Jonathan Kitchen is the incoming Head of Sales EMEA at Dexerto, the world’s largest influencer, esports and gaming media group, joining from Enthusiast Gaming where he was VP Sales and Partnerships UK. He was previously at Jungle Creations, Brave Bison and LADbible Group and Dennis Publishing.
Who is your digital hero?
Am I allowed 2? Jamie Lyons (Global Head of Gaming and Virtual Experience) and Tess Gullis (Gaming Director) as the PHD strategic gaming team have been a shining light in evangelising about the opportunities in gaming across PHD clients and the wider market and they are absolutely brilliant to work with
What have they done to win hero status in your eyes?
Gaming is a massive opportunity but overall knowledge about the opportunity for advertisers in the space is still pretty low; gaming covers everything from media, creators, in game integration and metaverse.
They’ve been a shining light in evangelising about the potential in gaming across PHD clients and the wider market and they are absolutely brilliant to work with; they have also been consistently driving gaming knowledge forward across the agency too!
How has their heroism helped drive digital?
Whilst the ‘digital offering’ is still very much grounded in addressable, video execution and partnerships it can be a real challenge to drive the innovation message, especially in an agency environment where much of the day to day challenge is about optimisation and delivery. Jamie and Tess often have to be pretty ‘heroic’ as they are effectively building knowledge and results in a new space across lots of non endemic (i.e. non gaming) clients.
Already been some great campaigns for the likes of McCains, Schuh, Red Bull amongst others with executions taking in platforms like Roblox so looking forward to seeing how they continue to build the business and drive innovation. Also great to see their work recognised – Tess has recently been selected as one of Media Week’s 30 under 30
What’s the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
The fragmentation of digital whilst innovation continues to grow is definitely a challenge but also a massive opportunity. As younger audiences spend more time on platforms like TikTok, YouTube and the creator space explodes as well as metaverse (oncluding gaming ‘metaverses’ like Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft) it’s mission critical that digital heroes understand and are native to these spaces; and can help advertisers to bring their message really authentically to the right audiences.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
I’ve been selling media for 25 years (this year!) so a big personal achievement is the journey and the fact I’ve worked across pretty much all aspects of digital!. I’m constantly hungry for new knowledge and love a challenge but it’s also been about the amazing talented people I’ve been able to work with along the way.; digital is such an innovative and inspiring space so looking forward to what’s next!
