Tim Armstrong, Director of Digital Product, Technology and Data at NOVA Entertainment, shares insights into his role and the company’s digital evolution in this Digital Edge interview.

Since joining NOVA in 2020, his work has focused on combining technology, data, and operations to support digital audience growth and revenue.

Tim emphasises that while NOVA is known for its strong radio presence, his team’s goal is to integrate digital audio into their traditional business model to meet changing consumer demands.

When COVID-19 hit, NOVA quickly adapted, recognising the power of digital solutions as they shifted to remote work while maintaining essential services. This highlights the growing importance of digital as a core component of their business.

During the pandemic, NOVA’s executives saw firsthand how swiftly digital transformation could happen under pressure.

However, post-COVID, they have encountered some resistance as longstanding employees are more comfortable with traditional approaches.

Tim discusses the dual challenges of balancing traditional radio, which remains the company’s core revenue source, with the rising complexity of digital platforms and analytics.

By selectively expanding their digital teams and allowing them autonomy, they can build digital experiences and data collection processes gradually, rather than overwhelming the broader team.

This method allowed for smooth integration of digital practices while keeping radio at the forefront for its revenue potential.

In terms of digital product excellence, Tim highlights the importance of an iterative approach.

Rather than presenting all analytics and data at once, his team incrementally introduced metrics and educated the broader team on their value, making the information more digestible and actionable.

This steady integration allowed NOVA to gather valuable insights on audience behaviour across radio and digital platforms, using KPIs and analytics to optimise content delivery.

 

Key takeaways:

  • Digital transformation under pressure: The pandemic accelerated NOVA Entertainment’s digital transformation, revealing the value of digital platforms alongside traditional radio, especially under operational constraints.
  • Balancing tradition and innovation: NOVA’s approach to digital integration has been gradual, focusing on building digital capabilities within specific teams while maintaining radio as the core revenue driver.
  • Iterative data and analytics adoption: Incrementally introducing data insights helped NOVA’s team embrace analytics, using metrics to inform decision-making and audience engagement strategies without overwhelming traditional workflows.
Contributors
Tim Armstrong Director, Digital Product, Technology and Data at NOVA Entertainment
Tim’s diverse experience across digital businesses coupled with curiosity has resulted in the effective implementation of change and transformation through alignment of... More

Tim’s diverse experience across digital businesses coupled with curiosity has resulted in the effective implementation of change and transformation through alignment of people, process, technology and data.

Key areas of expertise:

– Building and developing multi skilled and diverse digital teams
– Digital, Data and Technology Transformation projects
– Product development and technology vendor procurement/recommendations
– Business Modelling and Strategy from development through to implementation and operationalisation

Tim’s passion for growth combined with a drive for improvement has not only been an asset to the
businesses he has worked for but also been something he’s been able to share. Building well-structured, diverse and high performing teams where people can stretch, and grow has highlighted Tim’s ability to lead. Outside of work Tim is an avid fan of rugby, rugby league and cricket, a sucker for an Alaskan based
documentary or TV show, wannabe meat/fish expert, outdoors man and explorer.

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Peter Hind Principal Research Analyst at ADAPT
Peter Hind has spent the last 25 years as an analyst and commentator on the ICT industry. ​ His primary areas of interest... More

Peter Hind has spent the last 25 years as an analyst and commentator on the ICT industry. ​

His primary areas of interest are the potential of technology to transform the way organisations operate, the change management obstacles executives encounter in realising this potential, as well as the tactics and techniques leaders have deployed to overcome these difficulties.​

Peter now takes on multiple roles within ADAPT including the moderation of private events and roundtables, interviewing business executives about the strategies they are pursuing and assisting with the structuring of delegate surveys.​

He also interrogates and analyses ADAPT’s treasure trove of end-user and C-suite data.​

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modernisation data transformation