By Remy Raitt

Currently the general manager of sales at Trudon Business, Bischoff’s career spans across the industry with stints in radio, TV, print and digital both locally and abroad. But working in senior and executive positions hasn’t made him a bore, the opposite in fact. With the motto “if it ain’t fun, it ain’t happening,” Bischoff reckons his work hard, play hard philosophy has been instrumental in getting him to where he is today.

A networker by nature, Bischoff says building rapport is one of the cornerstones of a career in marketing. “Very early on in my career I built relationships with the big brands and agencies, and we’re still friends today,” he says.

After achieving a BA Honours degree in industrial sociology from Wits University, Bischoff said he had two options; “Join the army or go to another country”. “It was the mad 80s, and I missed the army call up and went straight to London,” he says. Once there, he saw a job advert calling on graduates, and fitting the bill, applied. Little did he know he was entering an industry he was soon to fall in love with.

“It was a big media group, and it was creative which I really liked. We were working on DOS PCs, redoing and designing ads.” But he says the biggest draw was the feeling of achievement the job offered. “Why I really liked it was because when clients grew or their business did well, you felt like you were apart of that,” he says.

After a year and a half, he moved on to Yellow Pages Sales, which ended up being his last job in London, in the 90s anyway.

“I then came back to South Africa. It was that time where I had to decide whether I was going to live in London forever or go back home. Mandela had just been released and I wanted to come back and see if I could make it work living in SA,” he says. And obviously, he did.

Following his move home, he worked as a senior sales executive at Enterprise magazine and as a marketing service manager, trade marketing manager and account executive at Primedia Broadcasting.

This is also about the time Bischoff became involved in what was then known as the Media Association South Africa (MASA), an organisation he would become chairperson of after over seven years on the committee. Now known as the Advertising Media Association of South Africa (AMASA), AMASA is a professional body at the helm of media education and training in the country.

Bischoff’s work with Primedia had seen him heavily involved the 702 talk radio station, and he was later afforded the opportunity to be involved in the start of what would become one of the country’s widest reaching TV channels.

“When e.tv launched in 1998 I was appointed the GM of sales,” he says. “When we launched we had no viewers, well maybe three viewers and a dog, but we had a big culture and pricing policy, and we built it all from nothing.”

After three years of selling airtime and setting up the station’s sponsorship policy and structure, another broadcast opportunity presented itself.

A former work connection, Quentin Green, offered Bischoff the chance to join him when he took over TVAfrica. Finding himself back in London, Bischoff managed the European operation of the TV network, which was the largest in Africa at the time.

After two and a bit years, Bischoff was back home in South Africa filling positions at the SABC, Mediamark and Spectrum Mobile, before being appointed the managing director of Habari Media. “My role was to use my traditional experience and bring credibility and the customers to the digital side. We were the number one digital sales team in the country within 18 months of starting. This was really some prime time for digital,” he says.

Still completely wrapped up in the world of digital marketing, Bischoff is now the chairperson of AMASA and the GM of sales at Trudon Business. As the go-to guy for tech-forward solutions, Bischoff says digital specialists are where it’s at. “I call them my digital ninjas,” he laughs, and they’re the guys that are helping him move clients fixated on traditional print into SEO, analytics, e-commerce and the like.

Bischoff knows that if you are not constantly moving forward in the marketing industry, standing still is the same as going backwards. His own career path has been a tidal wave of experiences and learning curves, and this is something he helps others achieve through his work at AMASA.

Learning is the fundamental goal of AMASA, where Bischoff says they are able to educate, grow and retain talent in the industry. But he says those starting out shouldn't rely on talent alone as there is always more to discover. “My advice is to go out there and find someone who you can learn from, but you need to be the one that approaches them, don’t expect to mentored,” Bischoff says.

But above all, Bischoff believes critical to building a sustainable career is building a good reputation. However, this does not mean all attention should be focused inward. “My advice is to show the people you work with and work for that you care. And never stop learning,” he concludes.

For more information, connect with him on Twitter or on LinkedIn.