Former UM Canada VP to bolster public broadcaster’s digital offering
Rebecca Shropshire has joined CBC Revenue Group, the sales arm for the public broadcaster, as director of digital sales. She will be responsible for establishing digital sales and business development strategies for all CBC properties.
Shropshire has spent the past four years with UM Canada as vice-president, director of digital communications. She has also held positions with Astral Media, Labatt Breweries of Canada and the Toronto Star.
Speaking with Marketing on Tuesday (her first day at CBC), Shropshire said she has purpose-built her career to include experience in each of the three major media/marketing constituencies: brand, agency and media sales. “I like to keep that perspective fresh so I understand the entire landscape, but I think ultimately every role I’ve been in brings something to bear on the other sides,” she said.
She was named Digital Media Rock Star at the 2011 Digital Marketing Awards for her work in launching Reprisemedia – the centre of SEM/SEO expertise for Mediabrands – along with her work to create an internal ad operations department and implementing formalized training for all digital staff.
CBC Revenue Group general manager Alan Dark approached Shropshire after Michka Mancini, director of sales, digital media and specialty TV, departed for a new role with Rogers Media earlier this year.
“At first I wasn’t really interested in leaving UM – I was very happy in my role there,” said Shropshire. “But over a number of conversations I had with Alan and other senior members of the CBC team, I became very interested – particularly in their focus on digital innovation.”
She lauded the CBC’s “smart young management team,” noting that its “digitally minded” approach is somewhat unique for a traditional media company. She also praised the company’s continued focus on innovation, which she said is a requisite for a company to survive and thrive in the digital era.
“They’re smart enough to realize that and they seem to really want to focus the organization around it and put in an infrastructure that’s flexible enough to support it,” she said.
CBC has demonstrated a keen desire to develop both digitally focused revenue streams and new methods for connecting consumers and content, she said. “They’re doing a lot of great work in that area, and the organization seems nimble and willing to support that. It was an exciting opportunity.”
Digital is a key plank of the public broadcaster’s mandate as it looks to offset what it claims will be $200 million in annual “financial pressures” as a result of reduced government funding and additional pressures from unavoidable cost increases and required investments to achieve strategic objectives.
The broadcaster said last year that it is “on track” towards increasing its budget commitment towards digital content to 5% by 2015. Last year, it created a multi-platform experience for the popular reality show Dragon’s Den that included audience engagement with web components and mobile apps. It also introduced a new Hockey Night in Canada app and a CBC News app for the Windows 8 operating system.
As part of its five-year strategic plan, “Strategy 2015: Everyone. Every Way,” CBC/Radio-Canada has stated that it plans to increase self-generated revenues up to $50 million on an ongoing basis by leveraging ads on television, increasing digital revenue and adding advertising/sponsorships to both CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique. The latter, it said, is an alternative to more “drastic solutions.”
Advertising currently comprises an estimated 20% of CBC/Radio-Canada’s annual revenues. It is expected to generate $427.7 million in advertising in 2013-14, growing to $476.7 million by 2016-17.
Shropshire said that digital is going to account for an ever-growing portion of those revenues. “We’re all pretty clear on where things are going; digital is the infrastructure for what we’re doing now and certainly into the future, so I was really impressed with the focus CBC has put on digital knowledge and intelligence, knowing that everything in the world is evolving in that direction,” she said.
She acknowledged the impact that programmatic buying is having on the advertising landscape in general, but said that her experience with UM can help CBC address some of those challenges. “I’m aware of some of the challenges [facing broadcasters] in the coming years, and I think I can bring some value there,” she said.
