Partner profile: Simon Brown
Blue Hat Associates partner Simon shares his insights on the Media & Advertising sector.
In this blog series, we introduce you to each of our Partners.
Blue Hat Associates is a collective of entrepreneurial technology leaders who’ve all lived through the challenges of scaling SaaS businesses. Working across Finance, Health, Media, Advertising and the Public Sector, we help clients achieve tech and product goals quicker and more cost-effectively. Combining strategic leadership, with a nearshore talent pool of over 1600 consultants, means we provide the flexibility, innovation and pace that scaleups need to grow.
Introducing Simon.
Simon is an accomplished business leader with 30 years’ experience in Media & Advertising.
He has experience leading multiple transformations across both UK & International organisations including BBC Studios, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global.
His specialism spans market strategy, commercial growth and audience measurement & insights.
How has the pace of technological change influenced the way you do your job?
The impact of technology on the media industry has been dramatic. The advent of content delivery over IP rather than over the air or via physical copy has massively lowered the price of distribution and opened the door to competition - whether that be television, radio, or print.
This has ushered in a completely new set of players slamming into each traditional media sector, whether that is Netflix and YouTube hitting TV, Spotify and Audible hitting radio, or Google and Facebook hitting newspapers and magazines.
The fact that these services are now online has also radically changed the way advertising is traded with traditional telephone-based buying having been taken over by programmatic buying and selling via real-time electronic bidding.
How do you help your clients build an organisation that can keep up with the pace of change?
I have worked within a sector that has been upended, and in my role as Chief Strategy Officer I have led far-reaching company transformations across operations, technology and structure to cope with the disruption. Media companies have had to redesign the distribution routes for their content and build completely new digital services to offset their dwindling traditional audiences and revenues.
My goal is to help media clients by bringing a combination of strategic thinking coupled with deep sector knowledge. The strategic outlook is invaluable in logically break down market challenges and developing clear simple objectives. The market knowledge helps me understand a clients’ problems from their perspective and arrive at a solution quickly and efficiently.
How do you keep up with new technologies?
I use a range of sources to ensure that I remain abreast of the pressures and changes affecting the media sector:
I subscribe to several specialist strategy and research sources such as 3Vision, Enders Analysis, Ampere.
I regularly meet with colleagues from my extensive professional network
I attend major media conference such as MIP London, RTS, and Connected TV World
I read regular articles by informed commentators such as Evan Shapiro, Marion Ranchet, Doug Shapiro.
What's next in the Media & Advertsing sector?
Having seen the barriers to content distribution come down via the internet, the next major shift will be the collapse of the barriers to quality content creation. With Gen AI moving at lightening pace, we’re going to see creative tools placed in the hands of many, many more people and TV & film making no longer the preserve of the traditional studios.
The outcome will be that platforms like YouTube will carry A-grade video content that will see viewing time and money further migrate to the creators and disrupt the traditional economics of the creative industries.
What technologies do you think stand the most chance to change your clients businesses in the next 3-5 years?
As above GenAI will have a huge impact on the creative industries. This will also have the potential to cause significant cultural problems as deep fakes become harder and harder to differentiate from professionally produced content around news.
Based on current trends and technological advancements, several technologies are poised to significantly transform the UK media sector over the coming years.
Advanced AI content creation and personalisation tools will likely reshape content development and delivery. We're already seeing AI assist with writing, video editing, and content recommendation, but more sophisticated systems will enable hyper-personalized media experiences tailored to individual preferences.
Voice and conversational interfaces will continue evolving, changing how audiences discover and interact with content. Smart speakers and voice assistants will become more integrated with media consumption habits.
Advanced data analytics will further refine audience targeting and content strategy, allowing more precise measurement of engagement and sales effectiveness.
Programmatic trading will become more comprehensively embraced by traditional media such as TV, replacing a large number of sales positions across the industry.
Synthetic media technologies (deepfakes, voice synthesis) will present both creative opportunities and regulatory challenges around authenticity.
What kinds of technology problems do you think will drive the next wave of innovation?
One ongoing challenge as more and more first-party customer data enter the market will be how to measure audiences consistently across varied platforms. Systems that can bring together these data points to allow brands and advertisers to track customers across media will continue to be highly sought after but highly elusive.
A more general trend, which is exaggerated in media, will be pressure on margins and therefore resourcing. As a result, there will be a strong need for systems that drive efficiency such as dashboards.
How do you help your clients’ teams advance existing products and create new ones?
After a lengthy career in media, I can draw up extensive first-hand experience across television (BBC, ITV and Warner Bros Discovery), advertising (Zenith Media, Y&R, Saatchi’s) and audience measurement (Barb).
Whilst not being a career technologist I instead bring the client-side perspective and working with colleagues at Blue Hat am able to translate client needs and market opportunities into sophisticated technical solutions.
What client projects are you particularly proud of, and why?
My proudest experience has been the transitions of UKTV from a nine-channel TV legacy network to a digital first on demand TV destination.
I led a company-wide process to evaluate the market changes, identify the business pivot required, develop the business case to underpin the changes, map current resources vs future requirements, manage an end-to-end rewiring of the operations and staffing including the development of new digital and data science teams from scratch.
Why did you join Blue Hat?
Given the changes ripping through the media industry there’s an urgent need for organisations to upgrade their technology to remain competitive.
With my background and understanding of pressures media companies are facing I’m extremely well placed to be able to help companies articulate their problems and to be able to work with Blue Hat to provide smart, affordable solutions.
Having spent many years at large corporations, I’m also interested in working for a small organisation with more of a startup mentality where each piece of work is tailor made for the client and each client is critically important.
Thanks for reading, we hope you’ve found it insightful to get to know Simon’s perspective on the tech landscape.
Learn more about our other Partners and get in touch for a free, friendly chat anytime.
