Virgin Radio appoints in house team to handle all online sales

Virgin Radio is taking its online sales, sponsorship and promotions in-house for the first time. The station has appointed Rowan Link to head the new team.

Link will take over as head of online sales this week and will be responsible for developing and maximising adverting across the Virgin Radio website and individual sites for Virgin Radio Groove, Classic Rock and Xtreme.

The advertising sales and sponsorship and promotional activity was previously handled by Ad 2-One.

Link will work alongside sales director Nick Hewat and director of digital media James Cridland.

Virgin Radio is a pioneer of online listening and has 1.3 million worldwide listeners across the Virgin Radio Network each month tuning in for 3.8 million hours, according to Limelight, Virgin’s online streaming company.

Hewat says: “With online the biggest growth area in media and Virgin Radio being the leader in new media radio, it makes sense for us to control our own destiny and do all sales in-house.”

Link joins Virgin from Yahoo! where she held a variety of advertising sales and operations roles.

Previously she spent four years in the sales team at Capital Radio.

Virgin chief executive Fru Hazlitt also previously worked at Yahoo!, where she was managing director of UK and Ireland, and Capital Radio, where she was head of sales.