How can you tell if you should invest in a media company? With Ian Whittaker of Liberty Sky Advisors

Data Malarkey - the podcast about using data smarter

In this episode of the Data Malarkey podcast, data storyteller Sam Knowles is joined by Ian Whittaker, one of the leading financial and commercial analysts covering the media and advertising sector. Ian is the managing director and owner of Liberty Sky Advisors, has twice been the City AM Analyst of the Year – first in 2014 and again in 2019 – and he writes regularly for both the media and the financial press. He helps marketers speak the language of the CFO – the Chief Financial Officer – and is the go-to guy for understanding how the media, digital, and marketing world is performing.

Ian takes a no-nonsense approach to explaining how the media category makes its money, and in a sector that’s often very much at home to spin and storytelling, takes an evidence-based, data-driven approach to cutting through the hype and telling it how it is. This means he’s particularly good at understanding which innovation is just a shiny new toy and which has the potential to revolutionise the world of media and marketing.

Understanding whether you should invest in a media company – be it one of the mega advertising agency holding companies, one of the big tech platforms, or a streaming service – demands a knowledge of more than just the media sector. Ian tells us why understanding macroeconomic trends and geopolitics matters just as much as being able to read a balance sheet.

An Oxford historian by training with an MBA from London Business School, Ian is currently studying for an MA in the History of War at King’s College, London. His analytics and evidence-assessing skills from all three degrees enable him to sort the signal from the noise. “Data is the bedrock, but data is neutral,” Ian says, “though there does come a time when the data talks to you and reveals the hidden truth.”

A hypothesis-tester and very definitely not a hypothesis-prover, he’s very much against trying to force fit data into a pre-ordained world view. Ian is also a fan of the “data is the new oil” analogy – provided we realise that oil is useless in and of itself and that the value comes from what we do with it once we’ve zoned in the right area, mined it, and refined it.

We learn the surprising truth about why Meta (Facebook’s parent company) is doing so well. There’s been no great recovery in its previously dominant US and European markets, which grew just 2-3% in the last quarter of 2023. The stellar performance in that reporting period was down to massive investment from just a couple of Chinese gaming companies, meaning Meta’s sudden surge in value is almost certainly built on sand.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Ian’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianwhittakermedia/

Liberty Sky Advisors: https://ianwhittakermedia.com

Learn the Language of the CFO for Success in the Boardroom – JC Decaux podcast on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnYV7JuId1g

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