Mark Coad on why he doesn’t regret moving to Mediabrands, even with the hindsight of COVID-19
After six months in the job, Mediabrands’ chief executive Mark Coad speaks with Mumbrella’s Brittney Rigby about handling a crisis in a new business, why pitching has become more humanised since ‘ditch the pitch’, and what media agencies and marketers should be thinking about. Here, in the second part of that interview, Coad explains why he thinks Mediabrands will emerge from 2020 ‘in better shape than we went into it’, and addresses cramming six months worth of progress into the first six weeks.
Things were looking good for Mark Coad at the end of last year. He’d eventually resolved an insurance claim after a pipe burst in his holiday home months earlier, flooding the entire house. He’d finally sold his former house, which he’d been trying to sell all year. And, of course, he was heading into a three month stretch of uninterrupted gardening leave – the longest career break he’d ever had – after accepting, and announcing, a new job as chief executive of Mediabrands.
That was late December, though. By the end of the month, bushfires were ripping through the country, and Coad and his family, living on a property outside of Melbourne, were evacuated twice. Australia was still on fire throughout January: properties burning, half a billion animals incinerated, the death toll rising.
By February, it was time for Mediabrands to welcome in its new CEO.
