Madeline Tan has joined ESPN as the Director of Advertising Sales and Sponsorship, ESPN Asia/Pacific. Tan brings 20 years of media industry experience to the role, where she will be responsible for leading all day-to-day management of multi-platform advertising and sponsorship sales across ESPN’s brands in Asia Pacific as well as strategic guidance for the continued development of advertising in support of the sports media company’s business growth in the region.
Madeline Tan
Tan will be based in Singapore and report to both Mike Morrison, Vice President and General Manager, ESPN APAC, and Tim Bunnell, Sr. Vice President, International Programming, Marketing and Sales. She will work with multiple ESPN units around the world to set strategic direction to expand advertising and sponsorship revenue and relationships throughout the region, with specific focus on growth in Southeast Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Korea, Japan and greater China as well as coordinating with regional and global sales teams to further develop global advertising solutions.
Tan joins ESPN from SingTel, where she has served the past five years as the Director of Advertising Sales for the Group Digital Life unit. In that role she oversaw the set-up of the team and integrated processes for Singtel to sell and promote across platforms including television, mobile, online and print (including brands such as mioTV, mobile, InSing and more). She also oversaw the day-to-day relationships with brand and agency clients, as well as collaborating to lead SingTel trade marketing initiatives. Through her career, Tan has been a pioneer in driving mobile advertising forward in Singapore, including championing technological changes, and helping drive new methods of optimisation and data analysis.
“Madeline’s knowledge and skill in the Asia/Pacific market will allow her to make an immediate impact for our sales and sponsorship development and her experience will help us discover new opportunities for ESPN and deliver exciting solutions to new clients,” said Mike Morrison, Vice President and General Manager, ESPN APAC. “ESPN reaches millions of passionate sports fans every month in the APAC region and can deliver unique and outstanding opportunities for brands to engage and connect with those fans across mobile devices, computers and televisions. We’re thrilled to have somebody with Madeline’s expertise and experience leading the way in taking those opportunities to the next level.”
In the Asia/Pacific Rim region, ESPN operates a diverse business that includes a portfolio of television, online and mobile brands and services. In Australia and New Zealand, it has a successful and growing multi-screen business with multiple television channels and is the market’s leader in sports digital media.
The world’s leading digital sports brand, ESPN is also among the leading digital content and technology brands in Asia Pacific. Its portfolio of digital brands have seen 27% year-on-year growth in visits and 16% growth in time spent by sports fans across online and mobile devices. It has also seen 150% growth in viewing of digital video over the same period. The portfolio of digital brands include ESPNFC (football), ESPNcricinfo (cricket), ESPN.com (U.S. and global sports), ESPNscrum (rugby), ESPNF1 (Formula 1 racing) and ESPNfootytips. It is the number one digital sports publisher in both India and Australia, ESPNFC is the number one English-language football site in Singapore and Malaysia, and ESPNcricinfo is the most popular digital cricket brand in India, Australia, New Zealand and globally.
Prior to SingTel, Tan spent more than 10 years at Mediacorp, working her way to the position of Vice President of Sales, and previously also held roles at Move Media and NTUC VOICE radio. Tan holds a degree in business administration from Iowa State University in the U.S. She speaks English, Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese.
