Viacom set to consolidate sales teams into one unit

by Ben Bold, Media Week 22-Apr-08, 07:30

LONDON - Viacom Brand Solutions, the sales house for MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy, is to consolidate its TV, digital and mobile sales teams into a single unit so that it can better integrate its advertising offering and provide one trading point.

VBS managing director Nick Bampton said the imminent restructure, which has been six months in development, will result in the creation of six new sales jobs - one with a digital focus and the other spanning other media - bringing the total sales headcount to 46.

"Media is proliferating onto different platforms and, like our channels and brands, we need to reflect this in our advertising," he said.

He added that the rehousing of sales under one roof was not devised as a cost-cutting exercise. "We are not looking to increase any sort of efficiencies," he explained. "We don't need to. We're in a growth stage of our business."

The merged department will be headed by sales director Mark Swift. Investment directors Ross Belcher and Damon Lafford will now lead investment trading across TV, digital and mobile, and report in to Swift. Sean Worrell, head of digital, will report to Belcher and Lafford.

Bampton added: "From a campaigns level, we have TV account directors and digital account directors sitting next to one another who are there to work together, not on their own patch. Plus, when it is bought and paid for, it fits with the trading structure at agencies."