Stories From The Streets: BBC's Chris Mawdsley

There are probably very few people inside the BBC who have spent their entire career thinking like a media planner - and, much like in agencies, fewer still who have done so long enough to remember when reaching ‘everyone’ really did mean buying a spot on television and calling it a day.

Chris Mawdsley is one of them. Now responsible for how the BBC plans, places and promotes its content across platforms - from junction airtime to off-platform spend - he has had a front-row seat as audience behaviour has shifted, mass moments have fragmented, and out-of-home has quietly grown into one of the Corporation’s most important ways of restoring scale.

His perspective was built practically, and often on the move, shaped by years of agency life in Manchester, by the BBC’s relocation north, and by a daily commute through one of the busiest bus corridors in Europe, where advertising, audiences and the city itself changed street by street.

In this latest ‘Stories From The Streets’ interview, in association with Talon, Mawdsley reflects on a career spent entirely in media, why out-of-home still matters when everything else feels optional, and what it really means for the BBC to remain part of the national conversation at a time when fewer people are watching together - but more than ever are still paying attention.

Stories From The Street - Chris Mawdsley's Journey

"I got my first proper job in media almost by accident. It came after a 30-minute chat with two women who were slightly hungover on a Wednesday morning. That was literally the interview. I got the job off the back of that, which probably wouldn’t be considered very professional now.

"This was 1997 or 1998. I’d just come back from travelling, and it was my first proper job, my first proper career. From that point on, I’ve always been a media planner. I’ve never worked in marketing and I wouldn’t want to. I’m a media boy through and through. There’s a big difference between the two, and that’s why I’m still here however many years later."

Joining the BBC

"After a couple of agency roles in Manchester, the big shift came in 2011 when the BBC moved up north and opened Media City. As part of that move, certain departments had to relocate, and one of them was media planning. At that time, it was very much an internal department. We didn’t spend much money with external agencies because everybody watched TV."

"If you wanted to reach anyone from the age of two to 99, you just bought TV. Millions of people were still watching the shows. I heard there were about 40 jobs going, I was one of the first people interviewed, and I left agency life to join the BBC.

"It was an exciting time. It was just before the London 2012 Olympics, and all the coverage was being run out of Manchester. It felt like the right move, and it’s been an interesting job ever since."

What I do now

"We look after all the junction airtime - the bits between programmes. That includes trails, continuity, credit squeezes, radio airtime, digital placements. Increasingly, we also spend money off-platform.

“Back in 2011, we didn’t need to do that. We could promote content without spending money. But media habits have changed, people don’t watch TV like they used to, so we have to reach audiences in other ways. That’s about making sure people know what great content we’ve got, and that they’re getting value for the licence fee."

My relationship with out-of-home

"My relationship with OOH goes back nearly 30 years. The first OOH buy I ever made was a tube car panel, and I couldn’t believe how cheap it was. It was basically a postcard, but the cost per thousand was about ten quid.

"Everything was paper and paste. There were loads of media owners. It was going through a bit of consolidation and it felt a little bit like the Wild West. Since then, it’s obviously professionalised and become much more digitally advanced, with better targeting and relevancy. But I’ve never met a media planner who doesn’t love out-of-home. You can’t turn it off. You get people at scale. There’s a purity to it."

The commute that shaped everything

"One of the most formative parts of my career was the commute I used to do into Manchester early on. I got the bus every day down Wilmslow Road, which is the busiest bus route in Europe. It connects south Manchester to the city centre, and it was just constant - buses, people, noise, movement."

"When I started doing that journey in 2000 or 2001, I was still quite early in my media career. I did that commute for seven or eight years. It could take 25 minutes when the students weren’t in, or up to 50 minutes when they were, but it was never boring. There was always something going on.

"The route took you through very distinct parts of the city. You went through Fallowfield, which was very studenty. Then Rusholme, which at the time was the Curry Mile - busy, loud, packed with people. Then the university area, and finally into the city centre."

"What really stuck with me was how the advertising changed as you moved through those areas. In the student zones, it was fast food and youth-focused stuff. In more ethnically diverse areas, it was money transfers, phone cards, local businesses. Then as you got closer to the centre, it became more blue-chip. You could feel the shift in audience, and you could see it reflected in the out-of-home.

"That journey really warmed me up to out-of-home as a medium. Seeing it day after day, in context, working in different ways for different audiences - it definitely shaped how I think about it now."

Out-of-home and the national conversation

"As TV audiences have declined, out-of-home has become even more important for us. It helps fill the gap left by broadcast decline. We use it to tell people something is coming, to sustain viewing mid-run, and to keep shows part of the national conversation.

"With ‘The Traitors’, for example, we’ve used out-of-home tactically mid-series, responding to what people are saying on social. In one series, it became clear early on that Alan was the star, so we leaned into that. In another, there was a contestant called Linda who everyone thought was a terrible traitor, so we gave her an Oscars-style poster in Leicester Square. She stood in front of it herself, and it ended up getting millions of impressions [see below].

"That kind of fun is something you just can’t do in many other media."

The work I’m proud of

"We do a mix of big national work and very local, tactical placements. Women’s football is something I’m particularly proud of. Six or seven years ago, it wasn’t where it is now, and we played a role in giving it proper scale and visibility. Out-of-home was really important in that growth and in giving it equal coverage.

"We work closely with BBC Creative. Sometimes they want to do the big flashy stunts, and we’re saying: let’s focus on doing a really good job on the 48-sheets we already own. But that collaboration has led to some brilliant work - projections, installations, even setting fire to a billboard for a natural history campaign."

Media, work and why I’m still here

"In terms of my own media habits, I watch a lot of sport and spend time on social platforms like Instagram and TikTok. I don’t listen to much commercial radio - I don’t like the ads, which is ironic - but I listen to a lot of Radio 6 Music.

"I probably am a bit institutionalised, but it’s a genuinely interesting job. Eight times out of ten, you’re working on things people actually love. We’re not selling insurance or carpet cleaner. We’re telling people about programmes they might genuinely want to watch or listen to.

"When something really cuts through - like ‘The Traitors’ pulling in seven and a half million viewers - that’s what keeps me hungry. We’re still able to create moments that feel like part of the national conversation, and that’s a pretty special place to be."

OOH Case Notes: The Traitors

Retired opera singer Linda Rands made a memorable appearance as a contestant in the third series of BBC's ‘The Traitors’.

The self-confessed “emotionless person” delivered a very emotional scene at breakfast after ‘murdering’ another faithful. This was noticed by other players who voted for her at the roundtable, but miraculously, Linda lived to see another day.

She received the mock Golden Cloak Award for this "performance of a lifetime" in a nod to the Golden Globe Awards, with a tactical billboard in Leicester Square.

Mawdsley explains: "It came from the back of some social listening about Linda's acting and it flew on social on the back of a single 48-sheet in Leicester Square.

"It was part of a wider all encompassing campaign which includes a big spend on OOH - it's a media that allows us to promote the show at size and scale nationally to younger audiences, create that all important talkability and help drive conversation in and around the show."