Ashley Snell joins London Sales Director, James Power, in driving the company’s recently formed advertising team and will be responsible for growing advertising sales across brands such as How It Works, games™, Android Magazine and SciFiNow.
Ashley began his career at Emap, before refining his skills with Dennis Publishing, Incisive Media and more recently Future – where he looked after Future’s entire technology portfolio including T3, Gizmodo and TechRadar. Whilst at Future, he oversaw the commercial launch of consumer technology website Gizmodo, built a B2B division from scratch, and developed relationships with numerous big brands and agencies delivering campaigns for EE, Carphone Warehouse, Samsung and Microsoft. In just three years with Future, Snell lead a team responsible for a 100% uplift in sales revenues across Future’s entire technology portfolio, says Imagine.
With the rollout of new cross-format audience solutions, Imagine aims to give advertisers access to the largest, yet most relevant, audience pools across Imagine’s technology, gaming and knowledge titles. Snell will look to drive growth of these new audience propositions in order to drive print and online media buying, whilst also seeking to capitalise on the growing potential of programmatic, an as yet untapped opportunity for the publisher.
With the launch of its London-based advertising sales division in January this year, Imagine signalled its intent to accelerate its advertising revenue, which stood at just 10% in FY14. Snell and Power will help the Imagine business to realise its ambition to grow ad revenues for flagship titles, creating a platform on which to launch into new global markets.
“I’m delighted that Ashley has agreed to join our London team to help us grow the publishing industry’s best kept secret” says Power. “With his combination of contacts and expertise we’ll be able to drive print and digital advertising across Imagine’s entire portfolio as more advertisers begin to see the value in targeting technology, gaming and science enthusiasts.”
Snell added: “I’m already beginning to get under the skin of Imagine’s key titles and enjoying every minute of it. Imagine’s readership base is completely unique and it’s the prospect of accessing consumers with real purchasing power and a genuine passion for technology and gaming that will make our titles a compelling offering for agencies and big brands. I’m excited about building sales and mirroring Imagine’s success in print and digital publishing with equally strong advertising revenues.”
