I didnt go to college.
I left school pretty early.
At 17, I went straight into media.
Sharb FarjamiCourtesy of GroupM
And I just got into it.
I put a resume together, sent it to a mate.
He sent it somewhere.
On a Tuesday, I had an interview and on Wednesday I got offered a job.
(Upfront negotiations, given they are still ongoing, was one topic he declined to address.)
His take on the anxiety rippling through the media world could be succinctly paraphrased as: Twas ever thus.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
DEADLINE: How is your tenure going so far?
Do you feel like you have your bearings?
SHARB FARJAMI:I have my bearings, I think.
As much as you ever have your bearings.
Look, theres a lot to do, going through a transformation.
Thats no secret, thats been published and discussed, so leading that transformation is a thing.
I kind of like that in some ways.
Can we be simpler and easier to deal with?
Can we be more agile?
Can we be more effective for our clients?
The answer to all of those should be yes.
Thats really what the transformation is about.
FARJAMI:I think every leader should be addressing internal culture all the time, forever.
Those are the things that, to me, influence culture.
And then obviously, just organically, how we operate.
How we talk to our people.
How we talk to each other.
If I have a business ethos, its all about team.
Im a big proponent of team cultures.
I dont believe that any individual is better or more important than the team, in any situation.
My belief is, you obviously always want the best talent.
Im not for a second suggesting that you dont.
I think we have fantastic talent.
DEADLINE: You got such an early start in media.
Did it just come naturally to you?
And how does that experience inform what you do now?
The manager would give me this piece of paper.
It was a series of numbers and codes and youd put it into an MS-DOS platform.
I didnt know what I was doing.
I just knew that the information on this piece of paper had to go in the system.
So, six months in, my bosss boss said to me, Do you know what this is?
And I was like, No, I just know I have to put it in there.
And I was like, Ahhhhh!
DEADLINE: Did that Eureka moment change what you were doing day to day?
DEADLINE: You spent significant time at two of the major media players of the past few decades.
What did you take away from that, especially working for the Murdochs?
You get good quickly or you leave.
Its very competitive and I learned a huge amount.
Theyre such a unique and special breed.
Being around that environment as a business person is very rounding for you.
Do you know what I mean?
Its certainly more complex.
There are always specificities and unique circumstances to every moment and every point in an industrys evolution.
But I think of the constants.
And going through change and transformation, thats the thing thats the hardest, right?
The thing thats the most difficult part of that is people.
For a large media organization or in whatever industry may know that it needs to go through change.
Theres an existential threat fundamentally changing their business model, their interactions with their consumer, whatever it is.
They know what they need to do.
Most companies are full of incredibly smart, brilliant people who got to the top not by accident.
DEADLINE: Streaming, of course, has been the biggest battleground of late.
How would you say it is affecting the landscape?
FARJAMI:I think theres a huge amount of change coming.
Obviously, the streaming discussion is not a secret.
I think there are some fantastic players in there.
Theres often talk of how many streaming players the market can handle.
The reality is, probably more than people think.
But itisdissimilar because most cable operators back end or business model was mostly the same.
Streaming platforms, most of them are not.
Theyre owned by different companies, different shapes and sizes.
The business models and what theyre prioritizing are really different.
DEADLINE: Also, how do advertisers measure their results?
Streaming is booming, but data is still mostly in a black box.
Measurement is murky and streamers can cherry pick what to say about how content is performing.
Is that causing any restlessness from buyers?
FARJAMI:Ratings have always been an inexact science.
But given technology and the systems in place, one could argue that it shouldnt be.
There is more than one way to assess the ROI and the impact of an ad beyond ratings.
Thats something we work very hard on.
Marketplaces eventually dictate and marketplaces will tolerate to a point and then they dont tolerate.
), the survival of the fittest.
People buy what they want to buy.
The more interesting thing is balancing ad loading and ad experience.
Media companies have to work out how much is the right amount.
People are opting in and opting out.
There are so many different models and but all of them will have to find the right balance.
Ad formats are another key.
Some of these companies are going to have access to some amazing technology from a shoppable consumer perspective.
Thats where were at now.
DEADLINE: Its been interesting to watch advertising evolve in streaming.
The ad load is dramatically lighter than linear TV, maybe one-third as many spots.
Theres always been a conversation.
We didnt really like each other!
I think thats a good thing.
I think every media company, you want that healthy tension.
Because what that means is that the viewing experience is pleasant for the consumer.
The difference now is the technology.
We used to have those conversations based on feels or broad ratings trends.
Now, you might have them in a far more detailed, scientific manner.
In my opinion, that phrase is out of date now.
