The business
High Performance had built one of the UK's most recognisable podcast and content brands. When its previous Head of Sales left, the business saw an opportunity to rethink what it needed from its senior commercial hire. It wanted a leader with broader experience across the creator, social and content economy: someone who could take ownership of revenue, develop the commercial proposition and build the team around the next stage of the business. Ultimate Asset was engaged on an exclusive basis to find that person.
The challenge
Podcasting has grown considerably, but the pool of senior commercial leaders who have genuinely operated within podcasting, creator media and social-first content is still relatively small. High Performance needed someone who combined commercial leadership with a strong understanding of how modern content businesses make money, which is a different profile from a conventional media salesperson. That meant understanding partnerships, branded content, agencies and direct advertisers, and being able to build and manage a commercial team. The departure of the previous Head of Sales created the chance to reset the role around those broader requirements.
What High Performance needed
The new Head of Partnerships would own the commercial number and be accountable for growing revenue across the business. Three areas mattered most. The first was commercial leadership: being comfortable owning revenue, developing pipeline and making decisions about how the business took its proposition to market. The second was sector experience, meaning credibility within content, social, creator-led media or an adjacent environment where audience and editorial strength sit at the centre of the commercial proposition. The third was team building and management, with the ability to deliver personally and to build the commercial function underneath them as the business grew.
That combination narrowed the market considerably.
The search
Ultimate Asset's Emerging Media practice mapped senior commercial talent across the content, social and creator economy, including people outside podcasting. The focus was on leaders who understood how to turn an engaged audience into sustainable commercial partnerships and who had operated with genuine revenue and leadership accountability. Five candidates made the final shortlist.
The successful candidate was found through direct headhunting and brought a particularly relevant mix of commercial, content and audience experience. In their previous role they held full P&L responsibility across branded content, display and social revenues, while overseeing content strategy and social growth across an international audience of more than 15 million. They had led senior commercial and content functions, developed agency and direct-client relationships, built branded content and sponsorship partnerships and helped grow a sizeable multi-platform community, so their experience connected both sides of the High Performance opportunity: building audience value and turning it into commercial growth.
The outcome
High Performance appointed its new Head of Partnerships within five weeks of the search beginning, giving the business a senior commercial leader responsible for the revenue number, partnerships strategy and the continued development of the commercial team. Since the appointment, the Head of Partnerships has added Partnerships Sales Directors to the function, starting the next stage of building out High Performance's commercial capability.
Why the search worked
High Performance treated the departure of its Head of Sales as a chance to reconsider what kind of commercial leader it needed next, and the brief changed accordingly. Widening the search into adjacent parts of the creator, content and social media ecosystem let us find leaders with the commercial experience, audience understanding and team-building capability a modern media brand requires.
Ultimate Asset perspective
The strongest commercial leaders in Emerging Media increasingly sit where audience, content and revenue meet. For podcast, creator and social-first businesses, that often means looking further than traditional media sales backgrounds, towards people who understand how audience strength turns into partnerships, how content creates commercial value and how to build the team and proposition to scale it. When a senior commercial leader leaves, a like-for-like replacement is the obvious move; High Performance's search shows the case for treating it as the moment to redefine the role instead.