Why Steve Martin's moving to Australia

The Global CEO of M&CSaatchi Sport & Entertainment is off to Sydney for a few years, which feels like a bit of a moment. Martin has been one of the highest profile people in the UK sports biz for a long while, first with adidas, then Ketchum and for the last 15 years at M&C, where the agency has won a record six Sport Industry Awards under his leadership.
So we started the new podcast by exploring his reasons for going, a conversation that soon moved on to what it is that sports agencies actually do now, how they are likely to deal with the tricky business of building and buying IP - "The big change in the market will be big agencies owning the rights." - and the real life complexities of building a global network.

He's taking a close interest in what Wasserman are trying to do with Lagardere - "80% of mergers don't work" - and talks about the constant temptation to chase money by selling rights: "When you lift the lid on some of the other agencies, you see they were taking commissions from rights holders and the media side too".

Other questions included: Why do people stay at M&C Saatchi S&E? Is it the culture, or the share options? And when looking to recruit, what’s the appeal of a disgruntled number two? What are CVC buying in rugby and why people are snobbish about PR.

We end with a quick game of Underrated/Overrated™, a transparent attempt to establish a regular closing bit to the podcast, which may or may not see the light of day again.

You can get the podcast direct from Unofficial Partner, go to iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

While you're there you can check out our back catalogue including interviews with Facebook's Peter Hutton, legendary sports news columnist Charlie Sale, 442's editor James Brown, Alison Kervin of the Mail on Sunday, TalkSport's Paul Hawksbee, cricketer and writer Derek Pringle and many more.

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Get in touch

Richard and Sean

Richard Gillis, Editor

richard@unofficialpartner.co.uk

Sean Singleton, Publisher

sean@unofficialpartner.co.uk