Profile - Marshall plans for media's future

"He needs to smarten up - he looks completely shambolic sometimes," says
the group's newly ensconced chief executive. But it's the only bad thing
Smith has to say about her new boss.

"He's a very intelligent man in a very grounded way. His whole approach
to life and business is based on a moral framework," she says. "He's
very funny. And he's got lots of hidden talents."

Indeed, while most know of his love of Chelsea FC - his only fault,
according to IPA president David Pattison - many may be surprised to
hear Marshall is also a motorbike enthusiast and a painter of some
talent, with a special line in oil portraits of old jazz musicians.

"It's just what I do for relaxation," he says in his characteristically
self-deprecating way.

And goodness knows the man needs his relaxation, having been with the
Starcom group through a trio of mergers, including last year's
abandonment of the Motive name.

"What he's provided is a steady hand at the tiller," says Smith.

Tough times

Marshall downplays his role - "I've seen it all before," he quips - but
admits it's been tough. "I think it was a reasonably convoluted process
- you're talking about a number of different cultures coming together.
You have to create a new culture and, by and large, we're still in the
process of doing that," he says.

"In the end, the biggest issue is always the staff and we had quite a
high turnover, simply because people felt they were working for a
company that was different to the one they joined. But that's a reality
of life."

It wasn't just the ground staff who walked. Mediavest EMEA chief
executive Mark Cranmer defected to WPP earlier this year, leading to a
shuffling of the pack at the top, which saw Iain Jacob move into
Cranmer's role and, in turn, Smith, fresh from her high-profile exit
from GCap, take Jacob's old position.

Cranmer's departure was followed by another hammer-blow last month - the
loss of the £70m Barclays account. Were the two connected?

"Mark had a number of close relationships, inevitably, and one of the
closest was with Barclays. That clearly had an impact - Jim Hytner
(Barclays' group marketing director) said so," says Marshall with
admirable frankness.

Personal relationships still clearly carry a lot of sway in the industry
- and rightly so, he insists. "It's still a people business - if it
wasn't, we may as well all give up and go home." But the Barclays loss
must have left a bad taste?

Marshall is philosophical: "Business comes and goes. Barclays chose to
move business on - that's fine. Some of the ways the pitch was handled
weren't particularly stylish, but so what - life moves on."

Marshall is a big believer in "moving on", claiming: "I find people who
are stuck in the past deeply depressing". He says he's optimistic about
the group's position going forward and that new business is high on the
agenda.

Forward thinking

This fondness for looking to the future is perhaps what makes him such
an ideal chairman for the IPA's Media Futures Group.

The group recently changed its name from the Media Policy Group to
reflect its bid to be more proactive. "When I became chairman (in 2002)
it was seen as a rather dry, reactive organisation that addressed
industry matters in a slightly angry way," admits Marshall. "Rather than
reacting to events, we wanted to be more future-facing."

One of the new group's first tasks was helping to steer TouchPoints, the
multi-media research project unveiled in March. More than 5,000 people
were surveyed with a PDA diary on not just what media they consumed, but
when, where, how often and, even, the mood they were in.

"The fundamental difference between TouchPoints and other industry
research is it's based on audience and not the medium. It's a small but
hugely important point," says Marshall.

"At the most basic level, it is purely a planning tool that gives
multi-media coverage and frequency data. In doing that, it produces a
whole raft of other interesting stuff. I think it will have all sorts of
applications."

What he really hopes it will do is help agencies navigate the infamously
proliferating, fragmenting media landscape, complete with all the
technological opportunities and challenges it brings with it. He admits
life for media agencies is more complex these days, but he wouldn't have
it any other way.

"It's more interesting now than it's ever been," he says. "People say
'this is how it used to be'. Let's deal with the modern world."

How suitably forward-facing.

CV

2003 Chairman, Starcom UK

2002 Chairman, IPA MFG

1998 Chief executive, Mediavest UK

1998 Member, IPA MFG

1992 Managing director, The Media Centre/Mediavest

1988 Deputy media director, DMB&B

1986 Deputy managing director, Reeves Robertshaw Needham

1984 Media director, Reeves Robertshaw Needham

1973 Admin assistant rising to associated media director/agency board
director, Young & Rubicam.