BBC Advertising, part of BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has announced the appointment of Alistair McEwan as Vice President, Advertising Sales, Australia & New Zealand (ANZ). McEwan will be responsible for advertising sales for BBC Advertising’s digital assets – bbc.com and sales representation of lonelyplanet.com – as well as international deals for global channel BBC World News. McEwan takes up his post on July 22, 2013. He will be based in BBC Worldwide’s Sydney office as part of MD Jon Penn’s senior management team and will report to BBC Advertising’s Executive Vice President Advertising Sales Asia/ANZ, Sunita Rajan.
He will oversee the generation of new business, development of major accounts and expansion of existing business through the management of the in-house sales team based in Sydney and Melbourne, plus sales reps in New Zealand, across a number of digital platforms and custom solution opportunities. This includes growing the territory’s national business, which has a multi-screen product offer and premium audiences consuming content across BBC.com/News and non-news features. Domestic sales of television airtime for BBC channels continue to be managed by MCN in Australia and SKY TV in New Zealand under the direction of Rob Leach, Director of Business Development & Digital, BBC Worldwide, ANZ and Head of BBC World News, ANZ. McEwan joins BBC Advertising from multi-screen mobility specialist Modaliti, where he was Commercial and Strategy Director.
Sunita Rajan says, “Significant growth in the region over the last five years means that BBC Advertising can offer exciting opportunities for partners to connect with the world-renowned BBC brand and its audience. Building on this, there is an increasingly important national market, which ranks in BBC Worldwide’s top three alongside the USA and Canada for digital consumers of News content. The growing role of Australia in the Asia regional growth market presents an opportunity for BBC Advertising to engage with Australian brands and companies who are looking to promote their message to international audiences in Asia and beyond – something which Alistair with his global sales experience is very well placed to lead for our business.”
Jon Penn, Managing Director, BBC Worldwide ANZ, adds, “Australia and New Zealand are hugely important markets for BBC Worldwide. bbc.com and BBC World News offer a significant opportunity for brands seeking to connect with a premium audience. Alistair is an exciting addition to the ANZ team and I am pleased to have someone of his calibre on board as we seek to further strengthen our ties with the key advertisers in our territory and develop our business in this area.”
Alistair McEwan says, “I’m delighted to be joining BBC Worldwide at this exciting time for the ANZ business. The BBC is a global powerhouse brand with large, influential and engaged audiences both here and globally. Combined with the world-class premium content that the BBC is famous for across its digital platforms and pan-regional products I can’t wait to start working on a range of cross-platform offerings with new and existing partners.”
