SCA chief commercial officer, Seb Rennie, today announced that respected media executive Oliver Newton, will join the business as executive head – LiSTNR Commercial.
Newton joins SCA from Amazon, where he was AdTech sales director. At SCA, Newton will be responsible for leading LiSTNR’s commercial strategy and driving the digital audio commercial division within the business, as LiSTNR continues its strong growth trajectory. He replaces and reports to Rennie, who has become SCA’s Chief Commercial Officer.
Newton has more than 17 years’ experience in the media industry in sales and management roles. Prior to Amazon, Newton was with out-of-home company JCDecaux where he spent 15 years in various sales management roles most recently as chief sales officer. During his career, he has specialised in strategic revenue growth management for sales, advertising strategies for technology adoption and specialisation, building and delivering data and technology partnerships.
In just under two years since its launch, LiSTNR has become Australia’s number one podcast network with a new record of more than 8.6 million monthly listeners1. SCA is the number one sales representation business of podcasting in Australia, representing its extensive premium, original podcast slate and a range of international and local podcast partners including Sirius XM, Wondery, the AFL, NRL, Schwartz Media, DM Podcasts, and the Royal Institution of Australia.
LiSTNR houses more than 600 podcast titles, 154 Hit and Triple M radio and DAB+ stations, 29 music stations, and news and information. “I could not be more delighted to welcome Olly to SCA and LiSTNR. He is an exceptional sales leader with a proven track record of delivering revenue growth. Having worked closely with Olly while I was with Group M, I can confidently say that he has strong strategic skills and an impeccable reputation and relationships with agencies.
“I look forward to seeing LiSTNR’s commercial strategy continue to gain momentum as we deliver a leading digital audio service and an engaged audience at scale for advertisers,” Rennie said.
Commenting on his new role, Newton said: “I am truly excited to lead LiSTNR’s commercial strategy and work with the incredible sales team at SCA. LiSTNR’s rapid growth and success in market has really been a gamechanger for the digital audio market, which continues to grow at pace. LiSTNR’s innovation in content, technology and user experience is world leading with massive potential for advertisers to reach an addressable audience. I look forward to working with the team to deliver the best commercial outcomes for both advertisers and LiSTNR.”
Newton will commence in the new role on 24 July.
