growth through innovation and capitalising on SCA’s enviable heritage as a major Australian media company. ”
Miranda Ward
I’m assuming that means Andrew Ingham is on the market? Is that what you understand?
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Great news Brian, good to see you back in the game !
Mel Kay
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Hi Lenny,
SCA tells us Andrea Ingham’s role is unaffected by the appointment.
Cheers
Nic – Mumbrella
Gags and The Dog. Sounds like the old band back together again!
Well done, boys.
Robbo.
Alan Robertson
Kinesis Media.
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Well done BG, it’s was only going to be a matter of time before you’d be selling spots again!!
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Well considered appointment by Grant.
Gags is well known within the industry for finding new ways as he did so well at TEN.
He was a loss to TEN when he left but will be a major win for SCA especially in shaking up their radio business.
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‘Chief Sales Officer’
Is that the same as ‘Sales Director’, ‘Head of Sales’, ‘President of Sales’?
(Incidentally I have heard nothing but good things about BG.) I just find it hilarious when yet another job title gets coined in this world of ever emerging holacracy.
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No Ratings, no revenue. They’ll be swimming against the rip until their content and talent offering are fixed. The dude off the sham wow ad couldn’t give it away…
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Well done BG!
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Interesting. Surely SCA needs to reposition themselves as a progressive media / entertainment company, yet it feels like they are headed straight back to 1983.
Also, Andrea Ingham is an outstanding operator.
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Alan Robertson…your comment isn’t exactly helping anyone think this is a progressive appointment.
I like Brian. I like Andrea. I wish them both nothing but the best.
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BG is a talent that could sell ice to Eskimos.
Watch this space – he will shake up the ‘wireless’ business!
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Riki, don’t know you but you missed the point of the remark entirely.
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Robbo, if Ricki was around in the early to mid 00’s he’d know that Dog was one of the best TV Network CEO’s around and Ten was by far the most profitable network, and that BG was one of the best sales guys. I’m sure they will turn things around at SCA….I understood what you meant!
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I wonder if anyone else out there is thinking that the media industry, whilst vibrant and exciting, still faces many challenges ahead that older, wiser, more experienced heads will be better equipped to steer their respective companies through. There are undoubtedly many young and talented leaders out there, but I wonder how many have the experience and resilience to survive when the going gets really tough. The economic signals are starting to emerge that all may not be smooth sailing ahead.
I think these are smart appointments by the SCA Board and management team in addition to the proven talent that is already there.
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Tree, thanks. So will the Dog and Brian.
Alan Robertson.
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Its obvious the revenue results at SCA for the last few years have now been reviewed by the new team, and need to be improved pretty quickly and new revenue streams uncovered. As we all know success in media sales is not just based on winning popularity contests alone, and at the very least SC Ten’s revenue benchmark should be no more than 10% less than Network 10, so based on current figures they have a lot of work to do!
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“Well done boys!” LOL.
Yes I was around then Tree. I know Brian well. I like him a lot.
But the world has changed a lot since Brian was running a successful sales operation at 10. I think if anyone has missed the point it’s you and Alan. It’s 2015, not 1995. And ‘Gags’ and ‘The Dog’ (OMG could you old fellas be any more of a boys club stereotype with that nickname shit?) better have learned some new tricks.
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Ricki, what do you mean nicknames, that’s their real names LOL…..BTW Brian didn’t run sales at 10, he set up their branded content team, but before that was at 9 Network and then set up 9 Affiliates with Huddo, sorry nicknames again, Peter Hudson. A very strong sales pedigree I’d say, plus he set up and ran Ignite Media Brands up until end of ’13.
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Tree? ” ……..that nickname shit”? What’s the word? Hippo something.
When you’ve got to pull out the “old boys club” and “new tricks” sound like you’re the one who needs to listen and learn.
Alan Robertson – (Robbo to his wife, family and friends).
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