Peter Cobley

Peter Cobley can safely claim to be a digital pioneer. He’s been selling digital solutions, albeit initially using laminated paper examples and CD-roms rather than live online demonstrations, since as far back as 1996.

At the time he was working for Reed Elsevier and says that the company may have survived because it spotted the opportunity early.

“They were the first people to realise that no one was going to buy a great big volume of Kellys and Kompass and it’s probably why Reed has done a great deal better than a lot of other publishers,” he says.

As well as time spent working for the interactive arms of TSMS – a pre-merger sales house for ITV – and Carlton, he’s also a search veteran, setting up Overture’s northern office in 2003.

Cobley points out that the north is a very different media environment to London, more business than glamour focused, a place where people “do the numbers” rather than being seduced by the promise or an easy headline in the trade press.

It’s also a place where people still buy on relationships and delivery. “I’m viewed a s a safe pair of hands, good at servicing and relationship-building. People buy from me based on my values that I stand for,” he says.

The effectiveness of that track record is already clear at I Spy where the northern office went into profit in March after opening in September 2008.

Although he keeps up to speed on the latest developments in the sector by reading the latest books on the business, Cobley says actually the best place to get up to date is with the technical team at I Spy.

“A lot of our techies are so at the cutting edge of search and social media as marketing channels you can actually pick up stuff that the books won’t pick up till a year later,” he says.

Outside work, Cobley is keen to get away from his screen, mountain biking most weekends and occasionally gliding from the Peak District.

He recently completed in the End2End race on the Isle of Man, a 75km off-road test for professionals and amateurs that was filmed by Sky.

After taking six and a half hours to complete the course, he’s hoping to appear on screen when the show is aired. “I hope I look like a mean machine and not like a complete woman on some of the downhill sections,” he says.