"This industry is as much show as it is business. It's f*cking awesome." Mads Ulrick Holmstrup gets good grades at Rungsted Gymnasium in the mid-90s - especially in art and mathematics. His parents also expect him to start university, get a good education, and a stable job. But that's not how it goes. Instead, Mads throws himself into an industry that consists of equal parts reality stars, celebrities on shopping sprees, and tough business.
You may not know who Mads Ulrick Holmstrup is, but you have certainly encountered his products. Mads is, as the managing director at Mastiff, behind the production of everything from Paradise Hotel to DR's major nature series; Wild Wonderful Denmark. Productions like Dancing with the Stars, Top of the Pops, The Corps, Rosa from Rouladegade, Versus, Fort Boyard, and Robinson Expedition fill his days. Mastiff is one of Denmark's largest TV production companies and produces more than 200 hours of content annually in entertainment, lifestyle, reality, factual entertainment, children and youth, and TV series.
Started by brewing coffee
But we need to go back to 1997, where Mads finishes Rungsted Gymnasium and has to figure out what he wants to do next. It becomes a decision that Mads makes somewhat randomly, more with his gut than his head."I graduated from high school with high grades, so there were good opportunities for university. I just felt that it wasn't quite what moved me. My then-girlfriend's father knew someone who worked at Metronome Studios, where I could get a part-time job, and slowly I got drawn into the industry. I actually never left it again," he says about the decision he made back then.
In the years that follow, things move quickly. Mads starts with brewing coffee and refilling candy bowls, but the combination of art and mathematics, the creative and the business-oriented, means he gets more and more responsibility. Among other things, he produces the first two seasons of Paradise Hotel. However, family and friends believe that the career in the TV industry is temporary. "The first two to three years, there was definitely an expectation that I couldn't keep running around doing those things. All my friends had started their studies or were in the military," he says and admits that he was also in doubt. Slowly, Mads Ulrick Holmstrup decides to stay in the TV industry and drop the safe path of university education. He says it was the first major decision he made about his career that he felt worked for him.
"I was insanely doubtful, but I had found a niche where I fit in. It's about realizing that when you've made decisions enough times that work, you start to have more peace and trust your intuition more. That thing about being in doubt, and yet leaning into it."
Managing director?
In 2005, he faces another big decision. He has been at Mastiff for almost four years, and now the managing director resigns. The board offers Mads the job. He says no thanks - another big decision. "I had just become a father. And I didn't think I was experienced enough. There were things I hadn't learned yet at that time. I don't want a title just to have it. Bosses who think that now they are bosses, and therefore people should do as they say, don't work - especially not in our industry. So I think I needed to know that I was good at it before I could sit in there," he says, nodding towards the director's office. Instead, it becomes a close collaboration with the director who is hired, Kim Ardal, over the next three years. When he stops three years later, Mads says yes in 2009 to another offer to become the boss of it all. Now the gut feeling is just right, and Mads has more soberly analyzed how he can be successful in the job."I don't want to play a game if I don't have a reasonably good feeling and belief that I have a big chance of winning. Then I'd rather stay home," he says.
Gut feeling and sober analysis. Emotions and business. You need to be able to do that in the TV industry, he says. "The two subjects I got the highest grades in at high school were art and mathematics, and that might be a very good picture of how my head is put together and where I am now. It's a strange combination, but when you look back on it, it's a perfect description of the job I have today. The industry is as much show as it is business, and I think both parts are equally fun. The combination for me is awesome," he says.
Hard years
In the years after the decision to take the director job, Mads gets all the opportunities to show that he can combine creativity and business. He manages to double the revenue to a three-digit million amount in Mastiff, among other things by focusing on self-developed programs and at the same time multiplying the bottom line. But it's also tough."They say that the first 2-3 years as a director are f*cking hard. You have to grit your teeth, and it was a wild time. We succeeded with a lot of things at that time," he says.
One of the tasks is to pitch TV programs to the 5-6 TV stations and streaming platforms that exist in Denmark. According to Mads, it's relatively easy to get the idea for a TV show. The difficult part is making it happen. It requires a buyer - and that can be a tough process. "When we pitch, we probably get 90% rejections, so it's constantly getting back on the horse. I think development and sales are a lot of fun in all contexts. Whether it's standing at a flea market with the kids, or selling rosé, or when we sell a TV program for 30 million. It's almost equally fun. The joy around it is insanely important because then it's easier to pick yourself up when you get a rejection. Then you think; they said no, can we get a pitch in with another broadcaster tomorrow, because in the end, we are driven by the passion to make our ideas a reality," he says.
Time for rosé
Mads Ulrick Holmstrup has gradually settled into the role of managing director, and it has given more time. When you are, like him, equal parts show and business, you gladly jump on board with new ideas. Like when friends call because they have bought a domain called Rosé.dk
"It sprang from the fact that we were three friends who had a dream of finding a really good reason to go to France 4-5 times a year and enjoy ourselves there. Then Thomas and Morten called and said they had secured the domain Rosé.dk. If I wanted to join in importing rosé from Provence. We went down there and started this adventure. We thought: Let's do something where we can handpick 8-10 different bottles of the very best rosé from Provence and create an online brand that instead of having a lot, has a little that is insanely good," he says about the new adventure he started in 2017.
The rosé business has quickly become somewhat of a success - again in the tension between show and business. Rosé.dk is today one of the largest wine shops on Instagram and was strongly positioned at last year's fashion week. And the revenue has doubled every year.
In Rosé.dk, Mads Ulrick Holmstrup uses what he has learned in the TV industry.
"We have succeeded in positioning ourselves in a market that is fairly old-school and hasn't necessarily kept up with social media. Rosé is a lifestyle product and a seasonal product. It's half a year where you can push it forward. We have built it up to be one of the largest wine shops on Instagram, got it in magazines, and we were quite strongly positioned at fashion week last year. It has become a very interesting business, and the wines we have selected have subsequently won a lot of awards.
"So we're not complete idiots when it comes to choosing rosé," he says.
He also learns things he can take back to Mastiff. "There are a lot of experiences from Rosé.dk that I can bring in here. Today we can communicate directly to consumers on our social platforms. That understanding that we are starting to be more direct to consumer. I think it's insanely interesting to use the experience of telling stories and building strong brands in other contexts as well," he says.
Mads Ulrick Holmstrup in The Consultant
MAN IN THE SHIRT "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood" - quote by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris, 1910. In the portrait series "Man in the Shirt," BARONS meets business people who have put themselves in play and at risk. Where do they find courage? What is the most important thing they have learned along the way? And what can the rest of us learn from them?
