Guest · Attention and context
Matt Longley
CEO, Mobsta
Two decades from customs officer to civil service marketing, government agencies and now the top job at Mobsta, Longley is about finding the moment and building a business on intelligence.
About
Matt Longley is the CEO of Mobsta, a data and media business he has led for two years after joining seven years ago as Client Director and becoming Managing Director within a year. He is known for moving the company from mobile device ID targeting to a data-led approach he calls the perfect moment, and for a leadership style built on removing barriers and helping people move on.
Longley's path was, by his own account, weird and varied. He read archaeology, then joined customs and excise as an officer searching bags for drugs, leaving after three and a half years because of the shift work. He applied for every civil service job going and landed one in marketing, where a boss he calls the best he ever had coached him to move on within 14 months, a lesson that shaped his leadership. He ran the Electoral Commission's marketing team after four years, then crossed into the private sector through GroupM's government agency M4C.
When that account moved to Dentsu, Longley went with it and, within three months, was running the government team, building it from nine people to 80 in six months, a period he says turned him from a manager into a leader before ending badly after the Brexit campaign. He ran the Camelot National Lottery account at Vizeum for two years, decided client service and its anxiety were not for him, and joined Mobsta. As CEO he says the company has grown from 30 to more than 60 people with revenue up three times, and he runs it as a B Corp that puts people and planet first.
Career22 years
- 2025 to now Mobsta Ltd - Certified B Corp® Chief Executive Officer
- 2020 to 2025 Mobsta Ltd - Certified B Corp® Managing Director
- 2019 to 2020 Mobsta Ltd - Certified B Corp® Client Director
- 2017 to 2019 Vizeum Group Head
Show earlier roles: Carat, M4C - GroupM, The Electoral Commission, HM Revenue & Customs
- 2015 to 2017 Carat Head of Government Media
- 2015 Carat Client Integration Director - Government Lead
- 2013 to 2014 M4C - GroupM Business Director - Media Activation
- 2011 to 2013 The Electoral Commission Campaigns Manager
- 2009 to 2011 The Electoral Commission Senior Campaigns Officer
- 2008 to 2009 HM Revenue & Customs Assistant Marketing Manager
- 2004 to 2008 HM Revenue & Customs Assistant Officer
How Matt thinks3 convictions
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No boundaries, chase the horizon
Longley runs Mobsta towards a horizon he says he will never reach, treating targets as a measure rather than the point of the work. He argues that removing the sense of limits is what got the company from 30 to more than 60 people and grew revenue three times. The unplanned ports along the way, he says, are where the best things happen.
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Intelligence over impressions
Longley believes the value in his industry is moving from media buying, which he expects to be automated, to intelligence. When Mobsta matched a retailer's five year research supply in 90 minutes with 40 data points, he saw it not as a report but as the seed of future briefs. He would rather give the data away now and become indispensable than charge for it too early.
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Talk about it, ride the waves
Longley is candid about the anxiety that ran through his client service years and the self discovery that changed it. His advice to his younger self is to be open, keep talking, and start therapy sooner. He frames leadership and life the same way: learn to ride the waves, because it always ends up okay.
