If it is possible to blush audibly, then Beth Gordon has just done
it.
At the end of a telephone line stretching 3,000 miles between
Hammersmith and Manhattan, the new chairman and chief executive of the
Media Edge Worldwide squirms endearingly at the prospect of ’having to
be interesting’ for Campaign.
To describe her as the ’new’ chairman and chief executive would be less
than accurate, given that she has been within the company’s four walls
for all five years of its existence, and in its parent agency, NW Ayer,
for 16 years before that. The title is ’merely’ the result of a global
reshuffle, adding to her previous responsibility for running the
agency’s North American operations. ’I feel like an overnight star,’ she
says.
’I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’ve only just been
discovered.’
Although nobody will say so, many found it surprising that she scored
the top dog role over Paul Woolmington, formerly the president of Media
Edge International, and now her deputy.
But a key reason for this latest reshuffle is that with Gordon looking
after North America and Woolmington overseeing the rest of the world,
two separate brands were emerging. A consolidation was essential, and
the top job had to go to someone. The Media Edge’s US roots, and the
fact that its performance is stronger in that market than any other,
meant that its US chief was a natural person to take the brand
worldwide.
’We weren’t thinking globally,’ Gordon admits. ’Now we have a chance to
develop a single, integrated product with best practice worldwide.’
Woolmington explains the new regime: ’Beth will be looking after
operational issues and will be more internally focused, working for
Young & Rubicam. I’ll champion the product around the world and drive
our strategy forward. We have to divide and conquer, and this division
between operations and strategy is the most appropriate route.’
The Media Edge was formed proper in 1994, when NW Ayer’s media
department persuaded the management to allow them to separate and form a
new company. A driver in this process was Gordon, who admits now that
the agency was ’in difficulty’.
Gordon spearheaded the team’s bid to be sold by Ayer - which had just
been bought by DMB&B - to Y&R, in order to hang on to its best and
longest-standing client, AT&T. (DMB&B handled the rival Southwestern
Bell.) Now, of course, the plan is to get the new improved Media Edge
Worldwide to develop as a single entity.
It is difficult to get a true picture of someone without meeting them
face to face. Gordon realises this, and in preparation for this
interview has dredged up several ’interesting’ things about herself.
But while they are fascinating - she married her boyfriend on the 30th
anniversary of their first date; they were to get married in her
favourite second-hand bookstore but his dust allergy prevented it; she
has an annual spa trip with the other senior Y&R women - her passion for
creative media is the most beguiling thing about her.
Furthermore, Gordon’s unusual humility and creative spark is apparent
immediately. Stephanie Kugelman, the chairman of Y&R New York and a
fellow spa-tripper, says: ’I admire Beth for the way she inspires and
brings grace and sensibility to all she does.’
To talk about her success as a woman in a man’s world would be at worst
insulting, and tokenism at best. But it cannot go unremarked that there
are few women in the US media independents. She says: ’I don’t know why
there aren’t more in the agencies. But we try to have a balance. There
are as many women as men in my direct report.’
Gordon’s modesty rears its head again when I ask her what qualities she
thinks have taken her to where she is now. ’My staying power,’ she
laughs.
’I was at Ayer for 18 years, and it was the kind of agency that allowed
you to exercise your curiosity. If I saw an opportunity or had an idea
and said ’gee, that looks interesting’, they’d turn round and say ’do
it’.’
Gordon is not what you’d expect from the head of Y&R’s media outfit.
She doesn’t spend her life on a Boeing 747, she doesn’t work weekends
(they are saved for building a house in the Hamptons, largely in order
to house her thousands of books), and she has fun. Gordon loves her job,
and the 500-odd staff in the New York office.
As Kugelman concludes: ’She’s smart and alert, and a real visionary. But
she’s also a good person and a good friend. Beth is one of the very real
reasons why the Media Edge continues to grow.’
THE GORDON FILE
1971: WPIX Television, traffic and sales executive
1972: MMT Sales, sales and market research executive
1974: Western International Media, media buyer
1976: Compton Advertising, media buyer/planner
1978: NW Ayer, media supervisor, rising to international media
director
1994: The Media Edge, chairman and chief executive, North America
1999: The Media Edge Worldwide, chairman and chief executive.
