As the summer months quickly approach and our series of egtabites takes a well-deserved break until September, we put the spotlight on the latest addition to the team – egta’s newly elected President.
The recent voting procedure with regards to egta’s Statutory session marked the transfer of egta’s presidency, with outgoing President Malin Häger, Commercial Director, Advertising Nordics – TV4 Media, handing leadership of the association to Laurent Bliaut, Deputy General Director, Marketing and R&D, TF1 Publicité.
The entire egta team would like to expressly thank Malin for all her work during her presidency and the many great initiatives and events we had the opportunity to work on together.
Laurent was kind enough to share his thoughts on egta, his presidency, and the future of our industry in the years to come in a short interview.
1. Can you tell us what made you decide to run for egta President?
I sincerely admire all the work done by the egta team in recent years. Beyond the many exchanges the association sets up, and which allow us all to be inspired by the best in our industry all over the world, egta has become an essential interlocutor with bodies such as the WFA and the MRC in particular. More than ever, we -TV companies- need to speak with a unified voice when it comes to setting new standards, in the face of the global tech giants who are now in our competitive universe.
2. Do you have the feeling that the world has somehow changed between the moment you applied and the time of your election? Have your short- and medium-term priorities changed as a broadcaster and as the association’s President?
Of course, the COVID 19 crisis has short- and medium-term impacts from which we all suffer. We are rightfully focused on the very short term now, in order to preserve the resources of our companies as much as possible – the majority of which depend mainly on advertising. However, like all crises, this one accelerates pre-existing tendencies rather than creates real ruptures. Our vision for “Total Video” is more just than ever and our industry must prepare to play the central role it deserves. This was already my roadmap before the crisis, which has only reinforced my conviction.
3. What do you think are the biggest challenges and opportunities for our industry in the next few years?
Our industry is at a turning point entering the Total Video era. Content is fluid, without any borders. Our content is the best and can now really be watched or listened to anytime, anywhere, on any device. This will give us a lot of new opportunities. Our media already provided incomparable reach with the strongest commitment from our audiences. They can now, thanks to addressable and data, provide more targeting, and provide their strengths to a broader client portfolio. Thanks to those new skills I am convinced that the coming years will be those of new conquests! It is amazing how many new clients we will be able to take on board thanks to programmatic, data and addressable.
4. What message would you like to share with egta’s members?
We, all together, must play a central role to accelerate the convergence of media planning KPIs. This job is started, but we must not underestimate adversity. Platforms play a double game, pretending they agree, but are not ready to open their garden to real and comparable measurement. I’m convinced that this battle is crucial, and egta is our best weapon to win it, as demonstrated by the Paris January 2020 BAM event.
Year after year TV and radio still demonstrate how efficient they are to drive both brand equity and sales, but part of this power is still too often confiscated by “last click” specialists. We cannot allow that to happen. I would be honoured to help as much as I can.