MURRAY BARNETT

Head of Global Sponsorship and Commercial Partnerships, F1

Best pitch presenter you’ve ever seen: Gabriel Clarke

Best sports marketing campaign (that wasn’t yours): Nike: Just Do it. Honourable mention to long forgotten Adidas Spirit of the Games 1984 Olympic campaign which got me into sports marketing. 

Best agency (that isn’t yours): pass

Best young industry talent: Zarah Al-Kudcy or Michaella Snoeck

Best sporting event attended: So many good ones, all so different – Queens/Super Bowl/Henley/Cheltenham/Monza F1 GP/etc

Best sporting event on TV: Summer Olympic Games

Best brand ambassador: Roger Federer

Best industry event or conference: pass

Best film containing a scene depicting the sports business: Any Given Sunday

Best book recommendation: Any William Boyd or John Niven

Best bar or pub: Camparino, Milan

Best restaurant: River Café, London

Best holiday resort: Costa Rica

Best box set: Mad Men or Band of Brothers

Best influence on your career: George Bodenheimer (ESPN)

Best dinner companions (min 4, max 6): Presume fantasy: David Coulthard (pouring dinks), Des Lynam (obvs), John McEnroe and Olivier Reed

Best job in the sports biz: Sportswriter

Best professional regret: Never participated the Olympics…

Best skill you most covet: encyclopaedic/photographic memory

Rob Gevertz

Director & Founder

Best pitch presenter you’ve 

ever seen

Colin Murray (then at talkSPORT) was one of the few creative/media people who understood the commercial side of the conversation.

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Best sports marketing campaign (that wasn’t yours)

Roma’s Missing Children campaign that tied in with player signing announcements showed how powerful the club’s digital channels could be

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Best agency (that isn’t yours)

Have real admiration for what both Dark Horses and 7League are doing at the moment.

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Best young industry talent

 Will Pithers @ Facebook.  Previously built Man City’s eSports proposition from the ground up at a really young age

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Best sporting event attended

Managed to get into Arsenal’s last game at Highbury without a ticket...

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Best sporting event on TV

NFL Redzone every Sunday

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Best brand ambassador:

LeBron James for Nike

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Best industry event or conference:

Dare I say the Unofficial Partner Podcast series over all the events?

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Best film containing a scene depicting the sports business:

Moneyball.  I love the scene where Billy Beane is faced with a room full of old scouts who were spouting the same terminology from 50 years ago and he recognised the need to think differently to find success.

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Best book recommendation: 

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, for anyone doubting the emotion associated with fandom

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Best bar or pub:

Kensington Roof Gardens

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Best restaurant: 

Love a bit of Al Fresno dining at Ham Yard Hotel

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Best holiday resort:

Winelands outside of Cape Town

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Best box set:

Does the Last Dance count?

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Best job in the sports biz:

Being a dad

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Best professional regret: 

Try not to focus on them.  Just use everything  as a learning experience and move forward

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Best skill you most covet:

Better fitness

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Best trait you admire in others

Speaking multiple languages: 

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Best overrated virtue: 

“Relevant experience”.  Just because you know how things have always been done, doesn’t mean it’s the way things should be done moving forward

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Best ambition: 

For one of my children to become professional athletes.... Earl Woods here I come!!

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Best influence on your career:

My father fostering my passion for sport at a young age

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Best dinner companions (min 4, max 6):

Steve Kerr, Pete Carroll, Trevor Bayliss & Gareth Southgate. All 4 implemented huge cultural shifts in their sports organisations to create a winning mentality in a unique style

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