Media Headliner: Bullish Bowley claims he can sell ad-funded programming.

The former Carlton TV sales chief bounces back with a new venture. Jeremy Lee reports.

After several false starts in the 90s, advertiser-funded programming is back in vogue. Talk to any agency or production company and they will most likely come up with a range of programming ideas to develop a brand beyond advertising in traditional media space.

However, it isn't happening on any great scale yet. Aside from a smattering of taxpayer-funded COI Communications TV projects, there have yet to be many convincing case studies that show AFP is the future of the ad industry.

So why does Martin Bowley, 49, the former chief executive of Carlton TV Sales, think he can make a decent fist of it where no-one else seems to have managed?

Well, first of all, he objects to having the AFP prefix attached to his new company, Amplified, which he has set up in partnership with Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy.

He says that Amplified is about deeper relationships. It is about creating and managing communication through content (contrary to comments from wags who thought that it referred to Bowley launching a mobile disco), and it's about developing events and media partnerships and managing mobile communication streams. It is about amplifying a brand message across multiple platforms.

'The key difference is that content will sit at the heart of what we do,' Bowley says. He claims that Amplified will look at creating content with creative agencies at an earlier stage in the process than is currently the norm, and that it has already started doing this with MCBD clients.