ITV expands team to drive online sales

by Fiona Ramsay, Media Week 28-May-08, 07:30

LONDON - ITV is to more than double the size of its online ad sales team by July as part of moves to hit an ambitious target of generating £150m in online revenue by 2010.

Currently, the team comprises 22 people in sales and sales operations The plan is to expand this to more than 50. ITV aims to boost ad revenues for its online activities, including Friends Reunited and ITV.com. ITV head of online revenue Gary Cole said the broadcaster is making "people and product a big focus" as it strives to hit its revenue target.

Meanwhile, ITV is expected to appoint a full-time managing director of ITV.com to replace Dominic Cameron, Lastminute.com co-founder, who has been working on a six-month acting basis in the role following the departure of Annelies van den Belt in April.

Cole said ITV consumers would "increasingly buy into on-demand video", with Kangaroo, the planned service from ITV, BBC Worldwide and Channel 4, expected to be a "massive" opportunity for ITV. Cole added that further improvements to ITV.com were "always on the cards".

ITV is also developing a new price-comparison site called Priceterrier. Cole said it would "explore opportunities" with ad networks or other media owners to expand its online reach. Cole added that ITV was taking a partnership approach to building online ad revenue. He said: "CRM is a pillar of our strategy in terms of not just getting coverage in scale, but in offering a long-term dialogue with consumers."