Viacom's Bampton hires sales director and research head

by Sam Matthews,, Brand Republic 01-Feb-05, 11:00

LONDON – Nick Bampton has made his first appointments as managing director of Viacom Brand Solutions, hiring Mark Smith as sales director and Agostino di Falco to the newly created role of head of insight and research.

Swift takes over from as sales director from Bampton, who held the position before he was promoted to the managing director role in November when Paul Curtis left to become deputy managing director of Sky Media.

Swift joins from Soul Advertising where he was a partner in Soulspace, an integrated marketing company whose clients include Coca-Cola, Drambuie and NFU Mutual.

Previously, Swift held senior positions at Virgin Radio, Five and BMP DDB in a media career spanning 20 years.

Sky's head of planning and strategy Agostino di Falco is taking the new role of head of insight and research. Di Falco has worked in various planning and insight roles at agencies including Leo Burnett and Starcom where he worked on clients such as Procter & Gamble, Del Monte, British Gas and Fiat.

Bampton said: "We are building a business that will be future proof and we want to continue encouraging advertisers to use the TV medium in a more innovative and creative way.

"Both Mark and Agostino are well-known and well-respected figures in the media business and they will join a team already aboard this journey we are undertaking."

Viacom Brand Solutions is the multichannel sales house established in 2001 after MTV Networks UK won the sales contracts for Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy.

VBS represents all of Viacom's broadcast brands including MTV, MTV Hits, MTV Dance, MTV Base, VH1, VH2, VH1 Classic, TMF, Nickelodeon, Nick Replay, Nick Junior, Nicktoons TV, Paramount Comedy, Paramount Comedy 2 and E! Entertainment.

If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the Forum here.