Gene DeWitt: 'I'm Still Alive' -- Media Honcho Hangs New Shingle

Attention media buyers and ad agencies: media veteran Gene DeWitt not only wants you to know that he's still alive, but that he's here to help you win new business.

DeWitt Media Options, a strategic media consultancy for advertisers, agencies, and the media, was officially launched this week.

DeWitt, most recently president of the Syndicated Network Television Association, had settled his lawsuit against his former employer last December after he had sued the SNTA for $1.25 million charging breach of contract after he was let go early in the second year of a three-year contract.

He declined to comment as to whether he had to wait out any such "non-compete" clause as a result, saying only that he started getting a lot of calls to help agencies with new business. Mostly, he decided to start DeWitt Media Options because he felt retirement didn't suit him and he seemed to be needed.

"I had decided to take a sabbatical after working, oh, some 210 years, and I decided after a year off in the Hamptons that I would rather live in New York, especially after the phone started ringing a lot," DeWitt said.

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Not too long ago, DeWitt said, he got a call from an ad agency--he declined to identify which one--to work with them on a new business pitch. Shortly thereafter, a media agency (again, he declined to say who) called with a similar request.

"These agencies don't want anyone to know they're getting outside help, so I have to respect that," DeWitt said. "Anyway, working behind the scenes in new business, I learned--I really didn't quite believe this--that the agencies are so overworked these days by their existing clients, it's hard to put some real focus and pull things together for new business."

After a few search consultants approached DeWitt and asked him what he was doing and where he could be found, he resolved to still work behind the scenes, albeit making it known officially that he is doing so.

"I had to form a company as the only way to tell people what I'm doing," DeWitt said, speaking from his new office in Rockefeller Plaza.

In addition to offering advice on new business pitches, DeWitt Media Options also provides media and marketing analyses, including assessments of media budgets, plans, and presentations and recommendations for improvements.

The gathering upfront season will also likely lead to more consulting opportunities, said DeWitt, who has been a media strategist for four decades. After heading media departments at BBDO and McCann-Erickson, he founded DeWitt Media in 1984. He subsequently sold the company to Publicis Groupe, and his company essentially became Optimedia International's U.S. unit.

"One of the skills I developed building DeWitt Media and then Optimedia--as well as at the SNTA--was selling, and I'm finding that there's a market for assistance in that area," DeWitt said. "And that leads directly into issues that typically surround upfront negotiations."

While DeWitt Media Options doesn't have a permanent staff per se, DeWitt said that he's found it very easy to reach out to other professionals on an ad hoc, freelance basis.

"I have associates at media departments and agencies all over the place, so I'm finding it very easy to get stuff done," he said. "Right now, I think a 'virtual office' is the way to go. I can be totally transparent and can get information instantly. It's the perfect time to be doing this."

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