June 9, 2022
Nigel Robinson, Global Account Director & Managing Partner at Mediacom, is the World Media Group’s new Non-Executive Chair. Picking up the mantle from Gordana Buccisano, Nigel supports our mission to champion the values of international, trusted journalism. Nigel’s experience managing global client relationships and leading international network teams for MediaCom brings a unique perspective of the brand / agency / publisher relationship. We chat to Nigel about how he hopes to facilitate a better understanding of the value publishers can offer brands, based on a currency of insight and understanding.
What do you bring to the role of World Media Group Chair?
I’ve spent 30 years working with major clients and brands, thinking hard about what they want to achieve and working out how agencies and publishers can help them. Being in the engine room of one of the world’s leading agencies, working with some of the most advanced clients in the world, you really do get to see and understand what challenges clients are grappling with and the solutions they’re looking for.
I want to bring that know-how and experience to the role of WMG Chair. I see it from an agency perspective and a client’s perspective, as well as from a publisher’s perspective, and I want to connect these groups to help clients grow their brands and drive their businesses forward.
What are the biggest challenges clients are grappling with today?
Everyone is working out how to use data effectively. We’re all aware of the fundamental changes happening around personal identity in a Cookieless world and this means advertising context becomes one of the solutions to that challenge. This is nothing new and, like fashion, it’s coming back into vogue again. The World Media Group and its members are all about publishing quality content; their high-quality journalism creates so many incredibly powerful contexts for advertisers to capitalise on and there’s a greater value being attached to this now.
Similarly, attention has become a very big theme recently. Clients increasingly appreciate that reach is only effective if it comes with audience attention and they’re asking agencies to plan for reach + attention and to quantify its value. This focus on “attention planning” is again, hyper-relevant to publishers like the World Media Group members, whose super high-quality content is being consumed closely and deeply by their audiences. Quite rightly, advertisers are placing a premium on this right now.
Brands and clients are always hungry to understand their categories, their audiences and how their brands fit into the world. Publishers have so much to offer in terms of how they understand people and audiences and providing the context for brands to be seen in and operate in. This is super high value, and that currency of insight and understanding is a great way of connecting brands to publishers.
How can publishers help solve these issues?
I want to help publishers understand this value and tell that story by creating their own narratives and solutions to these challenges and opportunities, which will resonate with brands and brand owners. Having worked with a breadth of clients, I believe I can help publishers articulate their best solutions to increase their value to brands and that’s a big part of what I want to accomplish as the World Media Group Chair.
In a world of snackable content, what role does in-depth content play?
Whether you’re talking about a business audience or a Gen Z audience, consumers’ attention spans have shortened, and we’ve all become used to this very short-form, snackable, slightly clickbait content. For me, when it comes to understanding the value and the role of more in-depth content, there’s also an ethical side to consider.
In the “Twittersphere world”, there’s a danger that we lose the depth of communication. What is the real story? What are the real facts? What’s the real trend here? That’s where high-quality, trusted journalism is needed. As a society, we should nurture it, support it, and make sure it maintains a place in our world.
Quality journalism is not only incredibly valuable to the industry, but also to society, and we must make sure we don’t lose it. Businesses have become more aware of their impact on the world and want to operate in a responsible way, which is why I believe this point can grow in importance. The World Media Group brands offer a platform for businesses to tell their stories at length, within a trusted, credible environment.