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Whole new ball game for Telegraph marketing

Posted in Media, Branwell Johnson, Latest reporters' blogs January 29th, 2008 by Branwell Johnson

So, The Telegraph Group, after much humming and hah-ing, has decided to appoint a marketing director and has plumped for AOL director of marketing Barry Flanigan. That’s a good choice given the Telegraph is trying to reinvent itself as a multimedia brand with an online presence as strong as the paper product.

Flanigan brings experience of a building awareness for a strong online brand, albeit one that has suffered its own upheavals and is trying to transmute to a portal with revenues driven by advertising.

He will be fully up to speed with online marketing techniques, such as email marketing, and the potential opportunities offered by the growing number of social networking sites. He was also involved in AOL becoming a sponsor of The O2 dome.

However, his CV is somewhat lacking in the print side of the business and the rough and tumble of sourcing weekly promotions, from DVDs to language guides. Not that there is too much to learn, some might say, in spiking sales artificially for newspapers with giveaways that are often not “on brand”

What will be interesting is whether Flanigan has some input into the current Telegraph agency review. The publisher parted company with Clemmow Hornby Inge soon after losing previous marketing incumbent Katie Vanneck to The Times. A shortlist with Rapier, Archibald Ingall Stretton, TBWA and the hot new kid of the block Adam and Eve, is thought to have been drawn up. Did Flanigan have input – he doesn’t leave AOL until March – or will he tear up the list already in play?

It’s believed Flanigan accepted the job before Christmas so the smart money is on him at least having tacit approval of the AAR shortlist. Once the winner is announced we’ll be able to draw more conclusions…

To read the news story related to this blog, go to mad.co.uk