A&E getting MediaCom's Peter Olsen; Mandel comments
Mediacom EVP/Director of National Broadcast Peter Olsen is moving to A&E Network and The Biography Channel to be SVP/Ad Sales. The news comes as part of an announcement that A&E divided its ad sales division into three teams under Mel Berning, EVP/AETN Ad Sales.
Meanwhile, Mediacom is dividing its national TV buying group into a team of four managing directors who will all report to Jon Mandel, Chairman/MediaCom US and Chief Global Buying Officer MediaCom Worldwide and CEO Dene Callas.
Mandel tells RBR/TVBR: "We did a restructuring and it happens to be great. We wish him well at A&E, and he happens to be a great guy."
Well, that's better than a kick in the teeth...
"Well, it's hard to kick somebody in the teeth that's seven feet tall!...But seriously, he's good people."
Tell us about the reorg...
"What we did was...we are very brand-focused, and our planning groups are all structured as such. So we have teams on accounts, which include planners, out-of-home buyers, radio buyers, etc. Everybody is assigned to teams-every brand has a team and every team has a brand. You know, we've got four really good people, like Stacy Sullivan, who really gets Entertainment; and Michelle Krumper really gets Retail. And we've got Todd Gordon and Pam Gibbons. So the four of them are managing partners, and they're going to run it all together."
He adds, "At the end of the day, sales organizations forget, and all too often I think agencies forget, it isn't about the buying focus or the advertising focus, it's about moving the stuff off the shelves for the client. And so that's why we're organized on the 'move the stuff off the shelves for the client' basis."
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
