Getmemedia.com Expansion Fueled by Private and Venture Capital Investment
Media and marketing ideas search engine Getmemedia.com is announcing further expansion with three senior hires to its management team. This growth is being facilitated by investment from media specialist’s IBIS Media VCT and private investor Chris Letcher, the ex MD of Hobsons (part of the DMGT portfolio). The three new additions to the Get Me Media team are Richard Ardley, who is being brought in as director of Get Me Insight and Neil McKinnon, who is joining as marketing manager. Finally, Kiran Mann has joined as the new Agency Account Manager.
This is IBIS’ third round of investment in Getmemedia.com, and indicates the confidence that the investment house has in the company’s established position and its potential for further growth. IBIS is a venture capital trust focusing on unquoted, smaller UK media companies, and its investments are selected by an experienced team of media and investment professionals.
As well as investing, Chris Letcher will be assisting the development of the business’ commercial strategy and expansion. Chris has achieved great success previously, leading Hobsons development into an extremely profitable Global operation .
David Forster co-founder of IBIS Capital said of the investment, “We have real confidence in the company and its management. MD, Pete Davis has grown Getmemedia.com from a great idea, to a viable concept, and now into an increasingly important tool for brand managers and media planners. We believe that this round of investment will allow the company to cement its place as the primary source of UK media opportunity knowledge.”
The investment has enabled Getmemedia.com to expand its team by four people and has already recently recruited two media marketing specialists to their team. Ardley, a marketing strategist with over 15 years‘experience working in media and marketing, joins from experiential agency Grapefruit, where he was director. In his new role he will be overseeing the development and delivery of Get Me Insight, Getmemedia.com’s training business. The bespoke marketing development programme, launched 2 years ago, is run in conjunction with the leading industry associations for each marketing discipline, including the NMA and Thinkbox.
New marketing manager, McKinnon gained marketing experience at Centaur and Progressive Digital Media, and has joined from a marketing manager role at events company, Worldwide Business Research Ltd (WBR). He will be overseeing all marketing and PR for Getmemedia.com, as well as managing the development of the website, from its design, to its functionality and user-experience.
Pete Davis, Getmemedia.com MD, said of the expansion, “As a business we grew over 20% in 2010; however this growth brings new challenges as we now work with well over 700 companies. This investment allows Getmemedia.com to continue to grow and improve its client offering, and hence the need to increase our staff from 8 to 12. I think that recruiting Kiran, Richard and Neil represents a major development for the company. Richard’s knowledge as a media planner/buyer will be an asset to our training programme and Kiran will be involved to encourage usage and sign up within media, creative and PR agencies. With Neil we are looking to take advantage of his marketing and project management skills to further improve our website and communication with our members.”
Getmemedia.com is a media ideas generation tool for marketers and brand managers and has accrued over 10,000 members since its inception five years ago. It now works with over seven hundred advertisers, agencies and media owners, including UM, TBWA, The Guardian, Bauer Media, McCains and Weetabix.
<a href="http://www.getmemedia.com " >Getmemedia.com</a>
ENDS
For more information please contact:
Pete Davis on 08450 557267 email pete@getmemedia.com
Getmemedia.com is unique in providing advertisers and agencies with visibility and access to a range of marketing opportunities from across the entire market place, including media, events, licensing, sampling and sponsorship ideas.
Supported by ISBA, Marketing Society and IPA, Getmemedia.com is an unbiased information source, which aims to educate marketers and agencies, helping them make more informed media choices for their brands. The site also offers online insight and case studies from industry experts like NMA, RAB, IAB and Thinkbox.
Getmemedia.com’s industry feedback - video testimonials:
Steve Hatch, UK CEO of MEC discusses Getmemedia.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/Getmemedia#p/u/7/6fcFX1nYqwc
Paul Evans, Head of Media at Xbox discusses Getmemedia.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/Getmemedia#p/u/4/nZb9XSoZunM
Darren Khan, TV Sales Director and Commercial Director, Bauer Media, discusses Getmemedia.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/Getmemedia#p/u/0/68gRE6lUxDc
IBIS Media VCT 1 plc
(IBIS) is an established venture capital trust focused on unquoted, smaller UK media companies. The fund’s investments are selected by an experienced team of media and investment professionals. These include Sir Robin Miller (former Chairman and CEO of EMAP plc), Peter Williams (CFO of Daily Mail & General Trust plc) and Gary Hughes (former CEO of CMP Information). The list of investors in IBIS includes many senior executives from the media and investment industries.’
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