News in over the weekend [1] was that super smart Alex Hollingdale left Clear Channel last Friday but that was not the only recent people change that seems to have coincided with the appointment of new CEO [2] Andrew Morley from Motorola at the tail end of June.
- We hear that Errol Baran who only joined 12 months ago to be head of their ‘big’ digital division Storm, has likely been given his much orders (perhaps too few advertisers were prepared to take ownership, i.e. sole and static occupancy of a few admittedly good sites when they could access loops on many more great sites with Ocean Outdoor, JCDecaux or Outdoor Plus for considerably less money).
- Long serving executive Jonathan Bevan was also unceremoniously binned within a matter of weeks after taking over the Presidency of FEPE [3] at their annual congress in Vienna in June.
- Head of Digital Product, Brett Haylock has, we hear, found a new job and will be leaving the company in the next few weeks
Whilst it’s common that a “new broom sweeps clean” we have to say that all of this smacks of a slightly muddled direction.
This is definitely not good when the company is facing some of its biggest contractual battles in the UK company’s lifetime.
Clear Channel’s near 30 year hold on the London street furniture contracts via TfL’s exclusive 32 London Borough tender is up for renewal and effective from Spring 2015.
If Clear Channel were to lose London, or indeed lose to say, JCDecaux the impact on its business would be catastrophic AND we have to say that the omens are not good…
Last month JCDecaux took the Edinburgh street furniture contract from Clear Channel (after a similarly long tenure) with a plan to digitise the estate.
Some cynics might view the recent elevation of Mathew Dearden to a European wide role (Matthew became Clear Channel Europe President when Andrew Morley joined as the new CEO of Clear Channel UK) as a distancing manoeuvre designed to deflect blame should they lose London.
Does the recruitment of a chap from Motorola to take over his former UK role look increasingly like the ultimate hospital pass [4] to anyone else or is it just us?