Meet Robert Tansey, BSkyB

What's your job title?
Director of brand strategy and marketing

Media agencies used
MediaCom and Diffiniti.

What are the main issues you face in your current role?
All my challenges can be summed up by one word - growth. Growth in the number of successful products Sky has at its disposal; growth in the different types of media people are using; growth in the range of audiences we need to engage, and in the expectations they have from a company's products, services and, indeed, marketing.

What does growth mean for you?
It represents opportunities for creative solutions. But it also puts an onus on creative coordination and consistency. What is required is a strong and consistent brand message that can flex across channels. This coherence helps with the other key challenge - accountability to the wider business goals. Creative consistency allows Sky to retain its culture of creative risk-taking, while helping us to evaluate marketing effectiveness at a time when every penny invested needs to work harder than the last.

Main difference between working in an agency and as a client?
When you have responsibility for the purse strings and a direct role in helping a business reach its targets through your investments, it provides a level of sharpness to decision-making that cannot be easily matched in an agency. The other key difference is the level of exposure you have to the wider business. Whether it's going out on call with our installers, visiting our customer contact centres, discussing new products and services with our executives or taking part in focus groups, being at the heart of a business provides a very powerful level of understanding and awareness.

Best thing about working in media?
The speed of change, the levels of sheer creative brilliance across the industry and the ability to reach and engage people at both a rational and an emotional level. Also, the knowledge that there's the opportunity to change people's perceptions and behaviour through creative endeavour and good old-fashioned hard work.

This article was first published on Media Week