Bloomberg Television’s Shawn Galey is refreshingly upfront about the current profile of his news channel in Asia. “We have traditionally under-represented how strong we really are across all media. We haven’t done a good enough job at telling the world that as we haven’t had a big marketing focus before,” he says.
The MD of Bloomberg’s commercial affairs for Asia-Pacific is looking to set things right. No longer content with being seen as just another newsfeed, Galey wants audiences to know that Bloomberg is one of the largest news organisations in the world. And with Bloomberg in the process of buying BusinessWeek, he should soon have an even stronger case to make.
“Because of the change in emphasis in the company, we’re now trying to tell people we’re not just a digest or a survey channel,” he says, pointing out that Bloomberg supplies the stories that other channels and publications build their own coverage around. “Get it fresh from us,” he adds.
Bloomberg recently launched a major marketing push to reinvent its image. The campaign, dubbed ‘The source’, was developed with BBH. The creative agency also helped to stage a massive ice sculpture showcase for the campaign’s launch in Singapore’s central business district.
Despite the high-profile BusinessWeek acquisition, Galey points to the rebranding and developments in programming as “core for us this year”. He adds: “It’s our strategic vision to take us through the many months and years ahead. The idea is to demonstrate in a much more tangible way what we are on-air, on-ground in an integrated fashion. We want to show the breath and depth of what we do through Bloomberg Television and our multimedia offerings.”
The 49-year old American spent much of his career on the legal side of the business before moving into general management. He didn’t move into the pay-TV industry until the start of this decade.
Based in Singapore, Galey oversees television distribution, new media, business development and marketing for Bloomberg’s regional operations.
When Galey joined the company in early-2007, his mandate was to start taking a more strategic approach and to streamline operations. “It was not just about getting the next operator on board or picking up a few more hotels,” he notes. “It was about coming up with a broader strategy in this part of the world, what we should be doing in a strategic manner for all markets and then drilling down to the individual market from there - which, frankly speaking, we never really had done. We had been chasing every little pot of gold at the end of every rainbow.”
Reflecting on what Galey has achieved for Bloomberg, one source notes that he has transformed the news provider; she calls Bloomberg a “dynamic and forward-thinking organisation” and describes Galey as being “very receptive to new ideas.”
Almost three years into the job, Galey reckons he has a lot still to do. He estimates he is probably just 10 per cent of the way through his plans, with even more “untapped value” to realise.
One of those areas is digital media, and specifically mobile. Galey wants to build on the work that Bloomberg has done on the mobile platform. “We’ve got a WAP service running out of Singapore that now runs on six telco platforms around the region. That number will go up substantially in the next few months,” he says.
“Mobile is actually the perfect medium for us - it’s about data and information, less about beauty, visual and resolution. We can find ways to package data into that space. In the near future, in our demographic at least, our viewers would look first to the mobile as opposed to wanting mobile updates to be packaged with their online news. Why bother logging on to the computer when I can get it all first-hand on the mobile?”
While Bloomberg continues to serve Greater China and Southeast Asia as the channel’s bases, Galey has some very specific targets for the year ahead. “We’re focusing on Singapore as a key market where we want to do better. In Hong Kong, we easily outpace CNN or CNBC in the news space. Hong Kong is a market we feel we own already and we want to replicate that success in Singapore.”
He gives two reasons for this focus on the Lion City. One is that the city-state has plenty of viewers who are “well connected and increasingly successful”. The second is that Singapore is now an important hub for advertising. “Being able to show to advertisers and agencies that we can be as dominant here as we are in Hong Kong is a good thing.”
India, and its fast-growing market for English-language business news, has also recently opened up for the news provider, having inked a partnership with UTV in the market in September. “Establishing our operations in India is a huge piece of the jigsaw puzzle that we just solved,” says Galey. “We’re going to do a ground-up look on what our strategy should be now and how we’re going to position our channel. We’ve got a really strong media partner there now. The team is hungry and we can’t wait to get started - we want to refine our ideas for that market.”
And so to the BusinessWeek deal, sealed last month. Galey will not be drawn on what the tie-up means for Bloomberg in this part of the world. However, the deal went down well with media agency sources, who point to the expansion of Bloomberg’s portfolio and the potential the deal offers to expand the brand into new households, outside of its usual circle of senior executives.
Galey will say no more than “a lot will be happening down the road”. Despite all the activity of the past year, it is clear that the overhaul of Bloomberg is far from done.
Shawn Galey’s CV
2007 Managing director, commercial affairs, Bloomberg Television Asia-Pacific (Singapore)
2005 Senior vice-president, legal and business affairs, ESPN Star Sports (Singapore)
2001 Vice-president, business and legal affairs, CNBC Asia-Pacific (Singapore)
1999 General counsel, GE Silicones (US)
1997 Manager, international services marketing, GE Transportation (Singapore)
1993 Counsel, GE Transportation
1992 Associate, Reed Smith Shaw & McClay (US)
1989 Foreign lawyer, Nishimura & Partners (Japan)
1986 Associate, Shearman & Sterling, New York
This article was originally published in 19 November 2009 issue of Media.
The MD of Bloomberg’s commercial affairs for Asia-Pacific is looking to set things right. No longer content with being seen as just another newsfeed, Galey wants audiences to know that Bloomberg is one of the largest news organisations in the world. And with Bloomberg in the process of buying BusinessWeek, he should soon have an even stronger case to make.
“Because of the change in emphasis in the company, we’re now trying to tell people we’re not just a digest or a survey channel,” he says, pointing out that Bloomberg supplies the stories that other channels and publications build their own coverage around. “Get it fresh from us,” he adds.
Bloomberg recently launched a major marketing push to reinvent its image. The campaign, dubbed ‘The source’, was developed with BBH. The creative agency also helped to stage a massive ice sculpture showcase for the campaign’s launch in Singapore’s central business district.
Despite the high-profile BusinessWeek acquisition, Galey points to the rebranding and developments in programming as “core for us this year”. He adds: “It’s our strategic vision to take us through the many months and years ahead. The idea is to demonstrate in a much more tangible way what we are on-air, on-ground in an integrated fashion. We want to show the breath and depth of what we do through Bloomberg Television and our multimedia offerings.”
The 49-year old American spent much of his career on the legal side of the business before moving into general management. He didn’t move into the pay-TV industry until the start of this decade.
Based in Singapore, Galey oversees television distribution, new media, business development and marketing for Bloomberg’s regional operations.
When Galey joined the company in early-2007, his mandate was to start taking a more strategic approach and to streamline operations. “It was not just about getting the next operator on board or picking up a few more hotels,” he notes. “It was about coming up with a broader strategy in this part of the world, what we should be doing in a strategic manner for all markets and then drilling down to the individual market from there - which, frankly speaking, we never really had done. We had been chasing every little pot of gold at the end of every rainbow.”
Reflecting on what Galey has achieved for Bloomberg, one source notes that he has transformed the news provider; she calls Bloomberg a “dynamic and forward-thinking organisation” and describes Galey as being “very receptive to new ideas.”
Almost three years into the job, Galey reckons he has a lot still to do. He estimates he is probably just 10 per cent of the way through his plans, with even more “untapped value” to realise.
One of those areas is digital media, and specifically mobile. Galey wants to build on the work that Bloomberg has done on the mobile platform. “We’ve got a WAP service running out of Singapore that now runs on six telco platforms around the region. That number will go up substantially in the next few months,” he says.
“Mobile is actually the perfect medium for us - it’s about data and information, less about beauty, visual and resolution. We can find ways to package data into that space. In the near future, in our demographic at least, our viewers would look first to the mobile as opposed to wanting mobile updates to be packaged with their online news. Why bother logging on to the computer when I can get it all first-hand on the mobile?”
While Bloomberg continues to serve Greater China and Southeast Asia as the channel’s bases, Galey has some very specific targets for the year ahead. “We’re focusing on Singapore as a key market where we want to do better. In Hong Kong, we easily outpace CNN or CNBC in the news space. Hong Kong is a market we feel we own already and we want to replicate that success in Singapore.”
He gives two reasons for this focus on the Lion City. One is that the city-state has plenty of viewers who are “well connected and increasingly successful”. The second is that Singapore is now an important hub for advertising. “Being able to show to advertisers and agencies that we can be as dominant here as we are in Hong Kong is a good thing.”
India, and its fast-growing market for English-language business news, has also recently opened up for the news provider, having inked a partnership with UTV in the market in September. “Establishing our operations in India is a huge piece of the jigsaw puzzle that we just solved,” says Galey. “We’re going to do a ground-up look on what our strategy should be now and how we’re going to position our channel. We’ve got a really strong media partner there now. The team is hungry and we can’t wait to get started - we want to refine our ideas for that market.”
And so to the BusinessWeek deal, sealed last month. Galey will not be drawn on what the tie-up means for Bloomberg in this part of the world. However, the deal went down well with media agency sources, who point to the expansion of Bloomberg’s portfolio and the potential the deal offers to expand the brand into new households, outside of its usual circle of senior executives.
Galey will say no more than “a lot will be happening down the road”. Despite all the activity of the past year, it is clear that the overhaul of Bloomberg is far from done.
Shawn Galey’s CV
2007 Managing director, commercial affairs, Bloomberg Television Asia-Pacific (Singapore)
2005 Senior vice-president, legal and business affairs, ESPN Star Sports (Singapore)
2001 Vice-president, business and legal affairs, CNBC Asia-Pacific (Singapore)
1999 General counsel, GE Silicones (US)
1997 Manager, international services marketing, GE Transportation (Singapore)
1993 Counsel, GE Transportation
1992 Associate, Reed Smith Shaw & McClay (US)
1989 Foreign lawyer, Nishimura & Partners (Japan)
1986 Associate, Shearman & Sterling, New York
This article was originally published in 19 November 2009 issue of Media.
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