Glopal announced this week a new commercial structure under the leadership of Mike Gordon, their Chief Commercial Officer, which sees the commercial team simplified into two distinct teams. The Audio team, which will be led by Katie Bowden and the Outdoor and DAX team, led by Oliver Deane but what it doesn’t tell you is the shakeup underneath / behind that, since the ousting of good old Jonathan Lewis (see ‘Heads Roll At Global Outdoor [1]‘ February, 2020).
- It appears that nice guy Nigel Clarkson who has, through no fault of his own, become something or a journeyman (since his eight good years at Primesight), has been ousted from his position as head of the outdoor commercial team. Global inherited Nigel from Exterion Media and initially promoted him on completion of the deal. From our post April, 2019 we quote [2] “Global has made the significant decision to bring the outdoor commercial team under the umbrella of their existing commercial team, overseen by Mike Gordon, Global’s Chief Commercial Officer, which will now be expanded to include a dedicated outdoor team. The outdoor commercial team will be led by Nigel Clarkson, who was formerly Exterion Media’s Chief Revenue Officer and is now appointed Commercial Director – Outdoor, reporting directly into Mike Gordon”
- We also understand that a few weeks back, Alex Brown, the development head from Outdoor Plus, resigned (some say in the aftermath of the strange Jonathan Lewis departure BUT we think that is a bit harsh).
We said in our post ‘Have Global Acquisitions Lived Up to Expectations? [3]‘ (February 2020) “It may sound a bit harsh but I think there are two winners here and neither one of them is Global. The Exterion component will continue to do extremely well, just as it always did but the rest of the Global Outdoor empire will likely wither in its current state, which rather calls into question the entire purpose of ‘Global Outdoor’ and the original rational for creating it”.
Looking at this situation in the UK, post #COVID19, you would now have to say that: –
- Global are (still) in a roadside mess. The company overpaid for two disparate OOH roadside companies; Primesight and Outdoor Plus – one a makeweight and the other with delusions of grandeur.
- The Exterion Media jewel in the crown (TFL) will be subjected to social distancing restrictions curtailing its audience on trains and the London Underground for the foreseeable future. Revenues will be severely impacted. There is now, no jewel in the crown.
Bottom line, Global Outdoor is brutally exposed and we have no doubt that the likes of JCDecaux and Clear Channel will likely make the most of the opportunities presented.