Brian Florido departs Val Morgan Digital
Brian Florido is moving on from Val Morgan Digital
Val Morgan Digital (VMD) managing director Brian Florido has left the business after 6 years.
While Val Morgan has not yet responded to Mumbrella’s requests for further information, it is understood the move is a redundancy.
Mumbrella has reported on the wave of cutbacks hitting the industry, particularly at senior levels, as ad spend tightens.
Florido is an experienced digital MD with strong commercial roots, having been hired to found and scale VMD from a similar role at Pedestrian.
Prior to the Pedestrian MD role, he was Pedestrian’s commercial director for close to seven years. He has also worked at OMD and Zenith.
Val Morgan Digital’s strategy had been to develop its own content network – under The Latch masthead – combined with content partnerships with titles such as Popsugar and Ladbible.
The Latch now appears to be defunct, with the site unresponsive and the last update for its newsletter dating to March this year.
The latest Standard Media Index (SMI) data for agency ad spend backs up the idea of a significant downturn in spending, with preliminary numbers for August showing a decline of close to 8% compared to August 2024.
It is important to note that number may improve as late bookings are registered in coming months – a similarly dire picture in May has now improved to around even YOY with late bookings.
Senior figures in the marketing and media world have opened up to Mumbrella on the difficulties faced following redundancy, and the expertise challenge facing the industry.
See Amber Scotto Di Perta’s interview on the Mumbrellacast for a personal insight into the redundancy wave.
