BBC cutbacks to hit ad agencies
BBC marketing and communications director Matthew Bannister will cut the number of advertising campaigns as well as jobs as a result of the BBC’s restructure.
In his contribution to director-general Greg Dyke’s One BBC Review, Bannister says the BBC will produce fewer – but bigger and better – advertising campaigns.
It is not known how the changes will affect the BBC’s roster of ad agencies. The corporation will review its roster, which includes Leagas Delaney, Fallon McElligott, J
Walter Thompson, Circus, McCann-Erickson Belfast and Faulds Advertising (MW April 13).
The changes to advertising policy will help save &£18m – 25 per cent of the marketing and communications directorate’s &£73m budget – over three years as first revealed in Marketing Week (June 29).
Insiders suggest at least 60 jobs could be lost from the marketing and communications department’s 450 staff as a consequence of the cuts.
Bannister is attempting to establish a single, cross-departmental marketing strategy for the BBC, implemented by heads of strategic marketing who will work with the BBC divisions.
Teams of marketers will work across departments and focus on “wider BBC goals” rather than individual services or divisions, working closely with the strategy directorate. The same person may cover both marketing and strategy.
A new team is to be set up within the directorate to improve “performance with younger audiences”. This integrated marketing, publicity and communications team will be a test-bed for marketing along attitudinal rather than divisional lines.
The structural changes within the marketing and communications directorate will be in place by October, according to a BBC spokeswoman.
The BBC plans to save an overall &£750m over six years – some of it raised from 1,100 job losses over three years – which will be ploughed into programme making.
