Kate Norum
Brighton,E Sussex
Summary
Entrepreneurial and self motivated professional with a unique and valuable skillset that sits at the intersection of media, culture, brands and entertainment. With a proven track record in driving forward successful partnerships across a mix of platforms, along with an extensive network of industry contacts, building rapport and great relationships has played a central role in previous successes.
Overview
24
24
years of professional experience
3
3
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Head of Branded Entertainment
BBC Studios Productions
London, London
10.2022 - Current
- Devised and implemented growth strategy for Branded Entertainment.
- Within 3 months of starting, brought in Google and easyJet as National Sponsors for Eurovision 2023 in UK for first time.
- Part of my strategy for growth was driving more cross- team collaboration. A direct result of this was supporting our North American Ad Sales team on content briefs, leading to us winning the largest Branded Entertainment project in BBCSP's history: A multi-million dollar deal to produce a 6x30' series and 1x 60' film for a US brand with global distribution, featuring A List talent.
- In the last 12 months alone brought in £15 million of Ad funded / branded entertainment briefs for our production teams to respond to.
- Sought out new routes to distribute our brand funded shows, building rapport and engagement with the commercial teams at WBD Global, Disney +, Nat Geo, Amazon Prime Direct and ITV.
- Built great relationships with the creatives sitting within our Global Entertainment and Factual teams, ensuring a willingness to support on ad briefs.
- Created a constantly evolving pipeline of pro-active opportunities to take out to the ad market.
- Maintained Industry profile with contribution to Industry wide annual review into Branded Entertainment K7 Report, moderated panel at BFI on Social Branded Entertainment, spoke on panel at Edinburgh TV Festival about Unbranded Content.
Branded Content Controller
Sky Media
London, London
11.2019 - 10.2022
- Secured the first ever ad funded series and six figure partnership onto Sky Arts for Adobe.
- Brokered 6 figure partnership from Sky Mobile for A League of Their Own which included in-show integration, social campaign and licensing deal.
- Brought in Royal London to partner on documentary film fronted by Joe Marler, England Rugby international, Big Boys Don't Cry which launched on Sky Sports during Mental Health Awareness week May 2021. Generated massive PR and social engagement.
- Acted as a bridge between Sky Commissioning team and Sky Media Ad sales team, flexing influencing skills to help push through ad funded series and branded content proposals.
- Built and and supported high performing team during lock-down.
Commercial Partnerships
UKTV
London, London
06.2012 - 11.2019
- Won business from clients including; Audible, Ancestry, Emirates Airlines, Tourism Australia and KIA who co-funded and fully funded our commissioned shows on Dave, W and Good Food channels.
- Shortlisted for Broadcast Digital Awards for two of these projects (Crackanory for Dave channel funded by Audible 2016 and The Secrets in My Family for W channel, funded by Ancestry 2018).
- Sat within the Commissioning team, honing editorial skills and OFCOM / Compliance knowledge.
- Continually reinventing the opportunity for brand partners beyond on-screen presence. This included securing the Rights to create a podcast series from linear IP, talent-led screening event and panel at a book festival (for Audible), creating a social mini-series (of stunts) to complement a linear show (G Shock watches for Dave) driving a younger audience to the Dave channel.
- Collaborated with cross functional teams to secure the most effective partnerships for clients; Marketing and PR, Scheduling, Social and Digital Teams.
- Led pitching process with senior creatives to respond to brand briefs.
- Spoke at company-wide presentations about Ad funded projects and educated on complexities of working with brands.
Innovations Account Manager
Mirror Group Newspapers
London, london
12.2010 - 06.2012
- Worked as part of the Innovations team, tasked with selling partnerships in the lifestyle space.
- My role was creative ideation to encourage brands to invest into partnerships within the newspaper and online.
- For the first time ever, came up with the concept of using the IP from one of the newspaper's popular daily cartoons Andy Capp to create a branded content strip within the newspaper for Carling featuring the character.
- Secured a 6 months partnership with First Choice Holidays (now TUI) to produce a bespoke monthly 'column' which we called called Passport, designed to look like a weekly travel column in the Lifestyle section.
Group Head of Brand Solutions
BBC Worldwide
london, london
11.2005 - 11.2010
- Led Creative Solutions team for BBC Food Portfolio of titles.
- Responsible for hitting annual team targets across sponsorship and brand partnership revenue streams over £1million per annum.
- Ensured projects were delivered within budget and profitability.
- Shortlisted for Sales Person of The Year in 2010
- Spearheaded selling of largest revenue drivers such as BBC Good Food calendar.
- Generated bespoke creative campaign ideas across portfolio, winning 6 figure deals from brands incl. Kellogg's and Nestle.
- Worked closely with editorial and insights team to identify key trends and target new business.
Top of The Pops Deputy Ad Manager
BBC Worldwide
London
05.2001 - 11.2005
- Negotiated record company contracts in highly competitive market.
- Promoted twice within 3 years from display sales exec to deputy ad manager.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - English Literature
University College Chichester
Chichester, West Sussex 09.1997 - 07.2000
Skills
- Entrepreneurial
- Relationship Building
- Commercial Acumen
- Strategic Thinking
- Leadership and Teamwork
- Market Analysis
- Excellent Communication Skills
- Strong Presenting Skills
- Problem-solving
Timeline
Head of Branded Entertainment
BBC Studios Productions
10.2022 - Current
Branded Content Controller
Sky Media
11.2019 - 10.2022
Commercial Partnerships
UKTV
06.2012 - 11.2019
Innovations Account Manager
Mirror Group Newspapers
12.2010 - 06.2012
Group Head of Brand Solutions
BBC Worldwide
11.2005 - 11.2010
Top of The Pops Deputy Ad Manager
BBC Worldwide
05.2001 - 11.2005
Bachelor of Arts - English Literature
University College Chichester
09.1997 - 07.2000
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