Kate Tovey started her career as a Red Bull ambassador for two years.
She joined JCDecaux in 2006 as London trading manager and worked through a series of business development and sales leadership positions.
Tovey became director of customer engagement in 2021.
Tell me another industry that’s as fun, creative and innovative. There’s rarely a dull moment.
I’ve always had a curiosity about culture, communication and community (back in the day, I studied hispanic studies), and I find it fascinating to understand what makes people tick — I hope I never lose that inquisitiveness.
I’ll be honest: some of these questions have seen a few answer variations!
Ultimately, though, I’ve tried to treat it as a reflective exercise, being honest about the amazing highs of the media industry as well as the challenges along the way.
We (the media industry) are a community of neophiles. We are so quick to move on to the next opportunity that it can be challenging to prioritise feedback.
I’m always grateful to know what we are doing well and where we need to be better. Oh and more time for the fun stuff too.
Econometrics is back in a big way. Our approach to measurement in OOH is unrecognisable from even a few years ago.
It’s a tough topic to tackle, but it’ll have a huge impact if we can embrace media mix modelling and more robustly prove the effectiveness of our channel.
In 2012, I was diagnosed with a health condition that seriously impacted my life. In 2016, I was given the all-clear.
Overcoming my illness was the hardest, bravest thing I’ve ever done.
Some of the best salespeople I know work agency and client side.
I’ve been fortunate to work with the best of the best — genuinely too many to mention — so I’m pleading the fifth on this one…
When did you last professionally fail at something and what did you learn?
An individual’s initial reaction to the question can be very telling. Their response gives a lot of insight about self-awareness, their approach to feedback, openness to learning from failures. And it presents an opportunity to discuss future development.
Question from Dan Durling, managing director, Alight Media
My incredible and talented team — last year, we developed and hosted a series of mini educational Matters events around key industry hot topics such as sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, measurement and programmatic digital OOH.
Our Community Matters event trained 650 agency planners how to use life-saving CPR techniques in celebration of our digital six-sheet defibrillator street furniture.
Question from Kelly Williams, managing director, commercial, ITV
When I started my media career, the world was a very different place and there were very few women in senior commercial roles that I could look up to.
While I had some amazing managers and mentors, it took me quite a long time to find a professional voice that felt authentically “me”.
I gained a lot of confidence through coaching — so much so that it inspired me to train to be a coach in 2019 and I feel more empowered now to support others on this journey.
Question from James Cornish, vice-president of international sales, Vevo
