Tough negotiations were under way last week. One buyer, one seller,
searching the whites of each other’s eyes - the sort of showdown that
raises the hairs on the back of every TV buyer’s neck.
This time, though, Steve King was the TV seller. TV, boat and Buick
station-wagon seller too - the trappings of media life, US-style, which
the TV buyer turned chief operating officer won’t have need of in his
new role as head of Zenith Media Europe (±±¾©Èü³µpk10, last week).
King is selling a few personal effects to Richie Hamilton, the recently
appointed chief executive officer of Zenith US, as he prepares to return
to the media mire he left behind when he blazed the American trail three
years ago.
Having survived the trial by fire which was Zenith’s birth into the US
market (plenty of tears and triumphs, like all good pioneer adventures)
King’s reward is the European throne, currently being kept warm by the
incumbent, Derrick Southon, who retires at the end of the year.
King takes charge of a European network which has billings of dollars
2.8 billion - half the global billings of Zenith - and a total of 420
staff. It was the first media dependant in the UK and the first London
dependant to enter Europe. With eyes focused on Zenith UK minus chief
executive Christine Walker, and the fortunes of Zenith US, Europe has
been somewhat neglected by the public gaze. Yet it is, King insists, the
lure of the European task which has persuaded the prodigal son to come
home.
’It’s hugely challenging and exciting, something I’ve not done before,
and something that has come along at a hugely exciting time for Zenith,’
King says, in the nearest he gets to a gush. His mates, the British
education system (King is a prolific father), a fat pay rise, all, it
seems, have less to do with returning to England than the opportunity to
take Zenith on to the next level in Europe.
’Since I left the UK, the European network has grown significantly. It’s
much more of an international business now and frankly there aren’t too
many other companies that have our international presence. Zenith is
unique in having a global media brand on all three continents. Now is
the time to capitalise on that in Europe.’
And the twinkly 38-year-old can be in no doubt of his brief. ’Revenue,’
butts in Worldwide boss, John Perriss, when I ask King what he sees as
the main challenge in Europe. ’Revenue.’
For while Zenith has the skeleton of its European network in place
(though in some countries the bones remain fairly bare), it still hasn’t
truly cracked pan-European business. While competitors such as CIA
Medianetwork and Carat regularly clock up pan-European conversions of
domestic clients, Zenith’s track record in taking business across
borders hasn’t been quite as impressive as it would like. For a company
which is unquestionably ahead of the international game (the US remains
a tough nut for the likes of Carat and CIA), this is something which
Zenith must now attack with gusto.
As Perriss explains: ’New business is our priority. If you look at the
past three years, a lot of our energy has gone into the infrastructure
We’re looking to Steve to say ’Well, all the machinery is now in place,
let’s really start to capitalise on that by getting out into the market,
being a cheerleader for our people.’’
And Perriss is very clear why King is the man for the job. ’Steve’s very
strong with people and he’s done a hugely difficult task in America,
bringing together a disparate group of people and holding them together
in what, like all Zenith openings, was quite a bruising time. He has
great strength of character and phenomenal energy.’
In a European media scene which now has more to do with brand values and
personality than a network of systems and volume led by bland
bureaucrats, King’s character will be key.
Steve Booth, a partner at Booth Lockett Makin and a former TV buyer who
grew up with King at Dorlands, says: ’Steve’s easy manner belies his
incisive mind and his active brain. He’s not just a really nice bloke,
and the force of his personality is now what’s needed in Europe.’
Mick Desmond, the chief executive of Laser Sales and also an old friend
of King’s, agrees: ’Steve’s a very good ambassador, he gets on with
everybody and he has this real ability to break down barriers. He’s
always had this knack of persuading people do what he wants, without
alienating them.’
King’s slight frame, low-key demeanour and blandly charming air are
deceptive and, when he set his sights westward back in 1994, a few
sceptics mumbled about sending a boy out to do a man’s job. In the
intervening three years, King has suffered a few growing pains, the
departure of some key executives and a string of well-publicised client
defections, such as the loss of Miller Brewing and Wendy’s
International.
From the comfy perspective of the UK, these tribulations take on an
enormity which belies the task that has faced the new breed of media
company in the US. While media separation has proved the only real road
to survival in the UK, the concept still generates a healthy degree of
scepticism on the other side of the Atlantic. It may seem as though King
is jumping out at the first face-saving opportunity, but he managed to
clock up a 10 per cent growth in billings for Zenith US last year, and
billings from outside the axis of Zenith’s sister Cordiant creative
agencies - Saatchi & Saatchi and Bates Worldwide - now sit at around a
quarter of the total.
It’s still tiny compared with the 85 per cent of non-Cordiant business
enjoyed by Zenith in the UK, but it gives Zenith US a healthy head start
on its rivals.
King admits, though, that the job is far from over in the States. ’In a
business as complex as this, you can never say the job’s done. It’s
nowhere near done. But the clients and the agencies have been through a
huge transition and we’re starting to have a great deal of success in
new business. I don’t know if you’d say that it’s the right time to
leave, and you certainly couldn’t say I’ve learned everything there is
to learn, but I’m leaving the company in good shape.’
What he has learned, he says, will be invaluable and will help give
Zenith a competitive edge in Europe, while highlighting for European
clients the viability of Zenith in the US. But while Zenith may feel its
European infrastructure is now secure, it needs all the competitive edge
it can muster in the next couple of years as the sleeping agency giants
rediscover media. Zenith’s global proposition may put it ahead of the
media independents, but at a stroke a WPP, Omnicom or Interpublic Group
could lay claim to the same distribution with their own media
networks.
King remains sanguine. ’Obviously our competitors are going to catch up
and as many people as can are going to go into this. But they’re going
to be years behind us. What we’ve got to do is capitalise on our
advantage now.’
Ironically, the planned demerger of the Cordiant group, which will see
Saatchi & Saatchi and Bates Worldwide become 50/50 owners of Zenith,
could be the real advantage the media company needs. For however many
offices Zenith has around the world, however big it may get in certain
key markets, it is unlikely ever to be big enough on its own and the
demerger could spark the new mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
necessary to secure Zenith’s place in the global media rankings into the
next century.
King admits that such opportunities were a further carrot for his return
to Europe, and he is now expected to sit alongside Perriss in the drive
for non-organic growth. ’The whole shift in ownership and
responsibilities of Cordiant and the demerger opens some very positive
opportunities for us,’ though he won’t be drawn on specifics.
After three years running Zenith in the UK, three years doing the
business in the US, King now has three years to get it right in Europe.
After that, the world?
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