The first job Viacom Brand Solutions' managing director Nick Bampton went for was press officer at Thames TV. The broadcaster promptly wrote back to let him know that he "wasn't going to be right" for that department, but invited him to the sales recruitment evening.
Bampton went along, met Kelly Williams, now sales director at Five, and Mark Howe, now country director, UK, of Google, who "took a chance" on the young Bampton -and the rest, as they say, is history.
Four of the top dogs in TV sales rose from those early days at Thames TV. "Bammo", as he is known to friends and clients alike, learnt his trade alongside Five's Williams and new managing director Mark White, and Sky Media's managing director Nick Milligan.
On his grounding at Thames TV, Bampton says: "It was one of those magical companies that shaped the future and it was brilliant to be part of that." He joined Viacom seven years ago as the company was starting out and, according to his peers, has been a powerful driving force behind its growth. The company's 70-strong sales team was duly rewarded last month, winning Sales Team of the Year at the Media Week Awards - an achievement Bampton describes as "important" and "brilliant".
"We have the advantage of having some fantastic TV brands to sell [Paramount, MTV and Nickelodeon], but the judges recognised that we have made a big noise for a relatively small sales team," he says. "Our success boils down to partnerships and innovations, as opposed to leverage and scale like the rest of the traditional TV operations."
Bampton intends to continue this trend for innovation. Following Viacom's successful Force for Good initiative last year, which assisted ethically sound advertisers to air and matched their investment pound for pound, the sales house is now launching Force for Enterprise. This scheme will work on a similar premise, but will focus on bringing advertisers to air that have not yet used TV or have lapsed recently.
Creating innovations
Although Force for Good had noble intentions, Bampton is pragmatic. "We created 11 campaigns, which represented 15% of our growth in 2008. All those campaigns wouldn't otherwise have happened and we need to keep creating these innovations to fill the gap between the price of our channels and that of our competitors," he explains.
New initiatives aside, the rumour that has been doing the rounds for a long time - and one that would definitely boost Bampton's revenue - is the possibility of Virgin Media sales house IDS consolidating its operations with Viacom Brand Solutions to rival the powerful Sky Media, the only other multichannel TV sales house.
Bampton initially rejects this notion outright, saying that both the proposition and timing would have to be right. However, he doesn't rule out the merger for the future and becomes coy when pressed on the issue. "All I can say is that it's very difficult to put rival companies together and create revenue, and Viacom is in no hurry to form a partnership with its rivals," he comments.
Bampton also plans to develop revenue through his portfolio of third-party contracts, which includes the UK sales for Comcast's entertainment channel E!.
In addition, he has his eye on the Discovery contract, which will be put out to tender at the start of 2009, as it reaches the end of its three-year deal with Sky Media.
Digitally, Viacom was ahead of the game in getting its MTV and Nickelodeon content online four years ago. However, the company seems no further advanced than other media owners in the quest to figure out how to make money from online content in an ever- fragmenting digital world.
Bampton explains: "Of course, we have to be innovative and figure out the economic models. If we are going to give people all this content to view in all these different ways, then we need to know how to make money from it, and that's the challenge for the industry.
"But right now, if Viacom isn't going to make money out of a platform, then it won't put content in those places."
Strong views
Bampton does embrace change, however. He is well known for his damning views on Contract Rights Renewal, the mechanism designed to protect advertisers from ITV abusing its dominance, as well as his persistent cry for the industry to change its TV trading patterns.
"We are locked into a system that was built for a different age," he says. "The system doesn't recognise companies that were small 10 years ago but, grouped together, are now dominant."
He is, as ever, fighting multichannel's corner in the face of the Goliath terrestrials and this consistency of message and passionate delivery has earned him the respect of the industry. Richard Oliver, managing partner, investment at Universal McCann, says of Bampton: "He is a passionate and driven individual. You get the feeling that a lot of VBS's actions are driven directly by him."
Bampton's final wish for when he finally bows out of media reflects the drive he is known for. He says: "Nothing would give me greater pleasure when I am in my 60s and greying than to have created the same atmosphere here as the early days of Thames TV, and for Viacom staff to be doing the top jobs in media."
CV
2004: Managing director, Viacom Brand Solutions
2001: Sales director, Viacom Brand Solutions
2000: Sales director, Channel 5 Interactive
1996: Business manager, Channel 5
1994: Senior planner/buyer, Young & Rubicam Nordic Media
1993: Senior sales executive, UK Gold
1990: Account executive, Thames Television
Family: Married with two children - Isabella, five, and Charlie, two
Transport London: a scooter
Motorway: Range Rover
Lives: Chiswick
Desert island media: BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4, The Times and Nickelodeon
Bampton on...
Winning Sales Team of the Year: It's a great feeling. The reason we won is because we have been innovative and have tried to make TV more accessible, producing ground-breaking revenue streams over the past seven years.
Linear TV: Our Digital Drive research has shown that, despite all the other viewing platforms, linear TV is still going to be the core way to watch TV. Linear TV is still crucial and its advertising model is absolutely essential to making money from that content.
His alternative career path: I dread to think where I would have ended up if I hadn't gone into media - I probably would have been an estate agent.
His ambition: I want to create the next generation of heads of sales leading the TV advertising industry.
Contract Rights Renewal: The mechanism is extremely damaging to TV - it is an entrenched system that is not in the interests of growing TV as an advertising medium. ITV is extremely dominant in the marketplace, and all CRR has done is increase ITV's price against the market.
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